A new NHL season starts tonight - here's a catch-up on some Canadian teams

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The 2025-26 NHL season opens this evening with an all-American tripleheader.

At 5 p.m. ET, the Florida Panthers begin their quest to become the first three-peat Stanley Cup champion since the early-1980s Islanders when they host Chicago. Pittsburgh Penguins stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin start their 20th (and last?) season together at 8 p.m. ET against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog plays his first regular-season game since March 2022 while Los Angeles star Anze Kopitar embarks on his farewell season when the Avalanche visit the Kings at 10:30 p.m. ET.

Canadian fans have to wait at least one more day to see their teams in action. Wednesday night's slate features Montreal at Toronto and Calgary at Edmonton, while Ottawa, Winnipeg and Vancouver open on Thursday night.

In the meantime, let's get you caught up on each of the seven Canadian teams. We'll start today with the top four in terms of the current betting odds to win the Cup, and finish off tomorrow with the other three.

Last season: 48-29-5 (101 points), 3rd in Pacific Division, lost Stanley Cup final to Florida

Edmonton breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when Connor McDavid signed a surprising two-year, $25-million US contract extension that will pay him the same annual salary he's currently making. It's great for the Oilers the world's best player decided to forego free agency and/or a massive raise. But now the pressure is on them to use the unexpected cap space to help McDavid win his first championship after back-to-back defeats to Florida in the