NHL Western Conference preview, storylines: Oilers extend Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner makes Vegas debut

After a long and dreary offseason, the start of the 2025-26 NHL season is upon us and there is a laundry list of fascinating storylines going into opening night.

In the Western Conference, there are plenty of questions from top to bottom, although the biggest of the bunch just got wrapped up on Monday as Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers have agreed to a two-year contract extension that will pay him $12.5 million per year. The 28-year-old center and the face of the sport is coming off a second consecutive Stanley Cup Final loss to the Florida Panthers. At the other end of the standings, Connor Bedard needs to prove that his rough sophomore season was a fluke as he tries to re-assert himself as the league’s top young star.

Additionally, the newly rebranded Utah Mammoth have all the tools to shake up the West, and the race for the third and final guaranteed playoff spot in the Pacific Division should be pretty heated.

Let’s take a deeper look at the biggest stories to follow in the Western Conference throughout the 2025-26 campaign.

Central Division

Stars, Avalanche on a collision course once again

In each of the last two seasons, the Stars and Avalanche have been among the best teams in the Western Conference, and they’ve met in the postseason. The Stars won both rounds, and last year’s win was especially dramatic with Mikko Rantanen sticking the dagger into his former team with a hat trick in Game 7. The good news for the Avs? There’s a good chance that Round 3 is coming up in April or May. That’s because Colorado and Dallas remain two of the top five or ten teams in the league.

Led by Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, the Avalanche are looking to advance past the second round for the first time since they won the Cup in 2022. The Stars, boasting one of the best and deepest forward groups in the league, need to get over the conference final hump after losing in that round for three consecutive seasons

Can the Mammoth break through?

If you’re looking for an up-and-coming team to follow in the Western Conference, that would be the Utah Mammoth (+2200 to win the West at FanDuel). Not only do they have a slick new brand, but they also have a ton of exciting young talent. Utah missed the postseason by just seven points, and the team looks poised for a big leap in 2025-26. The Mammoth acquired impact winger J.J. Peterka from the Buffalo Sabres in the offseason, and Logan Cooley is on the cusp of superstardom after notching 65 points as a 20-year-old last season. Whether Utah has the depth — both up front and on defense — remains to be seen, but this squad will be a blast to watch all season.

Bedard in need of a bounce back

Connor Bedard was the clear No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, considered by some to be the best prospect since Connor McDavid. As a rookie, he looked the part with 22 goals and 61 points on a truly dreadful Chicago Blackhawks team. That created a lot of excitement about what he could do in his second season — but that progress never really manifested. Bedard put up just 67 points, and he got crushed at five-on-five. A good portion of that was due to the dearth of talent around Bedard, but elite players are able to overcome their circumstances. Bedard clearly wasn’t there last season. Can he show some progress and get closer to being that guy in 2025-26?

Pacific Division

Is McDavid on board with the Oilers’ long-term plans?

Yes, McDavid signed a deal that would extend the game’s top star for two years, but he will now become a free agent in the summer of 2028 as opposed to next year. Because of that it would appear that the team must sell its captain on a vision for the future. On one hand, and in all fairness to the Oilers, not many teams can point to back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances. On the other hand, the same issues have plagued the team for several issues now, hurting McDavid’s chances of capturing his first Cup.

The Oilers’ goaltending situation has been — and remains — a mess. They’ve not been aggressive enough in finding anything more than a stopgap there. The other problem has been a lack of depth scoring. This last postseason was especially bad with McDavid and Leon Draisaitl doing too much of the heavy lifting. Edmonton needs to find another weapon for its top six.

Connor McDavid, Oilers agree to contract extension: Edmonton signs three-time league MVP to two-year deal

Austin Nivison

Mitch Marner makes Golden Knights debut

After getting booed off the ice in his final game with the Maple Leafs, Mitch Marner is in a very different situation now. So long to the pressure cooker and frosty weather in Toronto, hello to the dry heat and non-traditional hockey media market in Las Vegas. After signing an eight-year, $96 million contract with the Golden Knights, Marner will be tasked with helping the team win its second Stanley Cup. A perennial threat to hit 100 points who can play in all situations, Marner is poised for a monster season as he rides shotgun with Jack Eichel in Sin City.

Which team takes third place?

Because the league rules demand it, three Pacific Division teams have to make the playoffs. Let’s take a not-so-bold stance and say the Golden Knights and Oilers are locked into two of those spots. Who gets the third? The favorite is the Los Angeles Kings, which seems like the third-place team by default, but they were trending in the wrong direction before their annual first-round loss at the hands of the Oilers.

Will Quinn Hughes lead the Canucks to a major bounce-back campaign? Can the Anaheim Ducks, in Year 1 under Joel Quenneville, finally kick the rebuild into high gear? Is it possible for the Flames to repeat their 2024-25 magic and play above their heads for 82 games? The race for that last Pacific Division playoff spot should be pretty wide open.