NHL 26 season sim: Senators win Cup, Oilers lose 3rd straight final

The 2025-26 NHL season is just around the corner, but before we get to the real thing, we thought it would be fun to simulate the campaign in NHL 26 and share the results. Remember, this is just a video game. Some of the outcomes were incredibly wacky.

Atlantic Division

Panthers: The two-time reigning Cup champions win the Atlantic Division for the third time in five years, allowing a league-low 222 goals.

Senators: Ottawa loses out on a division title courtesy of a tiebreaker, but it gets better in the playoffs.

Red Wings: Detroit scores a conference-high 282 goals to snap its nine-year playoff drought. Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane, Dylan Larkin, and Marco Kasper all score at least 25 goals.

Lightning: Nikita Kucherov leads the way offensively for the Bolts with 50 goals and 98 points.

Canadiens: Montreal takes a step back, but Cole Caufield breaks out with 97 points and Ivan Demidov makes it back-to-back Calder Trophy winners for the Habs.

Maple Leafs: Turmoil in Toronto? The Leafs miss the playoffs for the first time with Auston Matthews, despite a 58-goal season from the captain. Matthew Knies suffers through an injury-plagued 38-point campaign.

Sabres: Tage Thompson (80 points) and Rasmus Dahlin (65 points) enjoy strong years, but Buffalo extends its playoff drought to 15 seasons.

Bruins: Things go from bad to worse in Boston. Although David Pastrnak's 57 goals are a bright spot, Jeremy Swayman struggles again with an .895 save percentage.

Metropolitan Division

Islanders: Perhaps the best story in the league, New York finishes atop the Eastern Conference. Ilya Sorokin shines with 35 wins and a .918 save percentage.

Penguins: Put the Sidney Crosby trade talk on hold, folks. Evgeni Malkin (73 points) and Erik Karlsson (69 points) turn back the clock to help the Penguins return to the postseason after a three-year hiatus.

Capitals: Alex Ovechkin defies Father Time with a career-high 66 goals at age 40, putting him just 37 away from 1,000 for his career.

Devils: Healthy seasons from Jack Hughes (80 points in 80 games) and Dougie Hamilton (64 points in 80 games) lead to a strong year for the Devils.

Flyers: Philadelphia takes a step in the right direction on the back of Matvei Michkov's 78-point campaign.

Rangers: J.T. Miller leads by example with a team-high 70 points as New York's captain, but it's not enough to overcome the club's lack of depth.

Blue Jackets: Another strong season from Zach Werenski (team-high 77 points) isn't enough to will Columbus to the playoffs.

Hurricanes: Arguably the biggest shock of the entire sim, Carolina finishes last in the East with the league's 26th-ranked offense.

Central Division

Jets: Winnipeg soars to its second straight Presidents' Trophy by virtue of a tiebreaker over the Islanders. Kyle Connor leads the way with 53 goals and 99 points.

Avalanche: Martin Necas racks up 70 assists (second in NHL) and 92 points to help Colorado forget about Mikko Rantanen.

Mammoth: Eight players notch at least 50 points as Utah gets a taste of playoff hockey in an extremely tight division.

Stars: Dallas misses the playoffs by a point, surely ending Jim Nill's three-year reign as General Manager of the Year.

Blues: A disappointing 63-point season from Robert Thomas keeps the Blues out of the playoffs.

Wild: Mats Zuccarello's career-high 79 points at age 38 aren't enough to help Minnesota overcome its 30th-ranked defense.

Predators: Steven Stamkos (74 points) and defenseman Nick Perbix (41 points) serve as bright spots on a middling Preds squad.

Blackhawks: Chicago finishes as the NHL's worst team despite a 36-goal campaign from Connor Bedard.

Pacific Division

Kings: Anze Kopitar paces L.A. with 73 points en route to a division title in his final NHL season. Darcy Kuemper leads all goalies with 39 wins.

Golden Knights: Jack Eichel scores a career-high 43 goals playing alongside Mitch Marner (61 assists), forming a new dynamic duo in Vegas.

Ducks: Mason McTavish ends his contract stalemate and tallies 69 points to lead Anaheim to its first postseason appearance since 2018.

Canucks: Filip Chytil solves Vancouver's second-line center woes with a 69-point season to bring the Canucks back to the playoffs.

Oilers: Edmonton allows a league-worst 286 goals but squeaks into the postseason with solid yet unspectacular campaigns from Connor McDavid (95 points) and Leon Draisaitl (93 points).

Flames: Calgary stays in the playoff hunt most of the season thanks to Nazem Kadri's career-high 47 goals.

Kraken: New coach, new GM, similar result in Seattle. A team-high 63 points from Shane Wright is promising, though.

Sharks: A breakout 81-point campaign from William Eklund is a bright spot from another long year in San Jose.

Playoffs

Round 1

• Oilers, Mammoth, and Lightning all pull off major upsets.
• Golden Knights, Kings, and Senators win their series handily in five games.

Round 2

• Oilers roll through Mammoth in five games.
• Kings, Penguins, Senators win in seven.

Conference finals

• Crosby and the Penguins run out of gas against a much younger Senators team, losing in five games.
• Oilers beat the Kings in the playoffs for the fifth year in a row.

Stanley Cup Final 🏆

An Ottawa-Edmonton final guarantees a Canadian team wins the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1993. The Oilers erase a 3-1 series deficit to force Game 7, but they have their hearts broken in the Cup Final for the third straight year after David Perron scores the double-overtime winner to give the Senators their first Stanley Cup.

Dylan Cozens is awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy with a team-high 18 points in 24 postseason games. However, Linus Ullmark was snubbed after stopping 48 of 51 shots in Game 7 and posting a .931 save percentage in the playoffs.

Major Awards

Hart Trophy - Aleksander Barkov

Norris Trophy - Evan Bouchard

Art Ross Trophy - Nathan MacKinnon

Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy - Alex Ovechkin

Calder Trophy - Ivan Demidov

Vezina Trophy - Jake Oettinger

Selke Trophy - Aleksander Barkov