The 2010s were dominated by a few teams. The Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings combined to win seven of the Stanley Cups during the decade, while the Washington Capitals were the dominant regular-season team, winning three Presidents' Trophies (best regular-season record) before finally breaking through with their first-ever Stanley Cup.
The Penguins and Capitals, still led by Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, respectively, will remain Stanley Cup contenders for the foreseeable future. But there are several young teams that are waiting for their turn as champions.
And their time may be just around the corner.
We look ahead to the next decade in the NHL and who is set to run the league. (Get ready for a lot of Colorado Avalanche and, yes, Edmonton Oilers.)
2020: Capitals over Blues
After finally getting their first championship two years ago, the Capitals bring the Stanley Cup back to the district. In what is a huge year for Alex Ovechkin individually — one where he continues to chase Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals mark — he further cements his legacy as one of the NHL's all-time legends by leading the Capitals to the best record in hockey (again) and then wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of another Stanley Cup victory. The Caps do it by going through Carolina, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
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2021: Lightning over Avalanche
Great teams with elite talent that stay the course, even through disappointment, eventually get their championships. It happened for the Washington Capitals and St. Louis Blues in recent years, and it will happen for the Tampa Bay Lightning this season. After so many near-misses and postseason disappointments (a Stanley Cup Final loss in 2014-15; two different Game 7 losses in the Eastern Conference Final; an ugly Round 1 sweep against Columbus a year ago after winning 62 regular-season games) they finally get a championship for Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and the rest of their supremely talented core. They do it by going through Toronto, Boston and Washington in the Eastern Conference playoffs and then beating the Colorado Avalanche in a classic seven-game series. The Lightning have been one of the top three most successful teams in the NHL the past five years, and now they get the Stanley Cup they deserve.
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2022: Penguins over Golden Knights
The Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang core gets one more championship in the already spectacular careers of these three with the Penguins. This one has a little extra-added drama and intrigue, as they win it by beating their former goalie and teammate — Marc-Andre Fleury — and the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final. Crosby gets his third Conn Smythe Trophy, matching Patrick Roy for the most ever in NHL history.
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2023: Avalanche over Hurricanes
The Avalanche are set up to be the dominant team in the Western Conference for the foreseeable future, and after losing to Tampa Bay two years earlier, they get their championship by beating another emerging superpower in the NHL: the Carolina Hurricanes. This is the postseason —and series — where Avalanche megastar Nathan MacKinnon starts to cement himself as a Hall of Fame-caliber player. He wins the scoring title and MVP during the regular season and then wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
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2024: Maple Leafs over Oilers
A noteworthy Stanley Cup Final for two reasons. For one, it is the first all-Canadian matchup since the 1988-89 season when Montreal and Calgary played each other, and, two, it results in the Toronto Maple Leafs winning their first Stanley Cup since 1967 and the franchise's first in the post-Original Six era. The Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander core is too good to not eventually get a ring. And while the Oilers end up losing the series, they finally get their act together and get Connor McDavid enough help to compete.
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2025: Avalanche over Rangers
This is going to be a big stretch for the Avalanche. They enter the decade set up for long-term success with the best young core of talent — and salary cap flexibility — in the league and turn it into a mini-dynasty. This is their third Stanley Cup Final appearance in a five-year stretch, and it results in their second championship. While MacKinnon is the star of the first one, defenseman Cale Makar, already a Norris Trophy winner at this point in his career, gets the Conn Smythe honors. The Rangers rebuild starts to pay off, as they become a contender led by cornerstone players Kaapo Kakko and Adam Fox as well as a still productive Artemi Panarin.
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2026: Oilers over Red Wings
After collecting multiple individual awards — scoring titles, MVP awards — Connor McDavid gets hockey's ultimate prize when he leads the Oilers to a Stanley Cup. He and Leon Draisaitl cement themselves as Oilers legends with a dominant run through the postseason that ends with a win over a Red Wings team that general manager Steve Yzerman has built into a contender.
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2027: Flyers over Kings
It's a championship that is 52 years in the making. Carter Hart has become the franchise goalie the Flyers have spent generations searching for, and he backstops the team to its first Stanley Cup win since the Broad Street Bully days of the mid-1970s. Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, Nolan Patrick and Ivan Provorov are the other superstars on this team, but Hart is the difference-maker. After committing to a real rebuild a few years earlier, the Kings are a contender again but can't beat the Flyers' franchise goalie.
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2028: Rangers over Coyotes
The Rangers' 34-year championship drought ends with now-superstar Kaapo Kakko bringing the Stanley Cup back to New York. He has become the elite goal scorer in the NHL and is on a path toward becoming a Rangers all-time great. The Coyotes, led by a still-in-his-prime Auston Matthews, have the most successful season in franchise history and remain a consistent contender in the West.
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2029: Red Wings over Canucks
Hockeytown is back on top of the hockey world. After bringing multiple Stanley Cups to Detroit as a player, Steve Yzerman brings one to back as a general manager. Lafrenière (2020 No. 1 overall pick) is one of the league's top players, while Filip Zadina has blossomed into a star. The Canucks, meanwhile, get painfully close to a championship but further frustrate their fan base, which remains desperate for the Stanley Cup.
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