In the NHL's salary cap era, the line separating playoff teams from non-playoff teams feels thinner than ever. In the Eastern Conference last season, only four standings points separated four teams from contending for the final wild-card berth, while in the Western Conference, six points separated the ninth-place St. Louis Blues from the eighth-place Vegas Golden Knights - and only one point separated the Golden Knights from the seventh-place Nashville Predators and the sixth-place Los Angeles Kings.
If you thought that was close, this year should be even closer in the standings. A quick look at the teams in contention for a playoff spot this coming season will tell you just how competitive things will be in 2024-25.
In the East, we'd argue that a whopping eight teams - the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres - are going to be in the mix for seventh and eighth place in the conference this season. And in the West, seven teams - the Kings, Blues, Golden Knights, Utah Hockey Club, Minnesota Wild, Seattle Kraken and the Winnipeg Jets - are likely to be fighting it out for the conference's two wild-card berths.
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Really, you can make a solid argument for all of the aforementioned 15 teams to be playoff contenders. The Devils, Jets and Golden Knights could easily be top-three teams in their respective divisions, and just below them in the pecking order are likely to be the Senators, UHC, and Minnesota Wild. That leaves at least another nine teams fighting it out for the final playoff spots in each group.
And that means there are going to be a slew of disappointed teams by season's end. But from a league perspective, the competitive balance will lead to meaningful hockey being played as deep into the regular season as possible. That's about as ideal a situation as it gets, and while it does feel more difficult than ever to be consistent enough to be a playoff team, the parity in the league gives each team's GM a legitimate reason to hope they can squeak into the post-season, get momentum on their side and go on a deep playoff run.
The teams we've listed above are more flawed than Grade-A Cup front-runners like the defending-champion Florida Panthers, Boston Bruins, Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators are on paper at the moment. But as we've seen in recent years, you don't have to be perfect to win a championship at the NHL level - you just have to be fortunate health-wise and hot at the right time of the season. That's what's driving lower-tier teams right now, and if all their ducks line up in a row when the games matter most, any playoff team could qualify for a wild-card slot and try their chances in front of the hockey gods from there.
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