Post-2024 NHL Trade-Deadline Playoff Predictions
Now that the NHL trade deadline is done, the push for the Stanley Cup playoffs is front and center of our attention. The mercurial state of the league and how teams go hot and cold all the time means we're all hoping for the races to get nice and spicy.
Fortunately, we might just be getting our wishes granted. Whether teams are jockeying for the best position they can muster in the division or wrestling for one of the two wild-card spots in each conference, there's a lot to keep an eye on with less than 20 games to go.
The field in the East for the wild-card berths suddenly got a bit bigger and more interesting thanks to teams falling on hard times, and the West is going to have the most cutthroat divisional battles.
It's going to be a fun end to the season, and we're going to have our own fun predicting how we see things shaking out.
Metropolitan Division
1 of 6
1. New York Rangers
2. Carolina Hurricanes
3. New York Islanders
The Hurricanes shaking off their early-season funk to again morph into the Stanley Cup contender Carolina Hurricanes has been a welcome change.
Adding Jake Guentzel and Evgeny Kuznetsov at the trade deadline makes them a much more interesting team that should have a lot more offensive punch. Pyotr Kochetkov taking the goaltending job and running with it also settles an issue that has plagued the 'Canes in the past.
Despite doing all of that, though, Carolina is still just out of reach of the New York Rangers.
Igor Shesterkin showed recently he can shut down the Hurricanes on his own, and the Rangers have had brilliant play all season from Artemi Panarin. Their deadline additions took care of depth questions they had.
We're running with the Islanders for third because they've rounded into form and look like a team that would be a major pain to deal with in the playoffs.
Ilya Sorokin looks great, and the Isles defense has toughened up. Despite being their weakness, the offense has found its way recently. Patrick Roy has the team charged up and it's getting hot at the right time.
Like a few other teams, though, the Islanders have been overtime merchants. They're rocking a 29-21-14 record and have just 21 wins in regulation with seven more in overtime and one in a shootout.
Their 14 OT or shootout losses is a wild number and hints at a lot of cracks below the surface. That said, if the Rangers can face the Islanders in the first round, we'd all be excited to see it.
Atlantic Division
2 of 6
1. Florida Panthers
2. Boston Bruins
3. Toronto Maple Leafs
The Florida Panthers are an absolute wagon. They're big and nasty, they score a ton, they're dangerous on special teams, and their goaltending has been outrageously good.
They are the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference and the best team in the NHL. Sam Reinhart pushing for 50-plus goals has been an amazing story, and Aleksander Barkov is playing Selke Trophy-level hockey up the middle.
What's wild in saying all that about Florida is that the Boston Bruins are right on their heels. But there's something that feels a little off about them. They've won a lot and got great goaltending again from Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark. David Pastrnak is having an MVP-like season as well.
Look at the Bruins' record right now: 38-14-15. That's 15 losses in overtime or shootouts and that's ridiculous, and three of those 15 are shootout losses. Just how does that happen so often?
The Maple Leafs' reward for likely finishing third in the division is not having home ice in the first round against Boston (or Florida).
Sure, they are used to this sort of thing by now and no one is going to feel sorry for them.
Like Boston, they have a peculiar number sticking out about them. Of their 37 wins, just 25 have come in regulation. They've won seven games in overtime and another five in the shootout. They've also lost eight games in OT or the shootout.
A Toronto-Boston series is what we're all clamoring to see given those overtime anomalies.
Eastern Conference Wild Cards
3 of 6
WC1. Tampa Bay Lightning
WC2. Philadelphia Flyers
The Lightning are playing in a way that's reminiscent of the Bolts we've seen in the past, and if Andrei Vasilevskiy can snap out of the funk he's been in this season after back surgery, they're a dangerous team for either of the division leaders in the first round.
Even without Mikhail Sergachev on the blue line, they've still got Victor Hedman. But by adding Matt Dumba, they have found a way to cover for losing Sergachev.
Sneaking in Anthony Duclair at the deadline makes their forward group even more dangerous to deal with too. They haven't got much of a shot of catching Toronto in the Atlantic Division, but they're looking good for a wild card.
It's the second wild-card spot that's become interesting in all of this, though.
We're going with the Flyers because they've been in a playoff spot all season, and John Tortorella has the group working and playing hard despite some recent slips.
Dealing Sean Walker to Colorado added a wrinkle to their race for the playoffs, though, by subtracting a strong puck mover and eliminating depth at a position where they're dealing with a pile of injuries.
Detroit has fallen on hard times lately and not looked good during its six-game losing streak. Dylan Larkin's return from injury in a couple weeks will give the Red Wings a boost, but their fall back into the pack has opened the door for a few teams.
Washington has done well to bank points all season, and Charlie Lindgren has kept the team close to the race all year.
The Sabres looked down and out a few weeks ago, but they are playing well and have Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to thank for his outstanding work in goal.
Despite all of their issues from firing Lindy Ruff to changing their goaltending at the deadline, the New Jersey Devils are a hot streak away from throwing their hat into the ring, too.
The problem for these three teams, though, is they dug themselves holes potentially too deep to climb out of with poor first halves. Stranger things have happened, though.
.png?w=256 "NHL Mock Draft")
.jpg?w=256 "Kucherov Landing Spots")
Central Division
4 of 6
1. Colorado Avalanche
2. Dallas Stars
3. Winnipeg Jets
What a divisional race between these three teams.
It's tight between the Stars, Avalanche and Jets, and the arms race they got into ahead of and at the trade deadline set the table for this battle to win the Central.
Colorado adding Casey Mittelstadt and Sean Walker solved their No. 2 center issue and allowed them to find a defenseman playing great hockey to replace Bo Byram.
Dallas added Chris Tanev from Calgary and called up Logan Stankoven from the AHL to give the Stars an instantly successful forward to bolster its attack.
The Winnipeg Jets needed a scoring winger and defensive depth, and they got it from New Jersey with Tyler Toffoli and Colin Miller, respectively.
All three teams have strong goaltending with Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck being, arguably, the best in the league. Stars goalie Jake Oettinger has had a bit of a down season but doubting him is a good way to get beaten by him. Alexandar Georgiev has maybe been taxed a bit too much with the Avs this season, but he's also got a strong enough legacy of success.
No matter how the division is decided, the cruelest part is that one of these three teams is going to be gone after the first round and that stinks because they have the second, third and fourth best point totals in the Western Conference behind Vancouver.
We can't get back to a 1-8 seeded playoff format soon enough.
Pacific Division
5 of 6
1. Vancouver Canucks
2. Edmonton Oilers
3. Vegas Golden Knights
While Florida has been the wagon in the East, Vancouver has been the Western Conference's beast to slay.
Although the Canucks are about to be tested for a bit with goalie Thatcher Demko out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, they've still got a team capable of outscoring any issues that might come their way.
Quinn Hughes has been a Norris front-runner all season, Elias Pettersson has been electric offensively, J.T. Miller has been a two-way force, and Brock Boeser fills the net with goals.
The Canucks are a scary team and have been the picture of consistency while others in the division have been riding a roller coaster this season.
Even though the Oilers got off to a horrific start to the season, the real Edmonton showed up eventually and it's as dangerous as ever.
Connor McDavid and Co. can beat anyone on a given night, but doing it for four games in a best-of-seven series is always the question. Considering they're destined to face either Vegas or Los Angeles in the first round, they're not going to have it easy.
We're going with Vegas to finish third because, for as poorly as they've played recently, we know it's a lot better than this.
Getting Jack Eichel back has been huge for the Golden Knights, and Jonathan Marchessault has been one of the best scorers in the league in the second half of the season.
Just imagine being the Oilers and your first-round opponent is the defending Cup champions who may have Mark Stone and Tomáš Hertl in the lineup ready to roll. Neat.
Western Conference Wild Cards
6 of 6
WC1. Nashville Predators
WC2. Los Angeles Kings
The wild-card race in the West is decidedly less exciting than its Eastern counterpart.
The only question here is whether it'll be Los Angeles or Vegas in that spot, and the former has been a bit more mercurial in the second half of the season while Nashville has been at the top of the food chain of late.
The Predators are roaring with Filip Forsberg leading the way and Juuse Saros starting to snap out of things a bit in goal. They play tough and with a lot of up-tempo pace under Andrew Brunette.
They've got a lot of veterans who know how to get things done and it's showing. Who knew that getting their U2 concert at The Sphere in Vegas taken away from them would be the turning point of the season?
The Kings can be good and having them lurking around in the wild-card race could make life annoying for Vancouver or whoever wins the Central Division. With Anze Kopitar leading the way and Quinton Byfield evolving before our eyes, L.A. has a lot going for it.
With teams such as St. Louis and Minnesota lurking behind the wild-card teams by six points, they're technically in the race, but they've been so inconsistent this season that it's hard to take their playoff candidacies seriously.
Like the teams in the East that are further back in the wild-card chase, they lost too much early on to recover.
.png?w=480 "NHL Mock Draft")
.jpg?w=480 "Kucherov Landing Spots")
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
