Four most surprising NHL teams of the season so far

Now that we are a quarter of the way through the 2024-25 NHL season it is time to check in on some of the teams that have exceeded expectations.

All records and statistics are through Monday’s games. 

Winnipeg Jets (18-4-0)

The surprise here is not that the Jets are a good team. They have been a playoff team in six of the past seven seasons and won 52 games a year ago. The surprise is that the Jets are the best team in hockey and managed to get off to the best 16-game start in NHL history, rolling out to a 15-1-0 start. 

Nobody saw that coming. 

The driving force behind that start has been another dominant season from starting goalie Connor Hellebuyck. He is leading the league with a .929 save percentage, has a league-best three shutouts and is not only making an argument for his third Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goalie, he should probably be in the MVP discussion. 

Minnesota Wild (13-4-4)

The Wild have been in a difficult spot the past few years because their salary cap situation has been ruined by the buyouts to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, creating more than $14M in dead cap space. This is the last year they have to deal with that much dead space, and it has certainly put some limitations on to their roster-building. It played a big role in last year’s non-playoff season.

The Wild have bounced back in a big way so far this season and entering play on Tuesday have one of the league’s best records at 13-4-4 through their first 21 games. Forward Kirill Kaprizov is on track to have one of the best offensive seasons in Wild history (already up to 34 points in 20 games) while the goaltending duo of Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury has produced the third-best save percentage in the NHL.

An elite, MVP-caliber forward and dominant goaltending can mask a lot of flaws. 

Calgary Flames (12-7-3)

This was supposed to be a major rebuilding year for the Flames after dealing away several veterans over the past two years. Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm, Jacob Markstrom, Chris Tanev and Andrew Mangiapane were all dealt over the past six months for future prospects and draft picks, leaving the team in a transition period. The record has not reflected that as they enter play on Tuesday with a 12-7-3 record. 

The offense still is not great, but the defensive play and goaltending have more than made up for it. Rookie goalie Dustin Wolf has been one of the biggest positive developments with a .921 save percentage. That mark ranks seventh out of 38 goalies with at least 10 appearances this season. 

Washington Capitals (14-6-1)

The Capitals were a playoff team a year ago, but they were one of the worst playoff teams of the modern era with a minus-37 goal differential and had below average rankings in goals, goals against and pretty much every defensive metric across the board. 

They went out of their way to make sure that was not going to happen again by completely revamping their roster in the offseason, adding goalie Logan Thompson, center Pierre-Luc Dubois, forward Andrew Mangiapane and defensemen Matt Roy and Jakob Chychrun. It has paid off in a big way as the Capitals have the fourth-best points percentage (.690) in the league. 

The Capitals have re-tooled their roster over the years as core players have gotten older, and they not only look like a playoff team this season they look like one that might have a chance to actually do something when they get there.