The 5 Most Pleasant Surprises to Start the 2024-25 NHL Season

For all the headscratchers these first few weeks of the NHL season—the Predators with only one win, the Avalanche's concerning start, the Oilers flailing around—there have been some good vibes, too.

The Jets are off to the 6-0-0 start we've been waiting for years with Connor Hellebuyck leading the way in net (of course). The Rangers look ready for the postseason six games in, with a 5-0-1 record and a plus-19 goal differential.

But which teams and players are pleasant surprises? What's going right that we didn't have on our preseason radar? There's plenty all over the league, so let's get into the five most pleasant surprises to start the 2024-25 season.

What if I told you an older Russian man is currently exploding on offense on a mid-to-bad Metropolitan Division team? Maybe you'd figure Alex Ovechkin's record chase was going well.

Nope, sorry Ovi (granted you've played three fewer games), but Evgeni Malkin is here to enjoy a revival of his own. The 38-year-old career-long Penguin is currently leading the team with 11 points in eight games. He's got two goals of his own, and he's dishing it out to anyone and everyone: Lars Eller and Rickard Rakell both have four goals apiece.

Malkin's hot start to the season isn't going to save the Penguins, who keep finding new catastrophic ways to collapse each game. But at least it's fun to watch a franchise legend keep the team relevant and show us all he's not done quite yet.

If I told you the Toronto Maple Leafs would go 4-3-0 to start the season, you'd say that's about right. Then you'd ask how much slack the offense has been picking up.

Sure, William Nylander has five goals and seven points in seven games, and Mitch Marner's got a point-per-game clip going. But Auston Matthews was left off the scoresheet early and now is uncharacteristically sitting at less than a point per game while he catches up.

You know who has stepped up to keep an above-.500 record? Former Panthers backup Anthony Stolarz.

His slew of timely saves has amounted to 1.83 goals against average, a .938 save percentage, and 5.3 goals saved above expected (just 0.1 behind Igor Shesterkin). It's still early in the season, and the Leafs still have Joseph Woll to consider as he returns from injury, but it's got to feel good to know that there are at least two potentially above-average goaltenders in the Maple Leafs' rotation.

Maybe it's the return to the best jerseys in the world, but the Flames are...well...on fire to start the season, and it's starting to feel legit.

The refuse-to-die attitude, including Tuesday night's rally with 43 seconds left, has been a revelation to watch. It's also been a blast watching underperformers from seasons past light it up and remind us they've still got it.

Rasmus Andersson's got three goals, eight points and a plus seven, Jonathan Huberdeau's got three goals and six points in six games, and Nazem Kadri's got 3-2--1, including that equalizer Tuesday night.

Now the Flames sit at No. 1 in the Pacific with a 5-0-1 record, 11 points, and all of the vibes. Maybe we didn't see this one coming whatsoever, but we're here for it. Huberdeau could remind us all that there's still time to change the ending of the story. There are about eight years to change the ending of the story.

Utah Hockey Club is off to a great start on and off the ice, and it's a relief considering how sour the ending was in Arizona.

They own a 4-2-1 record with only one home loss after Tuesday, captain Clayton Keller is doing captain things with four goals and eight points in seven games, and new characters are emerging like Dylan Guenther, who has five goals in six games.

A hot start to the season can make such an impact when it comes to a franchise's first year, and Utah has delivered so far.

Despite his less-than-ideal stats, Connor Ingram is the first goalie in NHL history to open a team's inaugural season on a five-game point streak. That has to count for something, right? Sure, it counts for the vibes, which are paramountly important for a new franchise.

Wait, are the Washington Capitals good this year? We suppose some of their fans tried to warn us about the decent goaltending, great coaching, and new, talented faces ahead.

But at 4-1-0, the Capitals are an impressive third in the Metro, and guess who's leading the offense? Tom freakin' Wilson.

Wilson's got five goals and six points in five games. Four of them have come at even strength, and one of them was an overtime thriller. Per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, the hot start has made Wilson a top candidate for Team Canada at the 2024 Four Nations inaugural tournament.

WIlson's always had the offensive edge to go with his, err, power forward style, so this isn't absolutely shocking. But the impact he's having each night has the Capitals in better shape than many of us anticipated, and that's a pleasant surprise.