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NHL Players Who Failed to Meet Expectations in 2025

High expectations, aging curves, line changes, and shooting regression defined 2025, as several NHL players struggled to match their previous breakout or elite seasons.

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Harshal Barot
NHL Players Who Failed to Meet Expectations in Year 2025 | SportsGully

Photograph: (Michael Dwyer/AP)

The NHL season of 2025 reminded once again that hockey, above all, is such an unpredictable sport. In hockey, one does not necessarily need to produce well based upon their pre-game hype. In fact, the better-performing stars of past times met their matches as fans and pundits wondered just why.

Going into 2025, there were a number of NHL players who were under tremendous pressure to perform. Young puck handlers like Ryan Donato, Morgan Geekie, and Brandon Hagel, unlike others, such as Darcy Kuemper, Matt Duchene, Aliaksei Protas, and Mark Stone, were closing out on a career-high performance campaign; some of them would likely match the feat.

Age, lineup, shot regression, injury, and team systems mixed into one great cocktail of inconsistency. Such strife didn't escape the gaze of capable entities such as ESPN and the NHL website, which pointed to problems that were not largely an issue of effort and talent, but of the league finally catching up with the team:

A deeper explanation follows behind these NHL players of why they have struggled in the 2025 season concerning environment, stats, and playing roles.

NHL Players Whose 2025 Season Fell Short of Expectations

Ryan Donato

His 2024-2025 season was much more than anyone's guess. Playing alongside Connor Bedard, Donato flourished with astounding 62 points, which saw him hand a four-year contract at $4 million. Donato's ability to gel with the so-called generational rookie of the Chicago-town team was no mean feat opened this door. Yet, the 2025 season could not bring him the same scoring yield.

Chicago's decision to mix up the lines caused Donato's relegation to third line. Decreased time, fewer offensive zone starts, and diminished opportunities to play alongside great offensive talents diminished scoring chances for him. Although his work ethic remained steady, situationally, he seemed to be adversely affected.

This isn't an instance of faded talent; rather, it's laid down to a diminishing of the opportunity. Donato's troubles in 2025 illustrate how quickly scoring can shift with changes in use meaning a lot for playmaking roles built on top-line scoring chemistry.

Matt Duchene

At age 34, Matt Duchene had lessened his expectations for the year 2025, but these stood substantial nonetheless. His last season had been excellent, albeit one that strove hard to shoot percentages extremely high for his career.

The biggest blow came from the absence of his partner Mason Marchment. This made it difficult to keep the rhythm of scoring. His instincts on the ice are still among the best in the league but did not help him with the finishing touch on too many occasions.

He knew very well that it would not be easy to be able to reach the level where he would be considered top scorer, surpassing 82 points ever again. The truth about the age curve was too hard in the NHL, and the quick pace that many fans wanted and craved was simply not suitable for his age bracket.

Morgan Geekie

Morgan Geekie posted an impressive 57 points for the Boston Bruins, which raised eyebrows across the entire league. Shooting percentages would surely get a course of improvement with only 22% ratio. Such predictions came to fulfillment in the year 2025.

He's still generating scoring opportunities, but the puck just won't go in at that rate. Shooting percentages this high don't hold on for the long term, for more than one or two seasons, and when they start to drop, basically the scoring stats drop along with it.

He didn't just turn bad; he became normal. For guys like Geekie, it's best to manage expectations. From Geekie's season, we see how one stat can shine, get inflated, and affect people's perception.

Brandon Hagel

These many years now, the flexibility and motor of Hagel have earned his place amongst the welcome committee. In 2025, going down to second-line duty stifled his offensive potential.

Although he was still a producer, Hagel saw fewer power-play plays and opportunities. All this curtailed his possible points accumulation for this season in comparison to past years.

The Hagel situation shows that sometimes a decline does not mean a dip in performance. Sometimes it is just that system and role define production more than individual talent.

Darcy Kuemper

Over the years and in 2025, aging was beginning to catch up with Darcy Kuemper. He was no longer at the level of Vezina Trophy contender; at the age of 35, he was starting to react a tad slower than he had one time been.

Goalies always bear the brunt of the harshest treatment by numbers, but context has its very pivotal role. Better chances of scoring, a lack of solid defense, and too many times mishaps in front of him have been thrown Kuemper's way.

He was far from elite but can still provide the team with solid value, and still, it would be unrealistic to chase the best Kuemper there ever was.

Alexei Protas

Aliaksei Protas' 30-goal season has had across-the-board encouragement. However, despite of work over the summer to improve skill, to replicate such numbers in 2025 proved problematic.

Reaching 30 goals calls not only for talent but for perfect conditions, puck luck, partners and good health. The freshman still had a good amount of hockey in him, but the goals were not as frequent. The regression was not the fail, it was probability catching-up.

Mark Stone

Mark Stone's game is based on physicality, brains, two-way domination. But as he enters his thirties, the strain of these taxing games takes some toll on a player.

Stone's offense has taken quite a hit after the new line combinations, and he wasn't quite as effective. He was the same asset on the defense and as a leader, although scoring abilities were not quite what one used to see.

The life story of Stone illustrates the fact that wear and tear is quite inevitable as the best two-way forwards posture a very demanding NHL career.

Conclusion

Struggles of these stars wasn't failures, they were the reminders for these NHL players in 2025. Hockey careers depend much on the conditions with which talent lies: opportunity, health, and timing.

How often does a player experience being the best he can ever be during his career? That's the thing most fans tend to forget: peaks happen pretty rarely. Even very talented players often just cannot attain peaks because of deteriorating age, changing systems, or even regression in statistics.