Five biggest disappointments from first month of NHL season

The first month of the 2025-26 NHL season has produced its share of surprises. It has also produced its share of disappointments. Here we take a look at five teams and players who have so far not matched preseason hopes. 

New York Rangers struggling with Mike Sullivan

The Rangers were banking on Mike Sullivan coming in from the Pittsburgh Penguins and helping to stabilize a roster that badly disappointed during the 2024-25 season, missing the playoffs entirely. 

So far, it is looking like Sullivan simply went from one aging, badly flawed team to another aging, badly flawed team. 

The Rangers have failed to impress through the first month of the season and look almost exactly as they did a year ago with no consistent scoring depth and a disappointing lack of on-ice results.

The Rangers clearly thought they were going to contend this season, but entering play on Friday, they're in 11th place in the Eastern Conference. 

Toronto Maple Leafs have not adjusted to Mitch Marner's departure

The Maple Leafs finally decided to make a significant change to their core, and they made Mitch Marner the scapegoat by allowing him to leave for the Vegas Golden Knights. After nearly a decade of disappointment in the playoffs, some sort of change was needed.

The problem for the Maple Leafs is they did not adequately use their newfound salary-cap space to really improve the team.

For all of Marner's shortcomings in the playoffs, he is still one of the best offensive players in the league and an underrated defensive presence. The Maple Leafs attempted to replace him with a bunch of depth players, and the early results have been wildly disappointing on a team level. As of Friday the Maple Leafs have the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference. 

Minnesota Wild stumbling 

The Wild were a very good playoff team a year ago despite playing half of the season without some of their biggest stars. The return of a healthy Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek, as well as some real salary-cap flexibility for the first time in years and a deep farm system, should have created some high expectations for the season. 

Instead of reaching them, the Wild have won just three of their first 12 games despite Kaprizov playing at an All-Star level. 

St. Louis Blues not getting goaltending

The Blues rediscovered their identity in the second half of the 2024-25 season thanks to the hiring of head coach Jim Montgomery and some shrewd moves by the front office to reshape the defense with Cam Fowler and Philip Broberg. They were again one of the toughest teams in the NHL to score against and seemed to be back on track.

A lot of that defensive structure is still there this season despite having won just three of their first 11 games.

The problem is their goalies have combined for the league's worst save percentage (a brutally bad .827). Nobody is going to win with that sort of goaltending. 

Jeremy Swayman not bouncing back for Boston Bruins

When the Bruins signed Swayman to an eight-year, $66 million contract prior to the 2024-25 season, they were doing so with the hope he would be their long-term, franchise goalie. Then the 2024-25 season was by far the worst of his career and played a big role in the Bruins missing the playoffs. 

If there was hope of him bouncing back this season, he has yet to show it with an .886 save percentage through his first seven starts. That is not good enough, and it's certainly not what the Bruins hoped for or expected when they gave him that contract.