Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie in 2024-25, capping a season in which he led all rookies in points (66) and assists (60). NHL betting odds for next season already peg Hudson as being in the mix for the Norris Trophy as the league's best defenseman as he enters his age-21 season.
But there is a whole crop of young players waiting for their time to shine and that's why RotoWire.com assembled this list of candidates for our breakout team of 2025-26:
Projected NHL Most Improved, First Team
Position | Player | Team |
Left Wing | Philadelphia Flyers | |
Center | San Jose Sharks | |
Right Wing | Carolina Hurricanes | |
Defenseman | New Jersey Devils | |
Defenseman | Los Angeles Kings | |
Goalie | Columbus Blue Jackets |
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San Jose's Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 overall draft pick who finished third in Calder Trophy voting for top rookie, had 25 goals to rank second among last season's rookies. The center also had a minus-31 plus/minus rating, but that was for an awful Sharks team that was last in the league with 52 points. Besides, it's not uncommon for rookies to struggle on defense initially and get better on that end of the ice as they mature.
At bet365 Sportsbook, Celebrini has +30000 odds to have a truly breakout season by winning the Hart Trophy as league MVP.
The same operator has +50000 Hart odds for Flyers left wing Matvei Michkov to win the Hart in the 2025-26 season. He was the only rookie with more goals than Celebrini, with 26, and tied the Sharks youngster with 63 points, three behind Hudson.
It's not all sophomores on our list of potential breakout stars. New Jersey Devils defenseman Luke Hughes enters his third full season and he just turned 22 on Sept. 9. At DraftKings Sportsbook, Hughes has +10000 odds to win the Norris Trophy as best NHL defenseman. If he does, he would join his older brother, Canucks D Quinn Hughes, who earned that honor in the 2023-24 season.
Projected NHL Most Improved, Second Team
Position | Player | Team |
Left Wing | Toronto Maple Leafs | |
Center | Anaheim Ducks | |
Right Wing | Montreal Canadiens | |
Defenseman | Dallas Stars | |
Defenseman | Vegas Golden Knights | |
Goalie | San Jose Sharks |
Here is a second batch of young, rising players to keep in mind for fantasy hockey drafting purposes.
For our most improved second team, we have Canadiens RW Ivan Demidov as another young player giving hope to Canadiens fans whose team broke a three-year playoff drought last spring. The 19-year-old Russian made a splash with a goal and an assist in his NHL debut on April 14 against the Chicago Blackhawks. He went on to play in all five of Montreal's playoff games. And since he played so few games, he's still eligible to win the Calder Trophy in 2025-26 and Caesars Sportsbook installed him as the favorite, at +225 odds as of Sept. 12, to do just that.
Dallas Stars D Lian Bichsel had nine points (4 G, 5A) and a plus-2 rating in 38 games last season as a rookie. He also played in all 18 playoff games for Dallas, with one assist and 28 penalty minutes.
At age 24, Vegas Golden Knights D Kaedan Korczak enters his fifth NHL season on a steady path of progress. He played one NHL game in 2021-22, 10 in 2022-23, then 26 the following season and 40 last season.
These are just some of the skaters to keep an eye on for fantasy hockey news this season.
Among goaltenders, Yaroslav Askarov got his biggest taste of NHL life with 13 games for the Sharks in 2024-25 (he had played three games across two seasons for the Nashville Predators before that). In that limited action, the 23-year-old Russian went 4-6-2 with an .896 save percentage and a 3.10 goals-against average. Like Celebrini, it's worth weighing those stats against the fact that San Jose was the worst team in the league.
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