While most fans enter each NHL season with stubborn certainty about what team they’ll be rooting for, there are always free agents.
Many people in that category are new fans who have recently decided to get into the sport and want to lock in a rooting interest. If that’s you, welcome. Hockey’s pretty good, you’re probably going to like it.
Others might be fans who have reached the end of the line with the team they’d been rooting for. There are plenty of reasons that might happen. No judgment here. You never signed a lifetime contract, it’s OK to start again.
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If you’re in the market for a favorite team, we’re going to provide a list of candidates for you. That list is based on our own internal criteria:
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The team cannot be too good/have won the Stanley Cup too recently. Some folks just want to cheer for the best teams, but in our view that lacks imagination.
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The team should have a future that’s at least as bright as its present. Signing on with an aging team at the end of its window is a recipe for more rough campaigns than good ones in your formative years with your new club.
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Teams with notable playoff or Stanley Cup droughts can be especially appealing because there’s an opportunity to be part of a historic outpouring of joy in the near future.
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Even with that in mind, there’s no need to be a masochist and choose the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Based on those characteristics, here’s some advice on what teams might be worth cheering for in 2023-24 and beyond.
New Jersey Devils
The Devils are nearly too good to be eligible for this list as they’re coming off a 112-point campaign, but prior to 2022-23 they only made the postseason once in 10 seasons. New Jersey also failed to make a deep run after its strong regular season, bowing out in the second round last spring.
New Jersey is set up well for the future thanks to the presence of two former first-overall picks at center — Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier — with no shortage of talented wingers flanking them, headlined by Timo Meier.
The defense corps is led by Dougie Hamilton for now, but there are two special young talents on the way in Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec. The team has drafted and developed well, and there’s very little to hold it back in the present or near future, other than some uncertainty in net.
Buffalo Sabres
As the team with the NHL’s longest active playoff drought, the Sabres are an appealing team to jump on board with as their season has magnified stakes.
That’s because this team is more than capable of ending its postseason dry spell considering it missed by a single point last year. The Sabres are a fun team stylistically, as they score and concede plenty of goals.
Buffalo’s top young defensemen Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power are special former first-overall picks, and its top center is rising star Tage Thompson — who has one of the prettiest highlight reels in the league.
If you’re a new fan, jumping on board with the NHL’s newest team is an intuitive move. The Kraken are coming off a strong second season, but they aren’t so talented that there are bandwagon concerns here.
Seattle has really embraced its newest team, and getting to be a part of that rising tide can be appealing.
The Kraken also have top-notch jerseys if you’re the merch-buying type, and the team has a different dynamic than most as it’s extremely deep as opposed to being top-heavy. That style means when Seattle is rolling, its attack can be a relentless onslaught from all four lines, but the downside is the lack of a true-blue superstar — for now.
Becoming a Senators fan would allow you to support a team on the rise that has a promising young core, with an enviable salary-cap situation to match.
Ottawa hasn’t made the postseason since 2016-17, but that has a chance to change in the near future if the Atlantic Division’s traditional powers slip up. The Senators are coming off their best season since they last made the playoffs, and they should be better in 2023-24 — particularly if Joonas Korpisalo holds up between the pipes.
A full season from Jakob Chychrun and a healthy one from Josh Norris could take this group to the next level, and you can still get in on the ground floor. The case for the Senators is similar to the one for the Sabres, but they are a good option if you prefer a Canadian squad, or feel like Buffalo is a little too trendy at the moment.
The Stars are a good team to pick if you want to ride along with a contender right away without being accused of bandwagoning.
Dallas is good enough to win, but this team is considered a step below the inner-circle contenders. The Stars are also working on a relatively sizeable 24-season Stanley Cup drought, which adds to their credibility as a slight underdog.
From an on-ice product perspective, the Stars have a quartet of star players between the ages of 24 and 26 — Jason Robertson, Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger, and Roope Hintz — who are all signed for at least two more seasons. If the Stars manage to lock up Robertson and Oettinger, any new fans would have plenty of continuity to enjoy, as well as a lengthy competitive window.
This is the ultimate contrarian move as the Coyotes are looking down the barrel at a grim present and an uncertain future.
If you’re willing to endure some short-term pain, becoming an Arizona fan could pay off in a big way. The team is sitting on a gold mine of draft picks, Logan Cooley might arrive as a foundational player as soon as this season, and if the team relocates then jumping in as a fan for 2023-24 would give you lifetime “I liked them back when they were in Phoenix” bragging rights.
If you watch enough of the Coyotes in 2023-24 it will give you a greater appreciation for future iterations of the squad that will presumably be more watchable and successful. The lack of expectations for the upcoming season also creates plenty of opportunities for pleasant surprises.
