The NHL’s 2025 off-season rolls on, with most teams having made their roster moves by now. And so it’s a good time to make a few fun guesstimates as to which teams will make or miss the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Tomorrow, we’ll take a stab at guessing which three teams that made the playoffs last season will be candidates to miss the playoffs this time around. But today, we’re looking at the opposite – namely, which three teams that missed the playoffs last year can make the playoffs in 2025-26. Let’s get straight to it:
1. Columbus Blue Jackets
Why? The Blue Jackets did not make a slew of roster changes, adding only veteran center Charlie Coyle to their lineup. But so many young Jackets players are in the early stages of their development, and Columbus GM Don Waddell is beginning the early stages of his Blue Jackets days by essentially telling his young players that this is their team, and he believes in them.
Just in case that belief turns into dread, Waddell currently has $16.3 million in salary cap space to use if the season begins and the Blue Jackets are faltering. Very few teams need a playoff appearance as much as the Jackets do, and as their youngsters grow into their expectations, Columbus needs to put it all together. That includes their shaky goaltending under starter Elvis Merzlikins. They also need to be healthier than they were last season. That’s not under their control, of course, but some good luck from the hockey gods would be welcome.
If they can get even average netminding from Merzlikins and/or backup from Jet Greaves, the Blue Jackets should be far tougher to play against this coming year, and we think the Jackets will lock up a wild card berth in the Eastern Conference. Time will tell whether we were right in that choice, but for now, expectations for Columbus should be high.
2. Vancouver Canucks
Why? The Canucks finished seven standings points out of a playoff spot last season, and that was with an alarming number of disappointments. Stars Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller feuded, and Miller wound up traded. Star goalie Thatcher Demko was injured and limited to 23 appearances – and when he was healthy enough to play, he posted an .889 save percentage. Superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes also dealt with injuries and played only 68 games.
It really was a collision of many different things that made Vancouver sub-par last season, and they still nearly made the playoffs. Now that Demko and Hughes are healthy, and now that Pettersson has no more excuses about being a consistent menace to produce points, at least one or two bad things that happened last season won’t be nearly so bad this season.
If that’s the case, then the Canucks should not only be a threat to make the playoffs – we think Vancouver could secure home-ice advantage in the comparatively weak Pacific Division. The Canucks are far from a perfect team, but they were shortchanged by the hockey gods last season, and in 2025-26, we think Vancouver will show they’re not as bad as the Canucks team that finished last year.
3. Utah Mammoth
Why? The Mammoth weren’t a terrible team by any metric last season. Their season record of 38-31-13 was the sixth-best in the hyper-competitive Central Division, and they finished eight points out of making the playoffs in the Western Conference. That’s something to build on, and while it’s going to be tough sledding making the playoffs in the Central, we like the Mammoth’s chances of surprising some people and at least be playing meaningful hockey right through the last stretch of the regular season.
The Mammoth went big-game hunting in the trade market this summer and came away with former Buffalo Sabres sniper JJ Peterka. The 23-year-old winger has generated 55 goals in the past two seasons, and with an expanded role in Utah, we can see Peterka easily reaching the 30-goal plateau and pushing the Mammoth to another level.
Meanwhile, the Mammoth also signed veteran free agents Brandon Tanev and Nate Schmidt. Tanev will give Utah’s fourth line some snarl, and Schmidt will bring his Cup-winning experience to the Mammoth’s defense corps. But it’s really Utah’s core of young talent that we see taking the bull by the horns and elevating the Mammoth’s attack to the point Utah becomes a playoff team this season. It may take some bad luck happening to the Central teams ahead of them on paper, but the Mammoth have $6.6 million in cap space, and GM Bill Armstrong should be using every penny. Utah needs a playoff appearance as much as any other team not named the Sabres (who need it the most). But if the Mammoth can live up to expectations, this year is likely to be a crucial turning point for them.
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