10 NHL Players Facing the Most Pressure in 2026-27

The 2026-27 season is going to be a test for every player. Some have proven enough that the results aren’t going to change public perception and/or contract value that much. For others, this season could be make-or-break.

Auston Matthews

It’s likely that at least half of you clicked on this article expecting Auston Matthews to be here. In fact, some of you clicked just to read about Matthews. It’s true, though; he faces a ton of pressure to perform this season, especially in a hockey-crazed Toronto market.

Matthews is arguably the best goal-scorer of this generation. He won the Hart Trophy off the back of a 60-goal campaign in 2021-22, and was dangerously close to breaking the 70-goal barrier a couple of seasons later. He’s always had a bit of an on-year, off-year thing going on, but with two seasons in a row of subpar goal scoring, it’s raised some alarms. Now granted, he has dealt with some injuries, but when he’s been on the ice, he hasn’t been potting them at the rates expected of him.

The other issue is that many are wondering if he is going to stick around with the Leafs. The team, of course, lucked out and was able to draft Gavin McKenna and has now brought in Kirill Marchenko, a playmaker and line-driver who will fit well with Matthews. It doesn’t seem likely he will want out given the amount of opportunities in such a hockey-focused market, but you never know with several Team USA members asking out this past offseason.

Elias Pettersson

If it wasn’t Matthews you were expecting to read about, it was Elias Pettersson. It’s interesting that a player on a team not expected to make a dent in the standings has so many eyes on him, but with incredible pedigree and an $11.6 million cap hit, the spotlight is bright.

Pettersson in 2022-23 was a 100-point scorer and followed it up by being a key cog to a legitimate contender in what was arguably the best Canucks team since their run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2010-11. Unfortunately, it’s been downhill from there, as he put up only 45 points in 64 games in 2024-25 and followed that with 51 in 74 games last season. These aren’t the numbers that a first-line pivot on a huge contract should be putting up, regardless of team quality. Now, with a new leadership group running the Canucks, perhaps we will see Pettersson bounce back, at least to some extent.

Alexis Lafreniere

The time is now for Alexis Lafreniere.

The 2020 first-overall pick has shown plenty of promise, but he’s never shown sustained success in his career. His career high in goals is 27, and his points high mark is 57, both achieved in the 2023-24 season. These are solid numbers, and with cap inflation, they are right around what you’d expect from a player of his cap hit. However, Lafreniere was compared to Sidney Crosby and peak Jonathan Huberdeau, and many fans expected 100 points from him.

He had an excellent end to his 2025-26 season and now will be the team’s main offensive winger option with Artemi Panarin gone. Now is his time to put up a career-high in points and goals and prove to the Rangers that they made the right decision both in taking him with the vaunted top pick and with the extension they gave him that runs until 2032.

Leo Carlsson

This wasn’t necessarily going to be the season where Leo Carlsson would be under a ton of pressure. He is still only 21 years old and looked like a true first-line pivot last season. Obviously, the expectations were that the Ducks would make a bigger splash in 2026-27, but it didn’t seem like Carlsson shouldered as much of that as he does now.

The issue is the contract Carlsson signed, and how he signed it. He took an offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers that gave him the highest cap hit in the league for the season, hitting a whopping $18 million per year. Now, he has to prove that he is worth at least a large share of that, as otherwise he will be labelled a bust for the contract. He will need to keep production more consistent this season, as he was one of the scoring leaders in the first half before falling off following the Olympics.

Jason Robertson

Another player who had quite the free agency saga is Jason Robertson, who is surprisingly still with the Dallas Stars, albeit on a one-year deal. There was buzz that he could be traded to the Seattle Kraken in a massive sign-and-trade move, and it sounds like the St. Louis Blues were trying to circle in on a deal as well.

Robertson has to prove that he is worth the massive ask he and his agent will be seeking. This may mean he will have to break out as the best player on the Stars, outperforming names like Mikko Rantanen and Wyatt Johnston. Robertson has been excellent; there’s no doubt about it, but he is going to have to have one of the best seasons of his career to guarantee that payday he spent the offseason fighting for.

Matvei Michkov

Matvei Michkov had a tough 2025-26. He was electric in his rookie campaign, showcasing why his name had been circled on draft lists years before his name was called by the Philadelphia Flyers. With that said, last season was a bit of a mess. His goal and point totals dropped; there were many questions about his fitness levels, and head coach Rick Tocchet was pretty blunt at times when asked about Michkov’s struggles. It certainly wasn’t a bad season, but it was a difficult one for a player whose limit is the sky.

Michkov has the tools to be a star and is on a Flyers team that has some really talented pieces. Now is his chance to prove his sophomore campaign was just a fluke and that he’s ready to showcase himself as one of the game’s talented wingers. Hopefully he and Tocchet can work better together this season as well, as a contender may be brewing in Philadelphia.

Kent Johnson

Kent Johnson might be the least well-known player on this list, but he was once a highly-touted prospect and has shown the Columbus Blue Jackets that he can be an effective player. The problem is, he didn’t really showcase that in 2025-26. He had one of the largest drops in production of any player, going from 24 goals and 57 points the season prior down to 7 goals and 22 points.

Johnson faced questions about his conditioning last season, as he came into last season having lost a fair bit of weight, and perhaps that lack of muscle limited his effectiveness. Johnson also was coming off an injury, so he had a shortened summer, which got him a bit out of whack. Now he comes into the season healthy and with a summer of building strength behind him. Let’s see if he can prove himself to be a solid player again in what is a contract year.

Shane Wright

Shane Wright was subject to a bunch of trade rumors this past off-season, with reports stating that he wanted to join the Vancouver Canucks. Elliotte Friedman also recently said that Edmonton was looking at Wright to add to their center depth, which definitely would have been an interesting fit.

Wright was granted exceptional status as a prospect and was the presumed number one pick in the 2022 draft until he fell to fourth. He had a 19-goal and 44-point campaign in 2024-25, which looked like a step in the right direction, but he dropped off last season. He is in serious danger of getting the bust label permanently if he can’t turn things around. Hopefully he can bounce back and at least put up a campaign resembling that from a couple of seasons ago.

Luke Hughes

You could’ve actually gone with Luke Hughes’s brother and teammate Jack Hughes here, as he has struggled to stay healthy and, while uber-talented, hasn’t had the production expected of him due to missed time. With that said, we have seen Jack get one of the most important hockey goals of the decade and put up a near-100-point season, so he gets a bit of a pass here.

In the case of Luke Hughes, it’ll be hard to match the pedigree of his elite brothers. However, he hasn’t etched himself as a true number-one defenseman yet. His defensive lapses led to him getting a few boos from the New Jersey faithful last season, and while he has one of the best offensive toolkits of any young defenseman, the numbers haven’t been there.

The Devils are going to need a true breakout campaign out of Luke Hughes this season if they want to do serious damage in their division, especially with Simon Nemec being sent off to the Calgary Flames this past offseason.

Quinton Byfield

Quinton Byfield might not be facing pressure at the level of Wright or Lafreniere, largely because he’s been better than both and wasn’t quite the prospect name they were, but 2026-27 is the time for him to prove he’s a true first-line pivot. Anze Kopitar is now gone, and while it’s difficult to replace a future Hall of Famer, Byfield has a lot of Kopitar elements in his game. If the Kings are to make the playoffs again, they will need Byfield to step up and produce at a much higher rate than he has so far in his career.

Moving Forward

It will be interesting to see how each of these players does at the end of the season. It’s safe to say that some will probably meet or even exceed the expectations put on them, while others will probably play at a level that will continue to bring about more scrutiny. Either way, all ten of these players will be interesting to watch in the 2026-27 season.