Dolphin Ratings - National Hockey League

Explanation: Each team is listed with its record, overall score differential, and its ratings. Brief explanations of the ratings follow.

Schedule The number in this column is the effective opponent strength of a team. In other words, they would be expected to have the same record had they played all games against an opponent of this predictive rating at a neutral site. Because this calculation depends on the strength of the team in question, it is not possible to rank schedules using these values.
Expected Losses For college teams, this number is the number of losses an average ranked (top 15 hockey; otherwise top 25) team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. For pro teams, this is the number of losses an average team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. Unlike the schedule ranking, this value can be used to rank schedules.
Standard Ranks teams in an order such that a team is "probably better" than all teams ranked lower than it. This calculation uses margin of victory only for computing a team's opponents strengths; the team's rating itself is computed using only wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule
Median Likelihood Determines the likely ratings for each team, based on its wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule. This generally produces the same or similar ratings as the standard ranking.
Predictive Both schedule strength and rating vs. schedule strength are determined considering both the wins and losses and the score differentials. This rating contains none of the biases in the standard rating, but does weight recent games slightly more than past games since those are a better indication of the team's current strength. This rating is the best of the first three for seeing how good teams are, and thus is the best for predicting future results.
Improved RPI Rating The improved RPI formula is similar to the standard RPI, except that the schedule strength is carried out to infinite depth instead of ending with opponents' opponents, thus allows for a better comparison of isolated groups of teams than is given by the standard RPI calculation. It is similar to the simple rating, except that all games are given equal weight.
Scoring. This value indicates how many points a team would be expected to score if it played an identical team.
Offense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team scores. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to score the league average number of points. This does not necessarily rate a team's offensive abilities, as a fast pace in basketball or big-play defense in football can make a team score more points.
Defense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team allows. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to allow the league average number of points. The same caveat in the predictive-offense rating applies here.

In order to increase early-season stability, the three main rankings, the improved RPI, and the college pseudopoll include priors based on the previous season final predictive ratings and occasionally incorporating preseason predictions of various major publications. The other rankings for college sports do not include priors, and thus can be wildly unstable early in the year. A team whose rankings are affected by this prior is noted with a P following its rankings.

Full Ranking

                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM           W L PF PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
AVALANCHE      4 3 31 22 -0.005  3.329   11  0.039   11  0.034    1  0.131   14 0.5051    1  1.534    1  0.748   31 -0.485 P
HURRICANES     6 2 31 19 -0.170  3.277    5  0.095    6  0.082    2  0.115    8 0.5333   17  1.103   13  0.146   11  0.085 P
BRUINS         5 2 26 16  0.036  3.451    6  0.091    7  0.082    3  0.113    3 0.5459   14  1.148   11  0.199   15  0.027 P
WILD           5 3 26 20  0.130  4.306    8  0.073    8  0.071    4  0.113    6 0.5360   23  1.013   18  0.035    7  0.190 P
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 7 2 36 22 -0.110  3.894    1  0.118    1  0.107    5  0.111    5 0.5400   19  1.074   16  0.105   10  0.116 P
MAMMOTH        6 2 31 21  0.067  4.064    2  0.111    2  0.106    6  0.104    1 0.5526   18  1.095   14  0.124   12  0.084 P
OILERS         5 2 31 22 -0.092  3.105    9  0.066    9  0.063    7  0.099    7 0.5336    3  1.335    2  0.430   23 -0.233 P
RANGERS        6 3 28 21  0.068  4.611    7  0.087    5  0.084    8  0.088    4 0.5410   27  0.909   22 -0.109    5  0.285 P
LIGHTNING      5 2 21 19  0.093  3.660    3  0.106    3  0.099    9  0.073    2 0.5476   20  1.072   17  0.064   13  0.081 P
STARS          3 4 16 13  0.054  3.551   19 -0.014   19 -0.014   10  0.069   21 0.4886   32  0.239   31 -0.745    1  0.883 P
TEAM           W L PF PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
CAPITALS       4 3 24 22  0.150  3.849   10  0.051   10  0.048   11  0.057   10 0.5253   12  1.219    8  0.232   18 -0.119 P
KRAKEN         5 3 32 23 -0.057  3.702   12  0.035   12  0.031   12  0.036   12 0.5144    9  1.252    5  0.255   20 -0.183 P
SENATORS       6 2 23 20 -0.052  3.735    4  0.101    4  0.092   13  0.030    9 0.5311   26  0.916   26 -0.158    6  0.219 P
BLUES          3 4 25 23  0.040  3.536   20 -0.023   20 -0.028   14  0.028   19 0.4927    5  1.303    4  0.315   24 -0.260 P
JETS           4 3 21 21  0.026  3.507   14  0.027   13  0.028   15  0.023   13 0.5134   24  0.992   21 -0.080    9  0.125 P
ISLANDERS      3 4 20 17 -0.044  3.301   22 -0.033   22 -0.040   16  0.017   20 0.4887   29  0.785   28 -0.312    4  0.347 P
MAPLE LEAFS    3 5 28 28  0.063  4.131   25 -0.043   24 -0.046   17  0.016   22 0.4812    8  1.254    6  0.238   22 -0.206 P
PENGUINS       3 4 25 22 -0.110  3.117   24 -0.040   25 -0.047   18  0.003   25 0.4778   10  1.236   10  0.201   21 -0.196 P
PANTHERS       4 4 22 22 -0.052  3.758   18 -0.010   18 -0.008   19  0.000   15 0.5028   30  0.753   30 -0.363    2  0.364 P
DUCKS          4 2 20 17 -0.088  2.767   13  0.030   14  0.025   20 -0.040   11 0.5154   15  1.136   19  0.031   17 -0.110 P
TEAM           W L PF PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
PREDATORS      2 5 18 22  0.039  3.592   27 -0.080   27 -0.084   21 -0.044   27 0.4648   25  0.987   24 -0.153   14  0.065 P
CANADIENS      3 4 23 27 -0.026  3.405   21 -0.028   21 -0.036   22 -0.050   24 0.4792    7  1.255   12  0.174   25 -0.273 P
DEVILS         4 3 23 23 -0.112  3.163   16  0.006   16  0.005   23 -0.053   16 0.5006    6  1.283    9  0.207   29 -0.314 P
KINGS          0 5 11 21  0.103  2.730   30 -0.121   30 -0.129   24 -0.077   31 0.4405   22  1.029   23 -0.136   16 -0.018 P
SABRES         4 4 24 30 -0.030  3.899   17 -0.003   17 -0.005   25 -0.080   17 0.4983   11  1.235   15  0.118   26 -0.277 P
BLUE JACKETS   2 3 16 21 -0.036  2.429   23 -0.035   23 -0.041   26 -0.088   23 0.4802    4  1.328    7  0.234   30 -0.410 P
RED WINGS      2 5 16 21 -0.129  3.139   28 -0.098   28 -0.106   27 -0.101   29 0.4542   28  0.865   29 -0.347    8  0.144 P
CANUCKS        2 7 28 41  0.083  4.887   29 -0.118   29 -0.121   28 -0.131   28 0.4561    2  1.422    3  0.322   32 -0.584 P
SHARKS         4 3 19 25  0.033  3.646   15  0.009   15  0.013   29 -0.150   18 0.4976   21  1.059   27 -0.173   19 -0.127 P
BLACKHAWKS     3 5 21 32  0.079  4.324   26 -0.056   26 -0.056   30 -0.166   26 0.4775   13  1.171   20 -0.052   27 -0.280 P
TEAM           W L PF PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
FLYERS         0 9 11 33  0.073  4.877   32 -0.214   32 -0.223   31 -0.218   32 0.4162   31  0.536   32 -0.789    3  0.353 P
FLAMES         1 6 14 35  0.013  3.641   31 -0.130   31 -0.136   32 -0.221   30 0.4440   16  1.134   25 -0.154   28 -0.289 P

PACIFIC DIVISION
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM           W L PF PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 7 2 36 22 -0.110  3.894    1  0.118    1  0.107    5  0.111    5 0.5400   19  1.074   16  0.105   10  0.116 P
OILERS         5 2 31 22 -0.092  3.105    9  0.066    9  0.063    7  0.099    7 0.5336    3  1.335    2  0.430   23 -0.233 P
KRAKEN         5 3 32 23 -0.057  3.702   12  0.035   12  0.031   12  0.036   12 0.5144    9  1.252    5  0.255   20 -0.183 P
DUCKS          4 2 20 17 -0.088  2.767   13  0.030   14  0.025   20 -0.040   11 0.5154   15  1.136   19  0.031   17 -0.110 P
KINGS          0 5 11 21  0.103  2.730   30 -0.121   30 -0.129   24 -0.077   31 0.4405   22  1.029   23 -0.136   16 -0.018 P
CANUCKS        2 7 28 41  0.083  4.887   29 -0.118   29 -0.121   28 -0.131   28 0.4561    2  1.422    3  0.322   32 -0.584 P
SHARKS         4 3 19 25  0.033  3.646   15  0.009   15  0.013   29 -0.150   18 0.4976   21  1.059   27 -0.173   19 -0.127 P
FLAMES         1 6 14 35  0.013  3.641   31 -0.130   31 -0.136   32 -0.221   30 0.4440   16  1.134   25 -0.154   28 -0.289 P

CENTRAL DIVISION
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM           W L PF PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
AVALANCHE      4 3 31 22 -0.005  3.329   11  0.039   11  0.034    1  0.131   14 0.5051    1  1.534    1  0.748   31 -0.485 P
WILD           5 3 26 20  0.130  4.306    8  0.073    8  0.071    4  0.113    6 0.5360   23  1.013   18  0.035    7  0.190 P
MAMMOTH        6 2 31 21  0.067  4.064    2  0.111    2  0.106    6  0.104    1 0.5526   18  1.095   14  0.124   12  0.084 P
STARS          3 4 16 13  0.054  3.551   19 -0.014   19 -0.014   10  0.069   21 0.4886   32  0.239   31 -0.745    1  0.883 P
BLUES          3 4 25 23  0.040  3.536   20 -0.023   20 -0.028   14  0.028   19 0.4927    5  1.303    4  0.315   24 -0.260 P
JETS           4 3 21 21  0.026  3.507   14  0.027   13  0.028   15  0.023   13 0.5134   24  0.992   21 -0.080    9  0.125 P
PREDATORS      2 5 18 22  0.039  3.592   27 -0.080   27 -0.084   21 -0.044   27 0.4648   25  0.987   24 -0.153   14  0.065 P
BLACKHAWKS     3 5 21 32  0.079  4.324   26 -0.056   26 -0.056   30 -0.166   26 0.4775   13  1.171   20 -0.052   27 -0.280 P

METROPOLITAN DIVISION
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM           W L PF PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
HURRICANES     6 2 31 19 -0.170  3.277    5  0.095    6  0.082    2  0.115    8 0.5333   17  1.103   13  0.146   11  0.085 P
RANGERS        6 3 28 21  0.068  4.611    7  0.087    5  0.084    8  0.088    4 0.5410   27  0.909   22 -0.109    5  0.285 P
CAPITALS       4 3 24 22  0.150  3.849   10  0.051   10  0.048   11  0.057   10 0.5253   12  1.219    8  0.232   18 -0.119 P
ISLANDERS      3 4 20 17 -0.044  3.301   22 -0.033   22 -0.040   16  0.017   20 0.4887   29  0.785   28 -0.312    4  0.347 P
PENGUINS       3 4 25 22 -0.110  3.117   24 -0.040   25 -0.047   18  0.003   25 0.4778   10  1.236   10  0.201   21 -0.196 P
DEVILS         4 3 23 23 -0.112  3.163   16  0.006   16  0.005   23 -0.053   16 0.5006    6  1.283    9  0.207   29 -0.314 P
BLUE JACKETS   2 3 16 21 -0.036  2.429   23 -0.035   23 -0.041   26 -0.088   23 0.4802    4  1.328    7  0.234   30 -0.410 P
FLYERS         0 9 11 33  0.073  4.877   32 -0.214   32 -0.223   31 -0.218   32 0.4162   31  0.536   32 -0.789    3  0.353 P

ATLANTIC DIVISION
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM           W L PF PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
BRUINS         5 2 26 16  0.036  3.451    6  0.091    7  0.082    3  0.113    3 0.5459   14  1.148   11  0.199   15  0.027 P
LIGHTNING      5 2 21 19  0.093  3.660    3  0.106    3  0.099    9  0.073    2 0.5476   20  1.072   17  0.064   13  0.081 P
SENATORS       6 2 23 20 -0.052  3.735    4  0.101    4  0.092   13  0.030    9 0.5311   26  0.916   26 -0.158    6  0.219 P
MAPLE LEAFS    3 5 28 28  0.063  4.131   25 -0.043   24 -0.046   17  0.016   22 0.4812    8  1.254    6  0.238   22 -0.206 P
PANTHERS       4 4 22 22 -0.052  3.758   18 -0.010   18 -0.008   19  0.000   15 0.5028   30  0.753   30 -0.363    2  0.364 P
CANADIENS      3 4 23 27 -0.026  3.405   21 -0.028   21 -0.036   22 -0.050   24 0.4792    7  1.255   12  0.174   25 -0.273 P
SABRES         4 4 24 30 -0.030  3.899   17 -0.003   17 -0.005   25 -0.080   17 0.4983   11  1.235   15  0.118   26 -0.277 P
RED WINGS      2 5 16 21 -0.129  3.139   28 -0.098   28 -0.106   27 -0.101   29 0.4542   28  0.865   29 -0.347    8  0.144 P

DIVISION               W  L   PCT  RNK RATING
CENTRAL DIVISION      30 29 0.508    1  0.107
ATLANTIC DIVISION     32 28 0.533    2  0.013
METROPOLITAN DIVISION 28 31 0.475    3 -0.014
PACIFIC DIVISION      28 30 0.483    4 -0.121

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.104 points in main ratings (0.079 for semineutral)
     0.012 points in improved RPI (0.008 for semineutral)
Average of 1.00 points per score

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Fri Oct 16 05:30:14 2026
games through: Thu Oct 15 2026

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