Calgary, St. Louis, Minnesota and Seattle are in the mushy middle of the NHL's Western Conference. Adam Proteau expects them to take different routes this summer.

With the NHL’s 2023-24 regular season nearly finished, there’s a quartet of Western Conference teams where no team wants to be – the mushy middle. 

They're the teams that will likely miss the Stanley Cup playoffs but aren't bad enough to get themselves a high pick in the next NHL draft.

The four teams we’re talking about here are the St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild, Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken. 

Of course, there’s still an outside shot one of them beat the odds and wind up making the playoffs, but let’s be realistic here: the Blues are currently five standings points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second and final Western wild-card berth. The Wild are eight points behind the Kings, and the Flames and Kraken are both 14 points behind the Kings. 

Each of the Blues, Wild, Flames and Kraken are at different points in their competitive cycle this season, so we fully expect them to take different routes this coming summer.

St. Louis Blues

Under GM Doug Armstrong, St. Louis has been loathe to undergo a massive rebuild, and Armstrong has conveyed his belief in his core by keeping most of it under contract for the 2024-25 season. 

As per PuckPedia, the Blues have about $13.1 million in projected salary cap space next season, but they also have 20 players under contract – that leaves a fair amount of money to go out and bring in one or two veteran players to get them back into the post-season next spring. 

Also a possibility – the Blues, once again, are a mushy-middle group next season, which would be disastrous. For that reason, we’re expecting Armstrong to shake up his roster a little bit more than he otherwise would’ve liked to. The Central Division will be a competitive one next year, so there’s little room for error for St. Louis.

Minnesota Wild

Similarly, the Wild also have most of their lineup locked down next season, with 17 players under contract and $9.5 million in cap space. 

Minnesota GM Bill Guerin no doubt wants his group to bounce back from its thoroughly mediocre year. But unless their young players, such as Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi and Brock Faber, take another big step forward as well as their veterans, we can see the Wild once again being in the same place they are currently at by this time next year. 

Sure, there’s a chance the stars line up better for Minnesota, but again, the Central isn’t likely to have many pushover teams, so the challenge for the Wild will be considerable.

Calgary Flames

The Flames are a different story. Calgary GM Craig Conroy has done yeoman’s work this season trading away veteran players who aren’t part of the organization’s long-term plans, but that process is really only just beginning. 

To wit – can Conroy find a taker for star winger Jonathan Huberdeau and center Nazem Kadri? Both of them have at least four seasons left on their contract, and both likely don’t want to be part of Calgary’s long rebuild that should be coming. Same goes for star goalie Jacob Markstrom, who has two more years left on his current deal. 

Flames fans can stomach a long rebuild if they know elite young players are on the horizon for the franchise, but the last thing they should want next season is a return to the mushy middle. You don’t get generational talent that way, and that’s all Calgary should be focused on for the foreseeable future.

Seattle Kraken

Finally, the Kraken are a bit of a hybrid competitive team. They’ve had a taste of playoff hockey in their brief existence, but Seattle GM Ron Francis is well-aware he has to be patient with his team. 

The Kraken have $19.7 million in projected cap space next season, but we suspect Francis won’t use all of it and aim to carve out some cap flexibility to use during the season. 

In any case, the Kraken don’t want to be where they are right now. Another season or two of relative misery for Seattle should pay off down the line, and that’s probably preferable to another season like this one.

The Eastern Conference also has its mushy middle teams, but we’ll focus on them down the line. For now, the Blues, Wild, Flames and Kraken have stark choices in front of them – and the way they respond to this season’s disappointments will go a long way toward dictating whether they’re mushy-middle groups yet again. It’s better to be either in the playoffs or far, far away from them, and that’s the challenge for those four teams next season.