December is upon us in the 2021-22 NHL season -- and with it the annual tradition of predicting which teams will make the playoffs based on their spot in the standings after American Thanksgiving. There were some eye-opening performances over the past week that produced some notable changes in our Power Rankings.
Plus, no matter how a team looks so far, there's at least one player on each roster who needs to step up; we identify one for all 32 clubs here.
How we rank: A panel of ESPN hockey commentators, analysts, reporters and editors rates teams against one another -- taking into account game results, injuries and upcoming schedule -- and those results are tabulated to produce the list featured here.