Every spring at the NHL trade deadline, players on expiring contracts are dealt away from teams with no chance of making the playoffs to clubs gearing up for championship runs.
We're still pretty early in the year to identify the full 14-team list which won't be competing in the postseason, but we aren't too early to look at some of the laggards around the NHL. We identified six teams which even now would need to have tremendous runs just to equal the record of the final playoff seed in their respective conference last season.
Those six teams are as follows, along with the record each would need to equal the lowest-seeded playoff club in their conference last season:
- Philadelphia Flyers: 38-19-9
- Columbus Blue Jackets: 38-15-12
- Colorado Avalanche: 39-21-6
- Toronto Maple Leafs: 39-19-8
- Edmonton Oilers: 39-19-7
- Calgary Flames: 39-19-6
It's not impossible, of course, that one of those six teams will defy probability and go on a hot run.