There's no rest in the NHL's West, with the Oilers, Predators, Flames, Kraken, Coyotes and Blues within five points of each other. Adam Proteau predicts which two teams will get the wild cards.

It’s still only mid-January, but the NHL’s race for a Stanley Cup playoff berth is intensifying. 

On Wednesday, we chronicled the hot playoff race competition between Eastern Conference teams, and today, we’re breaking down the equally difficult battle in the West.

As it stands, only eight standings points separate the No. 1 wild-card team – the white-hot Edmonton Oilers – and the fourth-worst team in the West, the Minnesota Wild. Only five points separates the West’s fifth-worst team (the St. Louis Blues) from the Oilers. Edmonton, Nashville, Calgary, Seattle and Arizona are all within two points of each other, and we’re not even counting the tight races in the Pacific division. 

In the Pacific, the Oilers are just one point behind the slumping L.A. Kings, and it’s entirely possible the Pacific – which has taken a competitive step forward this season – sends five teams to the post-season.

With so many teams still in the hunt for a playoff spot, we may see a seller’s market on the trade front. By the time the NHL’s 2024 trade deadline of March 8 passes, teams may well choose to stick with what they have and hope they’re this season’s version of the 2022-23 Florida Panthers – a team that nearly missed out on the playoffs altogether before making a stunning run to the Cup final.

If we had to pick two wild-card teams out of the current mix in the West, we’d go with either the Oilers or Kings (whichever team doesn’t land a top-three spot in the Pacific) and the Kraken, who’ve gone 8-2-0 in their past 10. The Kraken’s poor 1-4 shootout record is what’s keeping them from ascending higher in the standings, but Seattle is a hardworking group, and Kraken GM Ron Francis could be one of the GMs motivated to make a notable move or two on the trade front.

The Central Division is beginning to separate, with the Winnipeg Jets, Colorado Avalanche, and Dallas Stars solidly in the top three spots in the division and second-tier teams Nashville, Arizona, and St. Louis well behind those three franchises. There is some separation near the bottom of the Pacific right now, but before too long, the Anaheim Ducks will be an up-and-coming squad that makes the Pacific even more difficult than it is at present.

As is the case in the East, the Western Conference is going to have must-win games long before the final stretch of the regular season. League parity and the salary cap system ensure that consistency is the name of the game for any organization with Cup aspirations, and the teams in the West that can regularly take home two points in any one game are going to be the groups that win the battle of the wild card teams.

You can’t win a Cup with games in January, February and March, but you sure can have your competitive window closed by slumps in those months. For now, it’s all about taking care of business on a day-to-day level.