We’re coming down to the wire.
With Wednesday night’s games in the books, the only NHL club with more than eight games remaining on its schedule is the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have nine contests left to play in pursuit of a wild-card berth.
If you’re looking back at the Jackets’ entire season, there’s not a huge variance in where the team was at the halfway point of the campaign versus where it sits now.
The official midway point of the 2024-25 NHL calendar was Jan. 9 and Columbus woke up that morning in the second wild-card spot — the same place it’s currently just two points removed from with two weeks to go in the season.
Of course, the other Eastern Conference wild-card team at the halfway mark, the Boston Bruins, are a reminder of how much things can change in the season’s second act. Today, the B’s are well out of the playoff chase and, in truth, are probably getting a little excited about their lottery odds; only three clubs have a better shot at the No. 1 pick than the Bruins right now and Boston is definitely counting on a top-five selection that could add much-needed talent into the retooling organization.
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32 Thoughts: The Podcast
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
For the Bruins, the story of the second half has been steering into the skid. And while not every club can say the entire trajectory of the franchise changed in the past three months, it’s still worth rooting around to see what stands out.
With that in mind — and with the campaign winding down — we’re using this week’s edition of the power rankings to highlight the story of the season’s second half for all 32 clubs.
1. Dallas Stars (49-21-4): The Stars have the best points percentage (.729) in the league in the second half. Dallas made a franchise-defining move to land Mikko Rantanen at the trade deadline and are all in — and then some — in pursuit of their first Cup since 1999.
2. Winnipeg Jets (51-20-4): Cole Perfetti has really emerged as a top-six forward, with 10 goals and 22 points in his past 26 games.
3. Washington Capitals (48-18-9): The Caps locked up all of their potential UFAs in the past couple months, inking Logan Thompson, Charlie Lindgren and Jakob Chychrun to extensions.
4. Carolina Hurricanes (46-24-4): The Rantanen saga was obviously a huge, league-wide story. Increasingly, though, it looks like Carolina struck gold with the guy who originally landed alongside Rantanen, Taylor Hall. The first overall pick from 2010 has seven goals and 13 points in his past dozen outings.
5. Vegas Golden Knights (45-21-8): Somewhat surprisingly, Vegas endured a 27-game stretch starting right at the midway point where it was only 11-11-5. But after an eerily quiet trade deadline in the desert, the Knights took hold of the Pacific by winning six of their past seven games.
6. Toronto Maple Leafs (46-25-4): After years of cycling through different defence partners, Toronto may have found the right fit beside Morgan Rielly in the form of deadline acquisition Brandon Carlo. John Tavares is also scoring like that kid who used to tear up the OHL — he’s got 14 goals in his past 16 outings.
7. Tampa Bay Lightning (44-25-5): In late January, the Bolts were sloshing around with a bunch of other teams in the Eastern Conference wild-card chase. However, thanks in large part to a pair of its biggest stars, Tampa is 17-5-1 since Feb. 4. Andrei Vasilevskiy has the best save percentage (.929) of any goalie in the second half and Nikita Kucherov leads the NHL in scoring with 55 points in 34 games.
8. Colorado Avalanche (45-26-4): In the first half of the year, the Avs completely changed their goalie battery. In the second half, Colorado went to work on its forward group, adding a handful of new players. There are nights where the Avs run three new centres — Brock Nelson, Charlie Coyle and Jack Drury — out after top man Nathan MacKinnon.
9. St. Louis Blues (41-28-7): Ride the wave! Remember that loose chatter about St. Louis possibly selling ahead of the deadline? Now that Jim Montgomery — hired in late November — has the Blues playing just as he wants, St. Louis is the hottest team in the league, having won 10 straight contests. Neither Winnipeg nor Vegas can be thrilled about the idea of seeing this wild-card team in Round 1.
10. Los Angeles Kings (42-23-9): Only Andrei Vasilevskiy (.929) and Connor Hellebuyck (.922) have a better second-half save percentage than Darcy Kuemper’s .919.
11. Edmonton Oilers (43-26-5): The story of the Oilers’ second half is how many players have spent time on the shelf. That includes guys at the top like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Mattias Ekholm, goalie Stuart Skinner and deadline acquisition Trent Frederic, who may make his debut in the next couple games. What does this team look like with all those guys, plus Evander Kane, in the lineup for Game 1?
12. Florida Panthers (44-27-4): Matthew Tkachuk has not played since injuring himself at the 4 Nations Face-Off and Aaron Ekblad was hit with a 20-game suspension for violating the NHL and NHLPA’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. That’s contributed to the defending champs flatlining a bit down the stretch and they could open the playoffs on the road now. That won’t matter one bit to the Cats, though, if Tkachuk comes back at full strength and joins a lineup that now features Brad Marchand and Seth Jones after the deadline.
13. New Jersey Devils (40-29-7): The Devils, who were decimated by injuries last season, once again got shellacked in the second half of the year. Jack Hughes is done for the season, Dougie Hamilton may not play again in the regular season and Jacob Markstrom was shelved for six weeks.
14. Minnesota Wild (41-28-7): With Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek out of the lineup for long stretches, there’s been a predictable slide for the Wild, who are 15-17-1 since Jan. 9. That said, Minny is still poised to grab a playoff spot few had them earmarked for when the season began.
15. Ottawa Senators (39-29-6): The Sens were life and death to make the post-season at the midway point and, with eight games to go on their sked, they’ve all but sewn up a spot. For a team that hasn’t made the post-season since 2017, that’s all that matters.
16. Montreal Canadiens (35-30-9): Nick Suzuki has been the man since the end of the 4 Nations — his 27 points in 18 games is topped by only three NHLers and that’s been a huge factor in Montreal competing for a playoff spot nobody thought the Canadiens were a threat for in October.
17. Calgary Flames (35-27-12): If the Blues hadn’t gone absolutely bonkers in March, Calgary would very conceivably still be in a playoff spot. For a team whose first-half success was often dismissed as smoke and mirrors, it’s a credit to the Flames they hung tough through the second half.
18. Utah Hockey Club (34-29-12): By signing Karel Vejmelka, Alex Kerfoot, Ian Cole and Olli Maatta to extensions just ahead of the deadline, UHC showed how eager it is to build a playoff team as soon as possible.
19. Vancouver Canucks (34-28-13): While one storyline found a resolution in the second half when J.T. Miller was traded to the Rangers, in some ways it feels like big questions in Vancouver got even larger in the second half; can Elias Pettersson ever be an elite force for this team again and will coach Rick Tocchet’s next contract be with this team?
20. New York Rangers (36-32-7): After his 28-goal showing last year, Alexis Lafreniere has 16 this season with just five in 35 outings since Jan. 9.
21. Columbus Blue Jackets (43-30-9): The Jackets were without top-line centre Sean Monahan for a big chunk of the second half, but they’re still right in the thick of the playoff chase with nine games to go. Adam Fantilli has played at a 72-point pace since the season’s midpoint.
22. Anaheim Ducks (33-33-8): Mason McTavish has really hit his offensive stride in the back half of Year 3; the third-overall pick from 2021 has 29 points in his past 28 games.
23. Buffalo Sabres (32-36-6): Will the story ultimately be that the Sabres traded another player who quickly became a fixture on his new club when they sent Dylan Cozens to their division rivals in Ottawa?
24. Detroit Red Wings (34-33-7): The Wings have been defined by streakiness in the second half. They passed the midway point on a seven-game winning run and had another seven-gamer in late January and early February. Detroit also had a six-game losing skid to open March and hasn’t posted back-to-back victories since Feb. 25.
25. New York Islanders (32-32-10): The Isles ultimately decided to sell at the deadline and the enduring event from the first couple months of 2025 on Long Island may be acquiring prospect Calum Ritchie from the Avs for Brock Nelson.
26. Pittsburgh Penguins (30-34-11): Pittsburgh was essentially a wild-card team at the halfway point of the year, but the Pens’ .439 points percentage in the back half is worse than all but four teams in the NHL and torpedoed any chance they had at returning to the playoffs.
27. Seattle Kraken (32-38-6): The offence actually made a bit of a leap in the second half, going from 22nd in the league (2.85 goals per game) in the first half to 11th (3.17) in the second. Still, the power play remained a bottom-third unit and the penalty kill got worse.
28. Philadelphia Flyers (31-36-9): The Flyers fell apart, winning just six times in a 25-game run from late January to late March. Philly fans better hope the story doesn’t become the club ruining its lottery odds by running the three-game winning streak the Flyers are riding since firing John Tortorella to a six- or seven-game surge.
29. Nashville Predators (27-40-8): There’s a lot of blame to go around in Nashville, but the Preds’ .887 save percentage at five-on-five is the worst second-half mark in the entire league.
30. Boston Bruins (30-36-9): Trading captain Brad Marchand — a move that would have seemed unthinkable not that long ago — put a fine point on the big organizational transition the Bruins have undergone in the back half of this campaign.
31. San Jose Sharks (20-44-10): Since Jan. 9, Will Smith has 23 points in 31 games. That’s just two fewer than the 25 posted by rookie-of-the-year candidate Macklin Celebrini. Smith’s jump is a wonderful development for the Sharks.
32. Chicago Blackhawks (21-44-10): We saw Connor Bedard’s frustration boil over in mid-March when he was assessed misconducts in consecutive games. The constant losing has taken a toll on everyone in Chicago and cannot continue in the first half of 2025-26.
