Metropolitan Division is a free-for-all behind defending champion Carolina at the top

Everyone else in the Metropolitan Division is looking up at the Carolina Hurricanes.

The reigning Stanley Cup champions bring back nearly everyone after running away with first place and winning 16 of 19 playoff games. They are the example for any NHL team looking to break through.

“That core of guys spent however many years together, and they finally got over the hump and won,” Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski said. “You put all that time in with one organization and you get the job done, and I feel like that’s what I want to accomplish."

It's a concept that applies to the Blue Jackets and everyone else in a division that resembles a free-for-all after Carolina. And when considering the Atlantic might take up five of the Eastern Conference's eight playoff spots as has happened the previous two seasons, there is not much room for everyone from Washington and Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, New Jersey and the New York Islanders and Rangers to qualify.

“Someone’s got to miss, right?” Werenski said. “Whoever gets off to a good start, whoever plays most consistent, whoever gets points — finds ways to get points in games maybe you shouldn’t — is going to make the playoffs.”

Last season, it was the Flyers and Penguins. Before that, the Capitals and Devils. In 2023-24, the Rangers, Islanders and Capitals.

The Hurricanes, missing just veteran goaltender Frederik Andersen, are clearly the team to beat.

“How our locker room is built, just the character of guys in our locker room, they’re hungry already,” Carolina's Jaccob Slavin said. “That speaks to it of just what has been built."

Washington, with career goal-scoring leader Alex Ovechkin returning for a 22nd season, has been part of the old guard and has not fallen off. The Capitals after just falling short last year in a hectic wild card race spent the summer loading up, trading for forwards Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou and signing Boone Jenner and Vincent Desharnais in hopes of a long playoff run.

“We want to win a Cup,” said Tom Wilson, who along with Ovechkin are the last remaining players from the 2018 championship team. “That’s all that matters to me right now in my career. That’s all it matters to Ovi in his career.”

Philadelphia is a decade and a half removed from its last trip to the final and a half-century from back-to-back Cup titles. The Flyers won 15 of 21 games down the stretch last season to make the playoffs ahead of schedule and even beat cross-state rival Pittsburgh before losing to Carolina in the second round. Jamie Drysdale said neither he nor his teammates are “bracing for regression.”

“I think we have a good team, and I think that we’re also one year older, which I think for us helps,” Drysdale said. “We had a lot of good young players and we get a sniff last year, but I think we’ll all go with a little bit of an itch.”

The Islanders looked to be cruising toward a playoff spot last spring before losing 14 of their final 22 games. The Blue Jackets experienced a similar swoon. Each will try to bounce back after making midseason coaching changes.

The Penguins got in, and now the core led by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang will try to do it again.

“That experience last year was great,” Crosby said. “We were a lot better than people expected, and now there’s a little bit more of an expectation. We’ve got to find a way to elevate again, so that’s kind of the challenge.”

New Devils general manager Sunny Mehta decided to keep Sheldon Keefe as coach. While there are goaltending questions, New Jersey should have the talent to contend for a playoff spot, and the first couple of months of the season will go a long way toward determining the organization's direction.

Across the Hudson River, GM Chris Drury made changes that he believes gives the Rangers more organizational depth.

“We have a great group of guys, we have a lot of skill, a lot potential and we’re going to work hard to be good,” newly acquired winger Pavel Dorofeyev said.

If those changes don't work out, big changes could be afoot in New York.

See AP’s full NHL coverage here

FILE - Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin reacts after he was named the first star after an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, April 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

FILE - New Jersey Devils center Jack Hughes (86) before a face off against Pittsburgh Penguins center Noel Acciari (55) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, April 9, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray, File)

FILE - Columbus Blue Jackets' Zach Werenski plays against the Los Angeles Kings during an NHL hockey game, March 9, 2026, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete, File)

FILE - Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson (43) skates with the puck against Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) during the first period of an NHL hockey game, April 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

FILE - Carolina Hurricanes center Jordan Staal celebrates after a win over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final series June 14, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is becoming “increasingly cavalier, dangerous and risk accepting,” as his war in Ukraine drags on and as he seeks to divide Western allies, NATO's deputy commander in Europe said Tuesday.

Air Chief Marshal Sir John Stringer spoke to The Associated Press at a security conference in Estonia amid warnings from some European leaders that Moscow is planning to test NATO's collective defense pact with bolder attacks that have already included sabotage and espionage.

Stringer warned that NATO members need to be aware of the “febrile environment” and careful in their response because Putin would like to provoke the alliance into an “overreaction.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last week that Russia might target NATO nations with deliberate drone or missile strikes while claiming they were accidental. French President Emmanuel Macron agreed and has asked his government to prepare a plan to protect critical infrastructure against potential drone attacks and cyberattacks.

Other European officials say the threat from Russia is serious but have called for calm.

A British defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, said the UK assessment is that Putin is not seeking direct confrontation with NATO. Officials in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which border Russia, have also been more cautious about the prospect of a serious escalation after years of calling on Western nations to adopt a more hawkish approach to Moscow.

European countries have already faced multiple incursions of Russian drones — and several missiles — as well as a campaign of covert Russian disruption which began after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

An AP interactive map tracking that campaign shows the escalation, from 59 incidents in March 2025 to more than 210 incidents ranging from vandalism, propaganda and influence operations to arson, sabotage and cyberattacks.

In August, German officials accused Moscow of being behind a plot at Leipzig airport where a drone with explosives was found next to a Ukrainian plane laden with jet fuel. Last month, British officials said they disrupted a Russian plot to sabotage a drone factory outside London. In August, an Estonian defense company was set on fire and a weapons storage facility in Bulgaria exploded, though neither has been publicly attributed to Russia.

Many saboteurs have been recruited online by Russia's intelligence services and some have no idea they are working for Moscow. That makes uncovering a plot challenging and attribution often difficult. When asked by the AP in May if Russia was waging a covert campaign against the West, Putin responded: “Name one proven fact.”

The line between “accidental and deliberate is quite a fine one,” Stringer said, referring to incursions of drones sent off course into NATO airspace by Russian GPS jamming or other electronic countermeasures to defend against Ukrainian drone strikes.

It would be possible for Russia to escalate that activity but it does not mean Moscow has decided to do so, said Stringer, NATO's deputy supreme allied commander for Europe.

While there are “a lot of different opinions as to how acute the threat is ... Russia’s attitude towards negligence” and deliberately targeting NATO neighbors "is almost the same,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told AP at the security conference.

Both Stringer and Michal suggested the increase in covert attacks by Moscow was not because of a failure by NATO nations to stop them but as a direct consequence of Western support for Ukraine.

Putin, Stringer said, is “looking at a whole number of things” to try to create division between NATO allies because his campaign in Ukraine is going badly.

Michal likened the Russian leader to a “rat in the corner," who is escalating activity in Europe in an attempt to break Western support for Kyiv at a time when Moscow is under pressure.

Russia’s gains on the front lines in Ukraine have been slow and at a steep cost of more than half a million dead, even as Kyiv's deep-strike campaign targeting the country’s energy industry has caused fuel shortages in 80 of 83 Russian regions, Air Chief Marshall Sir Richard Knighton, chief of the U.K’s defense staff, said earlier this month. Still, there's no suggestion the Russian leader is backing away from his goals in Ukraine.

Putin is trying to undermine NATO’s collective defense pact by testing nations with covert attacks that are hard to attribute, Michal said.

But the Estonian leader said it's currently “improbable,” that Putin will launch a conventional military attack on Europe because of the threat of a NATO response and because his forces are tied down in Ukraine.

The high level of malign activity from Russia is “here to stay” until Putin changes his military goals, Michal said, adding that the best way to deter it is to “back Ukraine.”

NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe Air Chief Marshal Sir John Stringer is pictured at a security conference in Tallinn, Estonia, on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Burrows)

A man stands at a balcony of an apartment building damaged after a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A municipal worker carries plywood to board up windows of an apartment building damaged by a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

FILE - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk looks on during a press conference during the E5 summit of leading European nations ahead of the upcoming NATO summit, in Berlin, Wednesday June 24, 2026. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP,File)