Injuries are up around the NHL. It was a theme in the offseason and the preseason with Drew Doughty being only one notable skater to suffer a serious injury in a preseason game, and it’s stood out throughout the 2024-25 season. In recent weeks, the league has seen Alexander Ovechkin go down with a lower-body injury while Auston Matthews, who initially was day-to-day, headed overseas for a special procedure. (The injury bug was the topic of the latest episode of Ice Time, which can be found here).
Related: Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin Out 4-6 Weeks with Fractured Fibula
Some teams have used the injuries as an excuse for their struggles this season. After all, how can a team win when it’s missing a star player? Stanley Cup contenders don’t make excuses. Instead, they pivot and that’s what a few teams at the top of the standings have done. It’s why those contenders are playing well despite losing elite talent.
Jets and Panthers Demonstrate Depth Is Key
The best teams in the league this season aren’t the ones with star power. Yes, some of the teams at the top have exceptional talent but all three Hart Memorial Trophy finalists from last season are playing on borderline playoff teams. It’s the teams with depth that have skyrocketed to the top.
The Winnipeg Jets stand out. They have an 18-4-0 record and are led by a great defense and better goaltending. Kyle Connor is a great forward and Connor Hellebuyck is one of the best goaltenders in the NHL but the Jets are winning games with multiple potent forward lines and three great defense pairings leading the way.
The Florida Panthers have elite skaters but like the Jets, their great start to the season has been spearheaded by depth. Six skaters in their forward unit have 15-plus points while the defense has seen Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola, two veterans who have bounced around, combine for 5.6 defensive point shares.
The Panthers were expected to be great and the Jets were expected to be a playoff team (at least by some fans and experts but they’ve made everyone look foolish for underestimating them.) The Calgary Flames weren’t expected to be a great team yet they are in second place in the Pacific Division. They’ve gotten the job done without elite talent but with young skaters emerging as key parts of the roster from Yegor Sharangovich in the top six to Kevin Bahl as a second-pair defenseman.
Whether these teams built on depth will be the ones to beat in the playoffs is another story. Last season, the two finalists in the Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers had complete teams but also the elite talent to make a difference in every series. That said, in a season where injuries are up, the great teams have proven the value of having extra skaters around who can step up and play significant roles.
Maple Leafs Show That Adapting Is a Must
Losing Matthews is a tough blow and it’s hard for any team to replace one of the game’s best scorers. The Maple Leafs have been tasked to try to do so for the past few weeks as well as find replacements for Matthew Knies and Max Domi. Typically, the loss of three forwards, especially when that includes a top-line skater, will have a team falling apart. The Maple Leafs are in first place in the Atlantic Division.
Some of the credit goes to the other players picking up the slack. Most of the credit must go to the team’s ability to pivot. The Maple Leafs are now a defensive-minded hockey team. They win low-scoring games and allow only 2.48 goals per game. Anthony Stolarz is having a great season in net but the defensive unit is one of the best in the league with Jake McCabe, Morgan Rielly, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Chris Tanev shutting down opposing offenses on a nightly basis.
The Maple Leafs changing their style of play has provided a blueprint but plenty of teams around the league have been forced to adapt. The Vancouver Canucks run their offense through defenseman Quinn Hughes with Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller out of the lineup for significant time. The Oilers had to generate offense for a few games without Connor McDavid in the lineup and they built the offense around Leon Draisaitl instead. The Panthers still won games up the middle with Anton Lundell stepping up when Aleksander Barkov was out.
The great teams find ways to adapt, especially when the playoffs roll around. When the game is played a certain way, great teams will pivot and win in multiple ways. The injuries have forced teams to change their playstyle out of necessity but such adaptability is a must for any team looking to make a Stanley Cup run.
Devils, Golden Knights & Oilers Prove Elite Talent Elsewhere Helps
The most successful teams have relied on depth. Some teams have star power elsewhere on their roster and they’ve leaned into it to win games.
The Vegas Golden Knights have battled injuries throughout the season (and this time, the jokes about them saving the players for the playoffs aren’t applicable considering how tight things are in the Pacific Division.) They’ve remained one of the best teams with Jack Eichel leading the way.
The New Jersey Devils lost Luke Hughes earlier in the season for a few weeks. They’ve relied on the other defensemen to anchor the unit while the elite talent in the forward unit has carried the offense.
The Oilers losing McDavid had them lean on Draisaitl as well as defensemen Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm. The Oilers are already a team that relies on the star players and without the league’s best, they needed the other top skaters on the team to step up. Bouchard and Ekholm have combined for nine goals and 17 assists while combining for 7.1 defensive point shares.
Depth will cover up injuries more so than star power will. That said, having elite talent on the roster goes a long way. The Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning are great examples of this from recent seasons. They both have flawed rosters with lots of issues but it doesn’t matter since they have a handful of the best players in the game.
Line Changes & Prospect Usage
The great head coaches have been able to move their lines around and find the pairings that work when the injuries hit. Patrick Roy did it with the New York Islanders when Anthony Duclair, Mathew Barzal, Adam Pelech, and Mike Reilly all suffered injuries as he moved Anders Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau to the top line. The Avalanche’s Jared Bednar has been adjusting his lines since Gabriel Landeskog’s multiple-season injury first sidelined him as he’s searched for another top-line skater to play alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Maple Leafs’ head coach Craig Berube moved John Tavares to the top-line center position while also giving Bobby McMann more ice time.
Along with the lineup adjustments, the great teams have allowed their prospects to come up to the NHL roster and play big roles. The Los Angeles Kings had Brandt Clarke become their top-pair defenseman while the Carolina Hurricanes relied on Jackson Blake when Seth Jarvis missed time.
The hope is that this season is an oddity; that the surplus of injuries is an outlier and a coincidence and not a sign of things to come. Even if that’s the case, this season is only at the quarter mark and teams must brace for more setbacks (usually, the post-American Thanksgiving to Christmas stretch is when teams are most overhauled because of injuries). The best teams will know how to pivot and power through the tough times.
