Which of the four Canadian NHL teams that missed the playoffs has the best chances of getting back in next year – the Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks or Winnipeg Jets?
It hasn't been a great year for four of the NHL's seven Canadian teams.
Only three Canadian squads – the Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators – are in this year's Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs ended a playoff streak, while the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks are undergoing rebuilds.
The Flames and Canucks almost certainly won't make the playoffs next year. That leaves the Jets and Maple Leafs trying to bounce back and make the post-season in 2027.
The Jets look likelier than the Leafs to do so.
They came out of the gate strongly, going 9-3-0 in their first dozen games.
But from Nov. 4 to Jan. 8, Winnipeg was the NHL's worst team, going 6-19-5 in that span, seeing their goals-against average balloon and offense dry out.
Since Jan. 8, however, the Jets went 20-14-7 and nearly got into the playoffs in the final week.
Winnipeg's core will almost certainly return intact next season. They've got a couple of notable UFAs, such as center Jonathan Toews and goalie Eric Comrie, but the Jets will have a whopping $20.2 million in salary cap space to use this summer. That means GM Kevin Cheveldayoff can be a major player in trades and free agency to add to or build around the core.
Expect a major bounce-back season from Connor Hellebuyck as well.
His .895 was a career low by far. So even if Hellebuyck is only a small bit better next season, that could be what propels Winnipeg into the post-season.
What About The Maple Leafs, Flames And Canucks?
The Leafs are slightly behind the Jets when it comes to bounce-back potential.
Don't get it twisted – the Maple Leafs earned their terrible season with uninspired play that verged on diabolical. But they were ravaged by injuries at every position this year.
Chris Tanev, Anthony Stolarz, Joseph Woll and William Nylander all were out of the lineup at times due to injury or an absence, and Auston Matthews was kneed and injured for the rest of the season in March.
So if they come back, probably with a different coach and definitely with a different GM, the Maple Leafs could get better luck health-wise and be right back in the thick of things in the Atlantic Division.
The Flames and Canucks bring up the rear on this list.
Although the Canucks are the league's worst team this season, we'd argue they underachieved this year. They still have center Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk and Filip Hronek, three of whom had more points than Calgary's top scorer, Matt Coronato. Pettersson, Boeser and DeBrusk have also shown before that they can produce much more, and they've yet to turn 30.
The Canucks could take a step behind the Flames in their development if they ship out a boatload of veterans this summer. But if we had to choose between the Canucks and Flames to make the playoffs next season, we'd go with the former.
There's no question the Jets have the toughest division to operate in, as the Central Division has the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild sitting in the top three of the West. So the days of Winnipeg winning the division may be over for the time being.
But there's no reason the Jets can't be one of the four or five teams the Central could send to the playoffs. The Pacific Division is relatively weak, and that gives Winnipeg the opening it'll need to engineer a dramatic turnaround next season.
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