Predicting Which 2015 NHL Lottery Teams Will Make Playoffs Next Season

Fourteen teams failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs this year. Those 14 teams will do their best to entice fans to lay down season-ticket deposits with the message "That won't happen again."

Some will come through on that vow, and their fans will rejoice with playoff hockey. Others will not and go through the same routine of penance-promise again (hello, Florida Panthers!). 

But seriously, here are five teams that have a good shot at escaping the Unfortunate 14er Club for next spring. 

Some teams have can't-miss upcoming draft picks that could propel them to the postseason in their first year. Some teams have enough of a growing nucleus from recent drafts to assume they're playoff-worthy. Some, based on their cap space, will acquire enough new veteran talent to get back to playoff status.

We'll sort out the five teams that are most likely to benefit from the above and more with the following slideshow. Click on, young stalwarts.

Los Angeles Kings

Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

The Kings are everyone's fashionable choice to get back to the playoffs after a shocking absence this year. L.A. has won two of the last four Stanley Cups and has a young nucleus that still includes Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick. Most puck experts believe 2015-16 could be a most royal of seasons.

As ESPN.com's Katie Strang reported recently on the Kings:

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One veteran NHL scout said the Kings are in "pretty good shape" with what is coming through their pipeline, with multiple players who have the potential to succeed at the next level.

This is a good sign for the Kings, especially considering their cap situation heading into next season. The club has roughly $64 million committed, with several contracts up in the air. The cap for next season is not yet set but is projected to be around $70 million.

The team is expected to broker a long-term contract extension for Kopitar, a lucrative deal already being factored in to cap projections. Re-signing restricted free-agent forward Tyler Toffoli and backup goaltender Martin Jones is a priority. The Kings are making an effort to bring back pending unrestricted-free-agent defenseman Andrej Sekera, acquired as a rental at the deadline.

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Doughty, Kopitar, Quick and captain Dustin Brown will all be raring to go when camp opens, unlike the last few years when they had been exhausted from long playoff runs. The Kings still have some potential distractions, including pending legal situations involving Jarret Stoll, who was arrested for cocaine and other illegal drug possession in April in Las Vegas, and defenseman Slava Voynov, who was arrested last year for alleged domestic violence against his wife.

But there are too many talented players still around in L.A.; many of them are veterans who are hungry to prove this season was a fluke. It's not like the Kings were terrible either, as their record was 40-27-15. They'll be back in the playoffs for sure.

Boston Bruins

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Just like the Kings, this recent former championship team just seemed to burn out from playing so much hockey in recent years. A spring and summer spent in the non-playoff wilderness will rejuvenate the boys in black and gold. 

Still, the Bruins put up a 41-27-14 record, missing the eighth spot by only two points to Pittsburgh. New general manager Don Sweeney promises a return to the uptempo, physical hockey that went missing much of this past season.

Sweeney told CSNNE.com's Joe Haggerty:

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From a staff standpoint, there’s a bit of a shift that needs to come -- from our transition game and from our ability to create anxiety in other teams. I think we, at times, had a retreat mentality. You can be the best defensive team in the National Hockey League, and all four teams (still alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs) are very good teams. They suppress what we call shot value and scoring opportunities very, very well. Their goaltenders are a big part of it. We have a very good goaltender.

But if you don’t create anxiety in the other team and have the ability to score goals in a timely fashion, or generate quality chances, then you’re going to find yourself chasing the game. This year we chased the game too much. We were behind in third periods, we didn’t score enough third-period goals as to what we normally have in the past, and there are reasons for that.

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The Bruins are close to the cap and still have to sign Dougie Hamilton, so Sweeney has some work to do. He also has to find a way to fill the voids still left by Jarome Iginla and Johnny Boychuk. But Boston still has enough talent left for another playoff push under coach Claude Julien. Zdeno Chara was hurt much of last year but will be back and hungry again, as will Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron and the rest of the Bruins crew.

Edmonton Oilers

Gary Wiepert/Associated Press

If it was just Connor McDavid joining the Oilers, it wouldn't be enough to put them on this list. But now that the team has a legitimate coach in Todd McLellan, the Oilers have enough to sneak into the playoffs. They could be this coming season's Calgary Flames of last year, and wouldn't that be great for hockey to see the Battle of Alberta resurrected.

McDavid is the most hyped player to come out of junior hockey since Sidney Crosby, and he figures to join the roster right away. The team also has all that other forward talent harvested from years of No. 1 draft picks, and as Edmonton Journal columnist Bruce McCurdy has pointed out, it was a spring of success for many of them:

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Meanwhile success happened on the ice but in other uniforms as Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall won a world championship under McLellan for Team Canada, while Leon Drasaitl won playoff MVP in one major junior league and McDavid in another. It’s been the best off-season in memory — or at least, since 1979 when the Oilers made the jump into the NHL, managed to protect Wayne Gretzky, and had a Hall of Fame calibre draft.

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But what about the defense and goaltending? OK, fair point. Like we said, the Oilers will barely slip into the playoffs as an eighth seed. The key here is McLellan. Though he never won a Cup in San Jose, he created a winning foundation for years. He has a keen defensive mind and gets players to buy into his checking systems.

There is so much raw talent for McLellan to work with here, and new GM Peter Chiarelli is anxious to prove he's still a top front-office mind after a rough year in Boston. Edmonton is back on the right path.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

The Blue Jackets finished the season on a 9-0-1 tear but were still nine points short of a playoff spot. They have a top goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky and a roster that hopefully will stay healthier than it did last season. Forwards such as Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov missed a lot of time, and of course there was the season-long absence of free-agent signee Nathan Horton.

The Jackets did suffer a blow this week when University of Minnesota captain Mike Reilly, whom Columbus drafted in 2011 but failed to sign, informed the team he won't be signing there as an unrestricted free agent.

This is a good, hardworking team that will bounce back under coach Todd Richards. Led by president John Davidson, the front office has too many smart people for Columbus to miss the postseason again.

Dallas Stars

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The Stars are another team that finished the season strong (four wins in a row, 7-3-0 in their last 10) but came up just short of a postseason spot.

Jamie Benn is coming off an Art Ross Trophy-winning season with (no jokes, please) 87 points, and Tyler Seguin is still Tyler Seguin. According to HockeyBuzz.com, the Stars have almost $15 million in cap room entering the draft and free-agency period. 

That is a nice chunk of change with which the Stars figure to spend on any available top defensemen. That is as a big reason for optimism that Dallas will return to the postseason, but it's more than that. GM Jim Nill is one of the smartest men in the game, and he's patiently rebuilding the team one piece at a time. 

Dallas needs winger Ales Hemsky to return to form, as he was terrible (11 goals in 76 games) in the first year of a big contract. With a nice D-man or two from the open market and another year of the magic chemistry between Benn and Seguin, the Stars will be a playoff team again.