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Western Conference contenders did very little to improve this summer
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Photo credit: © Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
Tyler Yaremchuk
Jul 24, 2025, 13:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 24, 2025, 12:34 EDT
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This summer has been a relatively quiet one when it comes to major offseason transactions.
The free agent market dried up very quickly once Mitch Marner landed in Vegas, and the bulk of the remaining top free agents simply re-signed with the Florida Panthers. Even with the Marner addition, I don’t think people view the Golden Knights all that differently since they could only afford Marner as a result of Alex Pietrangelo essentially announcing his retirement.
The Western Conference looks very similar to how it did at the end of last season.
In Dallas, the Stars will likely benefit from a full season of Mikko Rantanen. Since the Winnipeg Jets lost Nikolaj Ehlers and haven’t replaced him yet, I think we can assume that they’ll take a step back.
There is one team in the west that appears to have significantly improved their roster, and that’s the Utah Mammoth but I would say that while they’ve taken a step towards being a legitimate playoff team, they still aren’t quite a legit Stanley Cup contender.
The Anaheim Ducks appear to have gotten a little better as well, and like Utah, they have some young players who should take a step forward next season, but they finished 16 points back of a playoff spot last season. That’s a really big gap to have made up.
We’re getting towards the end of July, and there is not one team in the Western Conference that looks like any more of a Cup contender than they did last season.
Could that change? I suppose, but out of the big dogs in the Western Conference, none of them appear to have the space or assets that would be required to go out and make a big splash.
The Stars have a clear need on defence but have just over $1-million in cap space and have traded their first-round pick in both the 2026 and 2028 drafts. They’re also facing a pretty big cap crunch next summer when both Jason Robertson and Thomas Harley need new contracts.
The Colorado Avalanche re-signed Brock Nelson, which greatly helps their centre depth issues, and they should really benefit from a full year of Gabriel Landeskog, but their depth both up front and on the blue line is very weak. They have some cap space, just over $4-million, but don’t have a pick in the first three rounds of the 2026 draft.
The Jets have a boatload of cap space, around $10-million, but they need to sign Dylan Samberg and have to be prepared for Jonathan Toews to potentially take up $3-5-million of that with his bonuses. They could make a small move, but won’t be able to replace the offence they lost with Ehlers.
In the Pacific Division, I already touched on the Golden Knights a little and while they’ll be a threat, I don’t see their roster as any more of one than the one that the Edmonton Oilers beat in five games last spring.
I also think the Los Angeles Kings are primed to take a step back. They’re putting a lot of faith in 35-year-old Darcy Kuemper once again being close to a Vezina level goalie.
The teams who took the final two playoff spots, Minnesota and St. Louis did basically nothing to improve their rosters either. I don’t think either of them are primed to take a big step forward.
The Flames didn’t improve and the Canucks also got worse. Even if they sign a free agent like Jack Roslovic and add to their top-nine, their centre depth is atrocious and they’re pretty much all out of cap space.
The list of Cup contenders in the Western Conference is exactly the same as it was a year ago and none of those teams appear to be any more threatening than they were in 2025-26.
That bodes well for the Oilers, who are clearly trying to get younger and extend their Stanley Cup window well beyond just the 2025-26 season. The result of trying giving young, inexperiencced players like Ike Howard, Matt Savoie and potentially even Noah Philp, legitimate roles on the team next season could mean that there are some growing pains. 
The Oilers will still be able to contend while they transition their roster a little bit and that’s because the teams around them really didn’t improve much this summer.

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