Well, we’re not that far past the draft, and what a draft it was! In the spirit of celebration, here’s a post detailing the last time each team has held the #1 overall pick, which the Rangers used this year to select Alexis Lafrenière.

Team	Year	Player	Outcome
Anaheim Ducks	N/A	N/A	N/A
Arizona Coyotes	1981	Dale Hawerchuk	Disclaimer that this pick comes from the Jets days; however, it’s the same franchise, so it is counted. Anyways, where to begin. Howerchuk was a massive star for Winnipeg, winning the Calder trophy and becoming a five-time All-Star. He had six seasons where he topped 100 points, and 13 where he topped 80 (13 straight from his rookie year, in fact); for reference, that’s out of 16 total seasons. He ultimately retired over a point per game for his career. Needless to say, franchise’s only #1OA to date worked out quite well. RIP to the legend.
Boston Bruins	1997	Joe Thornton	Thornton took a little bit to get underway in Boston, posting good-but-unspectacular numbers his first five years; however, he broke out as a star in 2002-03, putting up the first of his six 85+-point seasons with a 36-goal, 101-point campaign. He suffered a regression in 2003-04, but after a fast start to the post-lockout ’05-’06 season (33 points in 23 games), Thornton was traded to San Jose for Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau, and Brad Stuart. Ultimately winning the Hart Trophy that season, Thornton has continued to carve out a great career even in his later years. Good pick.
Buffalo Sabres	2018	Rasmus Dahlin	While a bit too early to fully judge, the Sabres’ young defenseman has hit the 40-point mark in both of his first two seasons, and finished as a Calder Trophy finalist in the 2018-19 season. He’s certainly trending up.
Calgary Flames	N/A	N/A	N/A
Carolina Hurricanes	N/A	N/A	N/A
Chicago Blackhawks	2007	Patrick Kane	Kane has had a slew of achievements up there with the greatest of all time; among others, he won the Calder Trophy, is a nine-time All-Star, a three-time Cup champion, a three-time member of the First All-Star Team, and won the Ross, Hart, and Lindsay trophies in 2016. A core part of the Hawks’ early-2010s dynasty, Kane has over 1,000 points in less than 1,000 games, and with the exception of the shortened 2012-13 season, has never failed to hit at least 60 points in ever year of his career. Hell, even that year he put up 55. Spectacular hit.
Colorado Avalanche	2013	Nathan MacKinnon	Akin to Thornton, MacKinnon was good but not spectacular his first few years in the league, seemingly failing to reach his full potential, although he did win the Calder. However, he truly broke out in the 2017-18 season, posting over 90 points for the first time (97 total), and being named to the Second All-Star Team. He’s posted at least 90 points in the two years since, being named a finalist for the Hart Trophy in 2020. Very good pick for Colorado.
Columbus Blue Jackets	2002	Rick Nash	Nash may not have consistently posted stellar numbers like some of the others on this list, but he was a good player nonetheless. The heart and soul of the Blue Jackets for much of the 2000s, their captain hit 41 goals and tied for the Rocket Richard award in 2003-04. While never hitting the 80-point mark, he did hit at least 50 in the latter seven of his eight years in Columbus, and was always a reliable option. He declined a bit upon arriving in New York, but was still a solid depth piece, ultimately retiring in 2018. Good pick.
Dallas Stars	1988	Mike Modano	Once again, where to start. Modano is often regarded as the greatest American player ever, holding the records for goals, points, playoff points, and games played for American-born NHLers. Spending all but one year of his career with the (North) Stars franchise, he was a 5-time All-Star and a one-time Stanley Cup champion, and was a consistent scoring threat, hitting the 80-point mark eight times during his career. A legend in every sense of the word
Detroit Red Wings	1986	Joe Murphy	This is a depressing one to write about. For those wishing to read about his notable and recent off-ice issues, you may do so here; however, out of respect for him I’m going to stick to his hockey career. Murphy had a tumultuous career, never really sticking with anyone. After a disappointing tenure in Detroit, he was traded to Edmonton, where his numbers improved; he was part of the Cup-winning squad in 1990, and seemingly broke out with 82 points in 1992-93. However, aside from a lone 70-point year in Chicago two years later, Murphy never approached that total again, mostly sitting around 40 points a season. He ultimately bounced around the league in the end of his career, playing for seven total teams. Unfortunately, a bust, though not a huge one.
Edmonton Oilers	2015	Connor McDavid	McJesus. 97+ points in all four full seasons, and 100+ in three. 4x All-Star, 2x Ross and Lindsay, 1x Hart and First All-Star Team. ~~1 playoff appearance.~~ Nuff said. Great pick.
Florida Panthers	2014	Aaron Ekblad	Ekblad’s been solid for the Panthers, and a quality defenseman overall. A 2-time All-Star and Calder winner, his point totals have steadily gone up as the Panthers build out their team. He’s been in the top-10 in goals by defensemen since his debut year, and the versatile defenseman ranks as a solid choice for Florida at #1OA.
Los Angeles Kings	1967	Rick Pagnutti	The Kings’ only first-overall pick ever came in their inaugural draft. Pagnutti was a massive bust, spending his entire career in the various minor leagues of the time and never so much as appearing in an NHL game. Not much to write about, honestly.
Minnesota Wild	N/A	N/A	N/A
Montreal Canadiens	1980	Doug Wickenheiser	Out of respect for the late Wickenheiser, this will be a short entry. Wickenheiser unfortunately never lived up to his NHL potential, only topping 50 points once with Montreal. After just four seasons there, he bounced around the league, ultimately playing for five NHL teams and a variety of minor league and European teams. Sadly, his career was cut short by a rare form of cancer, which he ultimately passed away of at 37 in 1999. F**k cancer.
Nashville Predators	N/A	N/A	N/A
New Jersey Devils	2019	Jack Hughes	Far too early to judge. Hughes had a rather disappointing rookie campaign, with just 21 points in 61 games; however, the Devils didn’t ice a great team around him, so who knows. We’ll see how his development pans out.
New York Islanders	2009	John Tavares	🐍🐍. Tavares was a stellar pick for the Isles at #1OA, hitting the 25-goal mark in every season he played on the Island including his rookie campaign. Additionally, he was a five-time All-Star with New York, and made the First All-Star Team in 2015 while serving as the Islanders’ captain. Finally, he also led the team back to a degree of greatness, with the 2015 Islanders winning their first playoff series since 1993. However, Tavares proceeded to jump ship to his hometown Maple Leafs in 2018 free agency, and needless to say NY fans haven’t taken it well. Still a very good pick, though.
New York Rangers	2020	Alexis Lafrenière	Seeing as he only joined the team a week ago, we can’t really judge him yet.
Ottawa Senators	1996	Chris Phillips	Now this is an intriguing one. Phillips was never a flashy player, being regarded as a stay-at-home defenseman his entire career and not once reaching the 30-point mark. However, he was a very good defensive defenseman, and ultimately stuck with Ottawa for 17 years, becoming the longest-tenured player in franchise history and spending his entire career in the Canadian capital. Finishing with over 1,100 games played, even with his lack of individual accolades Phillips is a Sens legend through and through. Good pick.
Philadelphia Flyers	1975	Mel Bridgman	This pick was a… decent-ish one, I guess? Bridgman immediately joined the defending champions in 1975-76, and was good-not-great, never topping 59 points in his five full seasons in Philly, but never dropping below 47, either. His best season came in 1981-82, where he shattered his previous point totals by posting 33 goals and 87 points (75 of which came after his early-season trade to Calgary). He finished out the next few years of his career in Calgary, New Jersey, Detroit, and Vancouver, consistently hovering around the 50-60 point mark. Bridgman ultimately finished with 701 points in 977 career games, and while not exactly living up to #1OA expectations, he certainly wasn’t a bust by any means.
Pittsburgh Penguins	2005	Sidney Crosby	Well, aside from being an 8-time All-Star, a 2-time Ross and Hart winner, a 3-time Lindsay winner, 4-times-each First and Second All-Star Team member, 3-time Cup champion, 2-time Rocket Richard winner, and 2-time Conn Smythe winner, with over 1,200 points in just 984 games, six 100-point seasons, and a 102-point rookie campaign, Sid the Kid really hasn’t done much^{^/s.} One of if not the greatest #1OAs ever.
San Jose Sharks	1998*	N/A	This is actually a technicality; they held the pick that became #1OA (Florida’s) for much of the 1997-98 season, but traded it at the trade deadline before the end of the season. As such, it doesn’t really count. The team has never held #1OA otherwise.
St. Louis Blues	2006	Erik Johnson	This is an odd one. Johnson was relatively mediocre with St. Louis, and after several injuries was traded after just four years to the Colorado Avalanche. There, he has established himself as a solid defenseman and a key contributor, making the All-Star Game in 2015 and signing a massive extension the same year. However, his career has been beset by injuries, and as a result he’s never quite evolved past “good” and up to the expectations of a #1 overall pick.
Tampa Bay Lightning	2008	Steven Stamkos	Stamkos has effectively been the face of the Bolts since he was picked in 2008, serving as their captain and the heart and soul of the team. Although effected by multiple injuries over the course of the decade, he’s still put up multiple 80 to 90-point campaigns, including a rare 60-goal season in 2011-12 and a 51-goal season two years prior. A constant scoring threat, he’s a six-time All-Star, a two-time Rocket Richard winner, and a two-time member of the Second All-Star Team. With his two-minute, one-goal performance in the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals, his legend has only increased, making him a great pick for Tampa.
Toronto Maple Leafs	2016	Auston Matthews	Matthews has exploded onto the scene in his first few years, making the All-Star Game all four years of his career so far and winning the Calder Trophy his rookie season. He's been over a point per game every year except his first, and has topped the 60-point mark every time. Although he hasn't been able to lead Toronto to a playoff win, he's emerged as one of the NHL's true young superstars in the same vein as McDavid and Kucherov, and has overall been a great pick for Toronto.
Vancouver Canucks	1999*	N/A	The Canucks only briefly had the first overall pick, acquired from Tampa Bay, and immediately used it as capital to trade for second overall as part of Brian Burke’s draft wizardry in order to pick both of the Sedin twins. Needless to say, that worked out. The team has never held #1OA otherwise.
Vegas Golden Knights	N/A	N/A	N/A
Washington Capitals	2004	Alex Ovechkin	The Great 8’s career-low in goals is 32 on two separate occasions, including the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season in which he was on a full-season pace for 55 again. He’s hit the 40-goal mark 11 times and the 50-mark an astounding 7 times, including 52 in his rookie year and a mind-boggling 65 in in 2007-08. He’s an 8-time member of the First All-Star Team, a 4-time member of the Second, a 3-time Hart and Lindsay winner, a 1-time Ross and Smythe winner, a 1-time Cup champion, a Calder winner, and an absurd 9-time Rocket Richard winner, including 7 of the last 8. Easily the greatest pure goalscorer ever, and a massive hit at #1OA.
Winnipeg Jets	2001	Ilya Kovalchuk	Disclaimer that our last entry on this list, like our first, comes with the catch of being pre-relocation; in this case, from the Thrashers period of the Jets’ history. Kovalchuk burst on to the scene quickly, following up a good rookie year with a 41-goal season tying him for the Rocket Richard. He proceeded to post at least 87 points in four of the next five seasons; however, due to a lack of talent around him and a contract dispute, the struggling Thrashers shipped him to New Jersey in 2010 for a handful of prospects and picks. He proceeded to sign a gigantic extension with New Jersey and continue to score at a quality rate, appearing in the 2012 Finals before controversially walking out, and later returning to the NHL in 2018. Overall a good pick, and its a shame Atlanta never did anything with him.

Thanks for reading!

EDIT: I am an idiot and forgot about Matthews. Chart will be updated as such.

Ahoy Bolts fans! Stars fan here with the obligatory "coming in peace"! For real though, a really dope Bolts fan made a fantastic post on the Stars sub like this and I would like to return the favor because life is too rough right now to keep adding negativity to our lives.
First off: Congrats on making it to the Stanley Cup!!
As mentioned, u/emotoaster (bro) made a cool post breaking down Tampa's roster on something of a scouting report because like most fan bases, you don't know as much as you probably should about your opposing team and what better way than to get it from an opposing fan!? I really apprecaited the post and he did a great job (and I'll try to keep with the same format that they used over on the other side). I am going to try to return the favor here but I admittedly am not a pro-fan and I don't know all the details that some other super-fans will know but I'm going to do my best to be a self-appointed ambassador for the green dudes y'all are playing against.
Overall System/Style of Play
We are a defensive club in and out. Yes, there are some dudes who have histories of great goal scoring and high point seasons but pushing the pace on offense leaves for an open defense. Our system is to shut down from the back end and push the opportunities forward. No need to score a bunch if 1 will do the trick.
We can have a very solid neutral zone trap when facing teams that rely on a north-south approach. It was very effective in game 1 of our series and against Vegas as well.
At our best, we will trap the neutral zone and then jump forward with a clean entry with some tick-tack-toe passing or crash the net. At our worst, we can't get the puck out of our defensive zone cleanly. Most of the time, we will have a mixture of both depending on the line combination and matchups and will revert to a chip & chase method which leads to some decent forechecking pressure in the corners. We have a few guys who do this really well and a couple that are still getting there. Like you, we got here because of our depth and un-sung heroes.
Head Coach
Rick "Bones" Bowness: Well, technically not even the head coach. He is the interim HC. He started the year working under the system of Jim Montgomery who was dismissed on 10 December 2019 for "unprofessional conduct". Since then Bowness was activated as the interim Head Coach. A legacy of sorts with a coaching career that goes back to 1982 where he was a player-coach with the Sherbrooke Jets of the AHL. Since then he's been up & down, in & out, all around the game of hockey in one capacity or another. A career assistant coach who enjoys development and working with individual players mostly, which has probably contributed to his checkered career as a head coach. Nevertheless, he put on the suit & tie in Dallas to become the oldest coach in the NHL after Monty's departure and it's been a rollercoaster. Some say that Bones doesn't want to stay on as HC next year, and others seem to think that he needs to. But that is for Bones & Jim Nill (Dallas GM) to figure out. Personally, I think he will want to go back to assistant and keep working on player's individual development. But that is just my homer opinion. "Losing sucks but losing to such a great person in Rick makes it a little bit easier." Nathan MacKinnon. Apparently Mac & Bones live on the same lake back in Nova Scotia. Other teams that he has been part of in the NHL as HC: Winnipeg, Boston, Ottawa, New York Islanders, & Phoenix. As Assistant: Vancouver & Tampa Bay (2013-2018).
General Stats:
Again, we are a defensive based team and this reflects in the statistics. Before the shutdown, 37-24-8 Record. We had a whopping 178 Goals For this past year (3rd lowest in the league) with a mere 174 Goals Against (Second lowest in the league behind Boston). This equates to a game average of 2.58 - 2.52 per game. It isn't good for your blood pressure to be a Stars fan. In case you didn't know...y'all are at a league high of 3.47-2.77. As far as Special Teams are concerned, we finished the abbreviated season with a (somewhat) rock hard PP of 21.1% conversion rate and a rather ugly PK of 79.7%, which I think you thoroughly enjoyed last night. For faceoffs, we've got a slight statistical superiority on the dot, finishing the season at 51.8% against your 50.5%.
Offense Lines:
(With Monty as HC, there was always fluctuations in lines. He would perpetually throw out different combinations and different looks, so this is the "traditional layout" if you were ask a casual Stars fan on a "usual game")
1st Line - Alexander Radulov - Tyler Seguin Point - Jamie Benn
The "big boys" (read: big contracts, lol). In reality Seggs usually is the "playmaker" of the group and will usually have a good FO%. Rads is the hustle of the group who can generate sloppy looking chances from a great forecheck. He often gets overly aggressive and takes thoughtless penalties. In the Monty days, he occasionally would be a healthy scratch if he was being a dumbass on the ice. And he would typically come back to net a Hatty. Benn is our C. He is a big dude who enjoys playing physically in front of the net. He has been the leader on and off the ice for Dallas for the past seven seasons. He is heavily criticized from all sides as not doing "enough" for the team but in reality the guy can be a monster. I really feel as if he missed his calling on a traditional checking line but his offensive skill is what pushed him to the top. He won the Art Ross in '14/'15 and a gold medal with Canada in '14.
2nd Line - Mattias Janmark - Joe Pavelski - Denis Gurianov
It's going to be tough to put the "traditional lines" up here because they jump around so much.
Janmark: Swedish. Scored on you last night. Janny has a great forecheck and will always be in the mix. He doesn't translate very well on the offensive scoresheet but man, does he hustle on the ice. He frequently is on the PK and doesn't get much praise in the Stars subreddit due to his "inability to finish". Frequently we joke that...Stars on a breakaway, fuck - it's Janny. I don't think it's a confidence thing or a drought thing. He's got a great game, just doesn't translate well to the system offensively. He's a UFA after this season and probably won't get resigned. Which sucks, because he's one of my favorites.
Joe Pavelski: Huge lottery win in the Free Agent Market got us Captain America. Great presence on the dot. Fantastic in front of the net. Unfortunately, we don't seem to put him there too often. He is leading our team in playoff goals right now and is #3 of all time for American born players in the playoffs. He is a real leader for the club and brings a ton of experience on the PP.
Denis Gurianov: Or Scorianov. Rooke. Leading goalscorer for the regular season (20). Wicked slapshot. Wicket wristshot. Wicked snapshot. Really fast skater and what has surprised most Stars fans this postseason is how physical he can play. He has been getting in the mix and throwing the body fairly well.
3rd Line - Andrew Cogliano - Radek Faska - Blake Comeau
Grind time! The FCC line was the complete jobber this entire season. We matched the Av's top line with this group in the last series. This is clearly my favorite offensive line. They don't generate much on the scoresheet but damnit if they earn their paychecks!
Cogliano: Veteran from around the league. He is the smallest dude on the bench at 5'11, 177. Has 1K+ games recorded and notched a 20 goal season once. The guy is always on the PK, always on the forecheck and always giving is best. He came over from Anaheim last year in a super rare one-for-one swap for Devin Shore. Cogs is a real ironman, which is ironic because it was a rare injury to him that made him a healthy scratch to give JFK a chance (we'll get to him later). Radek Faksa - Our top two-way center. He will be Dallas' Marian Hossa. He has a great presence on the ice and plays really good hockey. He is an RFA this season and I highly suspect Dallas will pay a pretty penny to keep him.
Blake Comeau: Fuck, he's probably my favorite forward. 34 year old veteran has been wearing the A recently and he owns it. Always giving his best and really playing his heart out. Is the best? Prettiest? Fastest? Hell no! Is he going to play in your face, throw the body all night and fire off some wild clapper from the top of the circle? Yup! He's got one year left on his contract and he'll probably hang 'em up afterwards (I hope as i don't think Dallas will resign a 36 year old third line grinder and I would never want him to wear another jersey).
4th Line - Corey Perry - Jason Dickinson - Roope Hintz
I guess this is the third line, or second...IDK.
Corey Perry: Y'all, Imma be up front with you. It's weird. He was the bane of so much. In your face. Pest. Pesky. All those reasons ~we~ you hate him. Ask any Stars fan and they'll tell you how weird it is cheering for him. But here is the skinny - He's wearing victory green. He's being a pest for us (not against us). Yeah, he's done some stupid shit (see his ~six seconds of winter classic ice time) but he signed for a bottom of the basement level contract ($1.5M) riddled with potential bonuses that don't hit the cap. Excellent signing for our GM. I doubt he'll resign in Dallas but this was his "rebound year".
Jason Dickskin er...Dickinson (Letterkenny fans?? I know it doesn't fit, but it's close enough for the drunk version of me on game night): Young kid on his first contract. He's an RFA next year and we'll want to keep him around. I believe management believes he could be the next version of Jamie Benn. Strong, scrappy forward who has a good net presence. He still has a lot of development to do but at 25 years old - he is gonna get there.
Roope Hintz - Fuck this kid can fly. 23 years old. He's 6'3, 220 (same exact measurements as Jamie Benn) and can sake like the fucking wind. Grinds out lots of minutes on the PK and has a bunch of development to do. He was given a chance last year on some injuries and earned the permanent spot in the lineup after firing off a few wicked slapshots. He's an RFA this year and I really hope we can resign him.
Others in the lineup:
Joel "Fucking" Kiviranta: So there has recently been a ton to say about this guy. The Finnish announcer calling his goal is delightful. He was a healthy scratch coming into the bubble as he is a solid two way wing. Depending how the series goes, you'll probably hear the usual anecdotes on him: "undrafted, recommended by Jere Lehtinen (who is now the Finnish team's GM) to the Stars organization as a solid two way forward with a good hockey IQ. But let me give you my anecdote. I went to the Stars' development camp before this season started. It was right after the draft and I got to watch everybody in the development pipeline practice, scrimmage, and just get to know each other. I remember Kivi out there. He wasn't the smallest guy (even though he's only 5'10, 180). He wasn't the fastest or had the best shot (Jason Robertson has the best shot in the pipeline BY FAR). But I wanted to pay attention to Kivi as he was the only Finn in the camp. The guy skated so much better laterally than anybody else. His stickhandling wasn't great but his passes were the speed of some other guys' slapshot. The sound when his pass connects was on another level. I like this kid. It's hard not to when his statement following a hatty in his first postseason game is: "I hope they play me again". Kivi came in with an unusual injury to Andrew Cogliano and has stayed in the lineup with the injury from Radek Faksa.
Jason Robertson - as mentioned earlier, JRob had the best shot in the Stars' development camp. I watched him shoot the shit with other guys at the top of the circle between drills. He casually rang post after post after post wrist shots from the top of the circle like a fucking sniper. He was so casual and so clean with his follow-through. The speed of each shot was phenomenal. The only reason I mention him is because I want to believe that he will probably be the next-one-up in the event Roope is out.
Justin Dowling - One year left on his contract until he is an UFA. He may be re-signed depending on the outlook. He is fairly ready for a permanent spot on the lineup but hasn't gotten much. He played in 29 games this season with the boys and registered 3 goals and 3 assists. He may get the callup if somebody is injured, depending on the need. He usually fits a one way winger role and not so much of a stick handling playmaker. The NHL is really pushing the "Baby in the bubble" story as a human interest piece. His family lives quite close to Edmonton his wife and newborn baby were the first to pass through quarantine to be reunited. Thankfully the baby looks nothing like Justin.
Defense
Transparency: I always played defense growing up and still do on rec teams. I love playing D and really love the Dallas blue liners. I think it is what drew me to be a Stars fan (was a Blackhawks/Habs fan as a kid).
1st Pair - Esa Lindell - Jon Klingberg
Lindell: The quietest unsung hero of the D-Core. He will most likely log the most minutes each game and will anchor a PK. Deceptively strong with a 6'3" Finnish frame (skinny) and has legs like a fucking Clydesdale horse. He is my favorite player as he seems to make very smart defensive moves, doesn't appear to chirp that much and has recently shown to make some smart offensive zone entries. My favorite part of Lindell? His contract. Very team friendly and will stay with Dallas (hopefully) through 2025.
Klingberg: When Klinger signed his contract in 2015 it was called "risky" as he wasn't nearly developed as he is today. He was always an offensively minded defenseman. And even now, his mind is faster than his ability. We will see him fumble and miss opportunities but he is 28 years old and will keep growing each year. He is slick and can dangle with the best of them. Watch out for him on PP1 at the blue line making a lane to fire off a wrist shot. It's essentially a floating pass to be tipped.
2nd Pair - Miro - Jamie Oleksiak
Miro: The "generational talent". Even if Dallas had the number 1 pick in 2018, they would have gone with Miro. He is such a smart defenseman with a great offensive ability. Deceptively strong Finnish frame who positions himself very well. He will be Dallas' franchise guy for the foreseeable future.
Oleksiak: Big Rig. He went back and forth with Dallas & Pittsburg (who seemed to fix him up well, thanks Pens!). He really came into his own this season. He was on the bubble all of last year and getting an occasional chance due to injury or ability. He is our biggest guy (6'7") and he has really matured this year in his role pairing with Miro.
3rd Pair - Andrej Skera - Roman Polak - Stephen Johns - Taylor Fedun - Joel Hanley
So this "pairing" is going to be the odds & ends as our 3rd was never really hammered out and I'm not too sure where to start.
Polak: He opted out of the bubble on his last year with the Stars. He won't be coming back. I liked Polak last year and when he played this year but apparently he was quite disgruntled how the season played out. He sustained a broken sternum on the first game of the season against the Bruins. After his return, he never got to his full potential. Bowness decided to alternate Polak & Skera with who was playing each night.
Skera: Another "rebound year" coming off a horrendous ACL injury for a basement ($1.5M) contract. The 34 year old veteran was frequently the butt of jokes on the Dallas GDT's. And I am just as guilty as anybody. But since the Flames series, he has been doing so much better. There are still the chances to fumble in the defensive zone and to have a target-less pass in front of our own goalies. But here is the reality: Sekera has never had a firm defensive partner. He is currently playing with his third partner since the re-start! Finaly with Fedun he seems to be getting some kind of trust and chemistry going. Knowing how to read each other's minds is so important on defense and Sekera really hasn't gotten much of a chance to do that, whether it was filling in for Polak, sitting out or having an AHL'r come up for a night or anythign else that would come up. But in the past few series (Avs & Vegas) he has been much better. But if your offense is going to pressure anybody into a mistake, it'll be Sekera.
Joel Hanley - currently in the lineup with a non-roster minor league contract. Scored his first goal ever against y'all in game 1. He has more maturity than the other D's who came with the team to the bubble and is the latest one up.
Taylor Fedun - Can be opted as a forward in a pinch but has been Unfit to play for a while.
Stephen Johns - Oh where to begin. He was our Masterton trophy nominee. He came to Dallas in the trade that also brought Patrick Sharp from Chicago. According to Stars Legend, the trade was always about Johns. He was assigned to the AHL affiliate for development. Big and physical defensemen with an incredible slapshot. His last game before this year was in the 2017/18 season. He suffered from Post-traumatic headaches and depression. He has since spoken openly regarding his mental health and recovery. Unfortuantely he has remained unfit to play since August 11th when he played for 10 minutes against the Flames. I really hope Johns is okay. He seems like such a good guy and his dog is really adorable (he occasionally posts on instagram).
Other in the bubble:
Thomas Harley - or is it Harley Thomas? LOL. He was our first round draft choice this past year and was in the OHL all season. If anybody else goes down, he'll be the next one in. He's a playmaking blue liner.
Goaltending
1A: Ben Bishop - Used to play for you. NBC only seems to know how tall he is but because he has been unfit to play for the majority of the playoffs, I seem to have forgotten...was it 6'7'' or 7'6''? Not sure what is going on, but I have a feeling that he has had a back injury all year stemming from some stuff in the playoffs last year. I remember seeing him take an awkward fall while covering up and was really slow to get back up. But anyway, he has been unfit to play for a while. He came to the coaching staff and was like "im good coach, put me in" and then he let 4 goals go by him in the first period of the Avs game. No good.
1B: Anton Khudobin - Dobby. The Kazak Scorpion. The track suit wearing, crawfish eating, journeyman backup turned 1B goaltender. He is a delight of a human being. His instagram is great. This past season he posted a 16-8 record with a 2.22 GAA & .930 SV%. This year, Dobby is a free elf and gets to choose where he goes. I hope he chooses to stay at Hogwarts to work in the kitchens as a free elf. But either way, I will ALWAYS cheer for Dobby (fuck, I hope fate doesn't make me do this), even if he ends up on the Blues.
Backup - Jake Oettinger. He will be our guy in the future. He's 21, and has won a bunch of medals with USA in the world Juniors. He got his first NHL saves on September 8th against Vegas in relief.
Intangibles:
Goal song: Puck Off by Panera
Goal horn: Cool as fuck
Macot: Victor E Green - weird alien dude with a big belly. My seven year old daughter hates him.
Bolts & Stars connections: Not only Bowness, Bishop but also Dallas goaltending coach, Jeff Reese played in 19 games for y'all in 1995 posting a 7-7-1 record. After his retirement as a player, he joined the Tampa organization as a goalie coach during your Cup year in 2004!
TL;DR: We have two very different teams during a very different year. I am happy that we have this distraction. Finally, this post is intended to be about sportsmanship and shit like that. It's a game. We're fans. We cheer. We boo. We sulk. We chirp. And we both have fans that take it all a little too far. But at the end of the day, I hope we can have a good series and nobody hates each other afterwards. And most importantly nobody gets hurt. We've got a salt-free handshake thread over on our sub for post-series best wishes and congratulations and shit like that. Feel free to drop on by if you're in the mood.
Good luck Bolts Bros
Edit: holy smokes, thank you for the awards bros!!

Lately I've seen various news articles suggesting that the NBA may be interested in expanding and/or reducing team travel in upcoming seasons. I've developed a proposalto accomplish both goals while also creating more logical divisions and enhancing team rivalries, which a podcaster (I believe Chris Vernon?) recently suggested for building more excitement in the league.
To start, I would add two expansion teams to the NBA, bringing the total to 32 - the same number of teams as the NFL and conveniently divisible by 2, 4, 8, and 16 - so each conference could have 16 teams and each division could have 4 or 8 teams.
CBS Sports suggested four potential expansion cities - Seattle, Las Vegas, Kansas City, and Mexico City. Seattle is a no-brainer, as any NBA fan would like to see a return of the Supersonics, and the ongoing retrofit of the city's arena will make the logistics of a Sonics return much simpler. The CBS article notes that KC would be a relatively small market, while Mexico City would pose its own logistical challenges, so I think Vegas is the most likely spot for the NBA's 32nd team given its rapid growth, successful integration of the WNBA and NHL, and the sheer number of wealthy tourists passing through the city on a regular basis.
With Seattle and Las Vegas in the mix, I organized teams into pairs based on geography. I paired each team with a "geographic rival" to form the building blocks of new NBA divisions. Some of these were obvious. The teams sharing markets in LA and NYC should be in the same division, as should the NorCal and Florida teams.
Atlanta and Charlotte make sense as rivals due to their proximity, and their rebuilding situations could lead to an intriguing rivalry. Similarly, Denver and Utah are in similar places geographically and as second-tier contenders, and who wouldn't want to see Murray-Mitchell duels throughout the regular season?
The inclusion of Seattle and Vegas create obvious geographic rivals for Portland and Phoenix, respectively, setting up potential battles for the Pacific Northwest and Desert Southwest throughout the year. Thus far, the Western Conference would consist of LAC-LAL, GSW-SAC, DEN-UTA, SEA-POR, and LVG-PHO, accounting for 10 of the 16 eventual teams in the West. Looking at the remaining 7 current West teams reveals a more complicated geographic picture, so I'll explain my rationale for sorting them with the caveat that there are many paths forward from here.
First, as you may have guessed from the addition of two Western Conference teams, we will move Minnesota to the East and come back to them later. That leaves OKC, MEM, NOP, and the three Texas teams in the West. In my opinion, pairing New Orleans and Memphis makes a ton of sense, as they are relatively close to one another and already showcase a budding rivalry between the top two picks of the 2019 draft. OKC is much closer to Dallas than San Antonio or Houston, so I'd pair OKC-DAL and SAS-HOU to round out the Western Conference. Finally, as I had hoped to create 8-team divisions, we could sort the four California teams, Seattle, Portland, Vegas, and Phoenix into a new "Pacific" division, with the remaining three Texas teams, Utah, Denver, OKC, Memphis, and New Orleans sorted into a "Southwest" division.
Moving over to the Eastern Conference, the geographic rivalry situation becomes a bit more complicated. In addition to the aforementioned four Southeast teams, the conference includes seven teams clustered near the Great Lakes and five teams along the Northeast Corridor. While there are some teams in close proximity such as Milwaukee-Chicago, that pairing would leave Minnesota alone and forced to pair with a more distant team such as Indiana. Thus, I paired Minnesota with Milwaukee, Chicago with Indiana (reigniting the 90s rivalry), and Detroit with Cleveland (two teams in similar rebuilding situations).
Philadelphia may be closer to NYC, but as those two teams are already paired, I paired Philly with Washington. This leaves Boston and Toronto as the odd teams out, and although they would travel more than most other teams, I wouldn't mind seeing a few extra games each year between these two perennial contenders. Sorting the teams into 8-team divisions isn't very straightforward, but I placed Boston-Toronto in the Northeast division to join the Great Lakes teams (MIN-MIL, CHI-IND, DET-CLE). This would place the New York teams, the Florida teams, Philadelphia, Washington, Charlotte, and Atlanta in the Atlantic division.
Perhaps these divisions aren't totally logical, but I'm pretty sure they would minimize travel time. They could also be adjusted for other possible expansion teams in place of Las Vegas. For example, if Kansas City replaces Vegas, KC could replace Utah as Denver's geographic rival, while Utah could replace Vegas as Phoenix's rival. Similarly, if Mexico City replaces Vegas, Mexico City could replace Houston as San Antonio's rival, Dallas could replace San Antonio as Houston's rival, Denver could replace Dallas as OKC's rival, and Utah could once again replace Vegas as Phoenix's rival. Similar logic could smoothly incorporate other possible expansion cities such as San Diego, Louisville, Montreal, and Virginia Beach.
A 32-team league with geographic rivals could translate pretty clearly into a permanent 72-game schedule, which could also boost player health and enhance playoff game quality. Each team would play the other 31 teams twice, once at home and once away, for a total of 62 leaguewide games. Teams could then play each division rival one additional time (7 total games), with home/away/home splits swapped each year, and then could play their geographic rival 3 additional times for a total of 62+7+3=72 games.
I came up with this in my free time as a Google MyMaps exercise, so I'm really intrigued to hear feedback from those of you who think about the NBA more than me! Happy offseason folks!

The puck is hours away from dropping on the 2021 NHL season. It'll be a sprintto the playoffs as the 31 NHL teams are set to play 56 games over the course of the next 116 nights. The defending champion Lightning are expected to make a big run once again, with preseason odds billing them asthe top team in the new Central Division. They also hold the second-best odds to win the Cup. The No. 1 team? The Colorado Avalanche. Ledby captain Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and head coach Jared Bednar, the Avalanche are poised for big things in 2021. Below are the odds from FanDuel.NHL 2021 regular season oddsEASTDIVISION Team Odds 1. Boston Bruins +250 2. Philadelphia Flyers +450 3. Pittsburgh Penguins +450 4. Washington Capitals +550 5. New York Islanders +650 6. New York Rangers +700 7. Buffalo Sabres +1600 8. New Jersey Devils +2000 CENTRAL DIVISIONTeam Odds 1. Tampa Bay Lightning +140 2. Carolina Hurricanes +400 3. Dallas Stars +490 4. Columbus Blue Jackets +850 5. Nashville Predators +850 6. Florida Panthers +900 7. Chicago Blackhawks +1800 8. Detroit Red Wings +3700 NORTH DIVISIONTeam Odds 1. Toronto Maple Leafs +140 2. Edmonton Oilers +460 3. Montreal Canadiens +460 4. Calgary Flames +700 5. Vancouver Canucks +700 6. Winnipeg Jets +800 7. Ottawa Senators +4800 WEST DIVISIONTeam Odds 1. Colorado Avalanche +140 2. Vegas Golden Knights +175 3. St. Louis Blues +550 4. Arizona Coyotes +1400 5. Minnesota Wild +1400 6. Anaheim Ducks +1800 7. San Jose Sharks +2200 8. Los Angeles Kings +2400 2021 Stanley Cup odds, favoritesTeam Odds Colorado Avalanche +650 Tampa Bay Lightning +850 Vegas Golden Knights +850 Toronto Maple Leafs +1200 Boston Bruins +1400 Carolina Hurricanes +1700 Philadelphia Flyers +1700 Pittsburgh Penguins +2000 St. Louis Blues +2000 Dallas Stars +2200 Edmonton Oilers +2200 Washington Capitals +2200 Montreal Canadiens +2600 New York Rangers +2600 New York Islanders +2800 Calgary Flames +3200 Nashville Predators +3300 Columbus Blue Jackets +3500 Vancouver Canucks +4000 Florida Panthers +4800 Winnipeg Jets +4800 Arizona Coyotes +5000 Buffalo Sabres +5500 Minnesota Wild +5500 Chicago Blackhawks +6000 New Jersey Devils +6000 San Jose Sharks +6000 Anaheim Ducks +7000 Los Angeles Kings +7500 Ottawa Senators +10000 Detroit Red Wings +20000

With the negativity surrounding the VGK trade talks, I wanted to do something a little different... I thought it might be a good time to take a closer look at the trades that we made when moving players out of the organization. Who has moved, where were they moved, and did the Knights show care when chosing the destination? Here are most of the notable ones that I could remember:

Player: Tomas Tatar
Traded: to MTL
Result: Was benched most of the time he was with Vegas. Once arriving to MTL he slotted into their top line and has been a great player for the organization.

Player: Brad Hunt
Traded: to MIN
Result: Went back to Minnesota, where he went to college (Bemidji State) and had roots. Now playing regularly instead of riding the bench. Received a raise for the 19-20 season.

Player: Nikita Gusev
Traded: to NJD
Result: We burned his ELC so that he could play in the NHL sooner. Would have been a middle six player with us (odds are he would have been on our 3rd line), but we couldn't make his salary demands work. We traded him to a team that wanted him in their top 6, and was able to meet his salary. He is a star player on the Devils, one point behind their leading scorer in 19-20

Player: Cody Eakin
Traded: to WPG
Result: We arranged a trade that would send the player to play for his hometown team.

Player: Brandon Pirri
Traded: to CHI
Result: When the Knights moved the AHL team from Chicago to Las Vegas, they traded him to the Blackhawks as most of his family/friends are in the Chicago area. Since CHI is rebuilding, he might get minutes with the Hawks. If not, he will be playing in Rockford which is just outside the city. The trade was seen as an even trade, with some calling it a loss for Vegas.
Player: Paul Stastny
Traded: to WPG
Result: Sent back to the team that we acquired him from. He was a great fit with the team and has said that he really likes playing for the coach there. Has an elite level sniper than he can now dish to. Had great chemistry in their top 6.

Player: Oscar Lindberg
Traded: to OTT
Result: I would say this trade doesn't really have much upside for Lindberg. Part of that was that this wasn't a cap move, but part of a package to get Mark Stone. Sending anyone to OTT at that time would be seen as rough, but how do you not justify getting Stone?

Player: Erik Haula
Traded: to CAR
Result: Traded to a playoff team as part of a cap dump. This trade doesn't have quite the same player upside as the other players , but he was at least sent to a playoff team that could use his skills.

Player: Colin Miller
Traded: to BUF
Result: Was in and out of the lineup in Vegas. Traded to a less-than-desirable team at the time for picks. Probably the worst trade from the player perspective. The thinking might have been that Miller would get a chance higher in the lineup.

I would say that most of those trades made sure not to dump the player in a bad position. You could argue that the way the news was broken regarding the trades could have been better (especially for Lindberg and Haula), but overall, I think they do a good job with trading people to contenders or places where they have history. If there are any other notable trades that I missed, please let me know.

Do you agree that Vegas has tried to do the right thing with these trades, or do you think that little regard was paid to where the players landed?

You can never be too comfortable in any situation in the playoffs. So when you blow a winnable series in the third period, that never feels good. It feels even worse when that blown lead comes attached to a blown series lead, almost like an extra slap on the face as to the problems your team had holding leads in general.
So here goes. Welcome to a subset of the annals of heartbreak in NHL history. Note that I will only be including games where the said team that blew third-period lead ended up losing. And just as a heads up, no, BOS-PHI of 2010 is definitely not on this list because the Bruins already blew their 3-0 lead by the second. No questions about this one, please...
2020:

COL blows a 4-3 lead vs DAL (WCR2): you're not supposed to give the lead away just 10 seconds after taking it with 3:30 to play. Why am I getting flashbacks of 2014 with this game? Maybe because just like 2014, you blew a lead late in the game and you lost 5-4 in OT. Oh wait, didn't a similar thing happen in 2003 as well? Please, no...

2019:

WSH blows a 3-2 lead vs CAR (ECR1): technically, the Caps also blew a 3-1 lead, but CAR started chipping away in the second and completed it in the third. How does Carolina do this every damn year, pull a random playoff run out of their ass when they make the playoffs (mostly)? Take a 4-3 loss in 2OT and force your fans to try and relive 2018. And...you also blew 2-0 and 3-2 series leads.
VGK blows a 3-0 lead @ SJS (WCR1): you know it's bad when you one-up the Sharks in terms of choking. Never mind the major penalty controversy, how do you allow 4 goals on one 5-minute power-play? A late comeback was in vain as you lose 5-4 in OT. Welcome to real playoff hockey, Vegas. Not to mention you also blew a 3-1 series lead.

2018:

TOR blows a 4-3 lead @ BOS (ECR1): you really learned nothing from 2013. In almost the same scenario, just with a far less comfortable 4-3 lead, you also allow three third-period goals...plus an empty-netter for good measure for a 7-4 loss. Not sure this was the playoff consistency Toronto needed.

2014:

COL blows 3-2 and 4-3 leads vs MIN (WCR1): geez, were there really 4 years between instances like this? Well, your best season in a long time and the Avs just decided to chuck not 1 but two leads away. I can forgive the first, but the second with just 2:27 left in regulation? Not sure that one will be as easy to do. Have a 5-4 OT loss.
CHI blows a 4-3 lead vs LAK (WCF): all that offense you had in the first could've really helped you out here, Chicago. Let's not forget you also chucked your early 2-0 lead out the window as well. Who knows what would've happened if you advanced, but you may have cost yourself another Cup. Enjoy a 5-4 OT loss. You have enough Cup wins already.

2013:

TOR blows a 4-1 lead @ BOS (ECR1): this one seems to be everyone's favorite when dishing on the Leafs. Not only do you blow a 4-1 lead, but you blow a 4-2 lead with under 2 minutes to play. You were supposed to celebrate your first playoff appearance in almost a decade with something glorious, not a 5-4 OT nutshot.

2009:

NJD blows a 3-2 lead vs CAR (ECR1): does Martin Brodeur see the Hurricanes in his nightmares? An OT loss in Game 2, a buzzer-beater conceded to lose Game 4, and to cap it off, with the series win on your hands, coughing up 2 goals in the final 1:20 of the game to choke it away, losing 4-3. Yikes. Did I mention New Jersey also blew a 3-2 series lead? Feels oddly prophetic...

2006:

BUF blows a 2-1 lead @ CAR (ECF): this is one of the many reasons why Sabres fans will never get good things. The offense finally caught fire at the end of the second but it was more a flash in the pan as they went silent after the third and Ryan Miller could no longer withstand Carolina in the net. Geez, Buffalo, you're the worst when it comes to Game 7's (better than Ottawa at least?). Enjoy watching Carolina get their first Cup before you did.

2003:

COL blows a 2-1 lead vs MIN (WCR1): Joe Sakic was your third-period hero again, but you proceed to get sent to the penalty box almost immediately after and give up the tying goal just 2:17 later. And you lose 3-2 in OT. Well, way to give Roy the retirement of a lifetime...by losing to a team that had never even made the playoffs before...via the blown 3-1 series lead...on your home ice.
VAN blows a 2-1 lead vs MIN (WCR2): you learned nothing from Colorado's failure and do almost the exact same thing they did? Blow a 3-1 series lead, blow a 2-1 lead in the third period. At least you didn't lose 3-2 in OT...you lost 4-2 in regulation. Way to completely prolapse in net again, Cloutier. Not that his offense did much to help him out anyways...

2001:

BUF blows a 2-1 lead vs PIT (ECR2): don't forget they also blew a 1-0 lead earlier. You'd think that blowing a chance at winning the series the previous game with 1:18 left would've taught Buffalo something about holding leads. Nope, take a 3-2 punch in OT. And more Game 7 heartbreak. Geez, even Buffalo knew Hasek needed a more competitive team than theirs...

1997:

OTT blows a 2-1 lead @ BUF (ECR1): if you lose to Buffalo in a Game 7, you deserve to have a grand total of zero Game 7 wins up to this day. Yes, Buffalo was a higher seed. Yes, this was your first foray into playoff hockey. But yes, you also need to do a better job holding not just game leads but also series leads. You know, like that 3-2 series lead you had earlier? Way to give Buffalo their only Game 7 win up to this day in a 3-2 OT loss.

1994:

CGY blows a 3-2 lead vs VAN (WCR1): welcome to another example of first-round failure in Calgary. A lead with under 4 minutes remaining! And...you give up the tying goal and get your ass kicked out of the playoffs in 2OT. Add a blown 3-1 series lead to that. And against the Canucks. Aren't you supposed to be beating this team in the playoffs on a regular basis?

1993:

DET blows a 3-2 lead vs TOR (PWR1): so now we're making Toronto look clutch? You have the lead and another surefire series win against this team...which you proceed to blow with under 3 minutes to play. You cap it off by losing 4-3 in OT. Maybe also don't blow an early 2-0 series lead next time. Might've saved you from a Game 7 in the first place, who knows?

1987:

WAS blows a 2-1 lead vs NYI (PWR1): seriously, a 6-year gap? With under 7 minutes to play, the Caps, instead of finally beating those Isles, blow the lead and begin to solidify their legacy as chokers by giving up Pat LaFontaine's legendary goal in 4OT to lose 3-2. And you also blew a 1-0 lead earlier. And you blew a 3-1 series lead. Geez, if it weren't for 2018, I don't know how much more choking you could add to your legacy.

1985:

BUF blows a 5-3 lead @ QUE (PWR1): oh, these damned 5-game series make another return. How do you complete a comeback from 2-0 down in the series? By not blowing a 2-goal lead past the halfway point of the third to the Nordiques. Geez, and to think that Barrasso, the offending goalie, would go on to win 2 Cups with Pittsburgh? Buffalo is truly cursed...

1984:

STL blows a 3-2 lead @ MNS (CCR2): before 2019, these were the playoff performances that we tended to associate with the Blues. So you scored a shortie to take the lead but promptly give it back just 15 seconds later? It would be surprising...if it weren't the Blues. Naturally, they'd lose 4-3 in OT. The expanded league definitely wasn't helpful in making a return to their first Cup Finals since 1970.

1982:

PIT blows a 3-1 lead @ NYI (PWR1): the Pens are back from the dead having come back from a 2-0 series deficit. They can finally end this evil empire building on Long Island...or you can turn into complete shit with under 6 minutes to play and squander all of your hard work. Fittingly, the Pens lost 4-3 in OT. With all the failure Pittsburgh has had against the Isles in the playoffs over the years, at least they got one series win over them in 2013.

1979:

BUF blows a 3-2 lead vs PIT (PR): remember when there were 3-game series in the NHL? Doesn't matter if they were 7, 5, or 3 games series, Buffalo always seemed to find ways to break their fan's hearts. Here, have another blown lead to Pittsburgh in the third and lose 4-3 in OT. Did you forget that the preliminary round only goes 3 games? You'd think that if the 2001 Sabres remembered this series they just might've not done almost the exact same thing.
BOS blows 3-1 and 4-3 leads @ MTL (SF): if you want to know why Boston was just never able to beat Montreal for the longest time in the playoffs, look no further than this series. This should've been Boston's year, but they completely tripped over themselves for the third and blew their 2-goal lead. Even after Middleton stepped up with under 4 minutes to play to get the Bruins a surefire lead, they still found a way to blow it and lose 5-4 in OT. How do you drop 18 straight playoff series vs your most hated rivals. EIGHTEEN?

1968:

MNS blows a 1-0 lead @ STL (SF): wow, a time machine all the way back to the very first year of expansion hockey. So the North Stars scored the only game of the goal thus far with just 3:11 left to play. Why, Maniago, did you have to choose now to let in a goal and allow the Blues to tie the game just 31 seconds later? Well, enjoy that 2-1 OT loss and a huge blown opportunity at making the Cup Finals in your first season. Now you have to watch the Blues get killed by Montreal.

1959:

BOS blows a 2-1 lead vs TOR (SF): can you believe that this is the last time the Leafs beat the Bruins in a playoff series? Ever wonder why the Bruins were playoff failure in the Original Six era? Look no further than this series. It's not the most comfortable of leads but it's still worth defending...and you blow it and allow the GWG with under 3 minutes to play to lose 3-2. And then you choose to go on an 8-season hiatus from the playoffs. This is how you reward your fans, Boston? At least you weren't as bad as a certain team in New York in the Original Six era...

1945:

BOS blows a 3-2 lead vs DET (SF): so back to the 40s and the early years of Original Six hockey, huh? Yup, 14 years earlier, Boston blew another third-period lead in a seventh game. Really now, after all that nice offense, you just chose to give up, sit back, and hope Paul Bibeault carries you to victory in the net? Turns out he might've been a bit worn out. Carl Liscombe just laughs to the tone of a 4-goal performance. You lose 5-3.

1942:

DET blows a 1-0 lead @ TOR (SCF): well Detroit, way to become the OG of colossal playoff failure by becoming the first team to not only blow a 3-0 series lead but the only team to have done so in the Cup Finals. Just when you thought you found some semblance of offense again, Johnny Mowers fails you in net and you drop a 3-1 decision to fall from a near certain Cup to meme status. And then a few years later you'd fall painfully short of pulling off a 3-0 comeback against Toronto. What did you do to the Leafs to make them want to screw you over so much?

1939:

DET blows a 3-2 lead @ TOR (SF): really, the Wings make another appearance against Toronto? A bad third-period stretch will do that to you. But hey, at least you were able to tie the game...only to wind up losing 5-4 in OT anyways. Well, I mean, at least the Leafs didn't win the Cup this year? Still, I'm pretty sure this wasn't the way you wanted to return to the playoffs...

1938:

NYR blows a 2-0 lead vs NYA (QF): oh goodness, 3-game series again. So these scrub Americans are getting it handed to them like teams normally did in the regular season. I mean, 1-goal leads aren't that bad, but c'mon, a 2-goal lead should be a lot easier to defend, right? Well, I guess the Rangers forgot that geographical rivalries exist for a reason and they proceed to blow the game 3-2 in OT. Dave Kerr just cries in net as he picks the worst possible moment to lose a shutout bid.
MTL blows a 2-1 lead vs CHI (QF): so series like these are why the Canadiens had such a "painful" 13-year Cup drought from 1931-1944. But really, after taking the lead past the midway point of the third, you choose to give it all up with 1:26 left in the game? It was only fitting that Montreal lost 3-2 in OT. In cruel fashion, the Hawks went on to win the Cup.

1934:

NYR blows a 1-goal advantage vs MTM (QF): since when did the NHL play like soccefootball? It's a scoreless series and the Rangers take a nice 1-0 lead against the Maroons. Turns out Andy Aikenhead was just waiting until 3:24 was left in the game before he gave that goal back. By rule, instead of the Rangers winning, they now had to go into a tiebreaking OT, where they promptly lost. Well, way to try and go for the series shutout, Aikenhead.

1932:

MTM blows a 1-goal advantage @ TOR (SF): wow, goal aggregate again? I guess this format must've confused even the NHL players themselves because it looked like the Maroons forgot to defend that 2-1 lead they took in the third. Well way to squander your best shot at a return to the Cup Finals since 1928. At least unlike many other now-defunct teams, you walked away with a couple Cups before dying in 1938...

Hey everyone. Like most here I am a new NHL fan and I've been following the Stanley Cup Qualifiers very closely. I even subscribed to NHLtv and have watched parts of every game, and plenty of full games as well. It's been exciting, but something is bothering me.
As a Kraken fan I care about how good the competition is within our division (Pacific for those that are new) and, to a lesser extent, our conference (Western). Just a quick recap of the basics for those that haven't looked into it too much.

Pacific Division
There are two divisions in the Western Conference. The Central and the Pacific (where the Kraken will play). Within the Pacific we will play each team 4 or 5 times, and where we place among them is what determines if we will go to the Stanley Cup playoffs in a normal season.
The teams in our division are:

Vegas Golden Knights (Currently competing to be the #1 seed in the Western Conference for 2019-2020 Stanley Cup tournament). The game that will determine this is on right now as of this writing.
Edmonton Oilers (we will get back to them, but they were a #5 seed and were knocked out by the #12 Chicago Blackhawks)
Calgary Flames (#8 seed who beat Winnepeg in 4 games and will proceed to the tournament)
Vancouver Canucks (F*** these stupid whales who were #7 and beat Minnesota in 4 to proceed to the tournament)
Arizona Coyotes (Who are moving out of our division to the Central to make room for the Kraken but beat Nashville in 4 to proceed to the tournament as an #11 seed).
Anaheim Ducks (who are rebuilding and were not invited to the qualifiers)
L.A. Kings (also rebuilding, also were not invited)
San Jose Sharks (who some think underperformed and will be better next season)

The Kraken, as noted above, will replace Arizona in this division starting in 2021.

The Normal Draft Lottery
In the NHL there is a draft lottery. In a normal season 16 teams will make it to the playoffs and the 15 that do not (16 once we enter the league) will be in the lottery. The lottery is only to determine the first 3 picks of the draft. It works like this normally:
The worst team in the league based on record (Detroit this year) has the highest odds of drawing the #1 pick. Because if there wasn't a lottery they would normally get the #1 pick. The odds are exceptionally-low, but they could be moved BACK as far as #4 with the lottery. Because any of the bottom 15 teams can draw into spots 1-3. Here are the normal odds of getting the #1 overall pick for each of the bottom 15 teams from 2019. This is based on their pre-lottery position.

18.5 percent
13.5 percent
11.5 percent
9.5 percent
8.5 percent
7.5 percent
6.5 percent
6.0 percent
5.0 percent
3.5 percent
3.0 percent
2.5 percent
2.0 percent
1.5 percent
1.0 percent

The 2020 COVID-edition Lottery
This year the 2019-2020 season got cut short because of the pandemic. But the NHL season "restarted" this past week with the new "Stanley Cup Qualifiers." It's essentially a playoff to get into the playoffs. All but the bottom 3 teams (all from California) were invited from our conference. Each team was seeded based on their season record when play stopped in March.
As mentioned earlier, normally only 16 teams make the playoffs but 24 teams were in this new tournament starting with an elimination round best-of-5 series between a bunch of teams (again, see above).
Because there wasn't a normal "bottom 15" for the lottery, the NHL did something out-of-the-ordinary this year.
They did a draft lotto before this tournament started. 7 total teams were not in this playoff and made up the bottom 7 teams (with Detroit having the best odds of #1 overall). The other 8 teams would come from the 8 teams knocked out of this Qualifier tournament that has been played this week.
To simulate this, the NHL had placeholder spots for Qualifier teams at lotto odds numbers 8-15 from above). Let's tune in and see how that went, shall we?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh4o-HddIj8
As you can see, one of those 8 teams ended up with the #1 overall pick. Much love to the Senators who had the absolutely stacked odds to get #1 overall and got 3 and 5.
So now the NHL has to have a SECOND lottery (scheduled for this Monday 8/10) of just the 8 teams that were knocked out of the Qualifiers to see who gets #1 overall and how the other 7 will fill in 9-15.

Why is that a problem?
Well, the short answer is it might not be. But given we don't have a team yet it's something fun to talk about while we wait to start. First, let's look at who got knocked out.

Oilers (the topic of this thread and I promise we'll get to them) [Western #5 Seed]. Regular season record of 37-25-9.
Penguins [Eastern #5 Seed]. 40-23-6
Predators [Western #6 Seed]. 35-26-8
Rangers [Eastern #11 Seed]. 37-28-5
Wild [Western #10 Seed]. 35-27-7
Panthers [Eastern #10 Seed]. 35-26-8
Jets [Western #9 Seed]. 37-28-6
The loser of Maple Leafs vs. Blue Jackets [Eastern #8 vs #9]

Some of these teams have very good records, very good teams, and normally wouldn't have a shot at the #1 overall pick. See Edmonton and Pittsburgh as prime examples. We were most of the way through the season before the pause, and these would have been playoff teams. They would not have been in the bottom 15. But due to this odd tournament format they couldn't put it together for a series and now have lower draft placement than would normally be possible.
What's more, all 8 of these teams have an EVEN chance to get the #1 overall pick. The second lottery doesn't have stacked odds like the first. All 8 teams have a 12.5% chance of the #1 overall pick (which, as stated above, was already designated for a TBD team from this pool).
Here's a deeper dive into the 12.5% problem: https://thehockeywriters.com/2020-nhl-draft-lottery-round-2-explained/

Ok, so who cares? What does it mean for the Kraken?
The right question is to ask what it means for the Kraken's division. If you look back at the first section you can see that the only team in our division that got knocked out of the first round was Edmonton. LA is getting #2 overall and Anaheim is getting #6 overall. San Jose had already traded their pick to Ottawa, so they don't pick in the top 8 this year despite their record.
That means Edmonton has a 12.5% chance at the #1 overall pick. As a reminder, we play them 4-5 times a year and they matter more than a non-divisional opponent when it comes to determining playoff eligibility going forward.
Why am I picking on Edmonton? Because they already have the hockey equivalent of Mike Trout who is only 23 years old and some say is the most realistic player to someday challenge Gretzky as The Great One. His name is Connor McDavid. https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/m/mcdavco01.html
So the issue is that Edmonton already has a great team overall, the absolute best player in the world, and a shot at picking up the best player in this draft, who many say is this guy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Lafreni%C3%A8re
The Kraken will play these guys a lot for the forseeable future, their team is young, good, and could get really stacked.

Discuss.

Edit: Since writing this Vegas did beat Colorado and got the #1 overall seed in the West. They will take on Chicago in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs starting next week.

Edit 2: Here's the information about Lottery 2, which will take place Monday 8/10 at 3pm PDT. https://www.nhl.com/news/2020-nhl-draft-no-1-pick-to-be-awarded-in-second-phase/c-318343480

Edit 3: Crisis averted. The lottery just took place and the New York Rangers got the #1 overall pick.

So with our elimination as of last night, I've decided to go through our goalie situation for next season, show some options and also go over a few other things.

Blackhawks Goalies for 20-21:

Signed:

Collin Delia: 16GS 57GA 3.6GAA .906SV% in the NHL. 81GA 2.66GAA .912SV% with the Rockford Icehogs(AHL)

Delia is looking to be our backup for next year, no matter if we re-sign Crawford or pursue a new goalie. His NHL stats aren't too bad, in his 16 starts, he struggled a bit, but it was to be expected of a rookie goaltender. Overall, I firmly believe Delia is our backup next year.

Kevin Lankinen: No NHL Stats. 60GA 3.03GAA .909SV% with the Rockford Icehogs(AHL). Lankinen was slightly worse than Delia this year, but he got injured right before the season shutdown as well. I don't think Lankinen is our backup next year, but he will be the starter for Rockford, they've been juggling 3 goalies for 2 seasons and I don't imagine they want to continue this logjam for long.
Matt Tomkins No NHL Stats. 40GA, 3.12GAA .896SV% with the Rockford Icehogs(AHL). Tomkins is a third stringer, he won't see action for the Hawks, unless hell freezes over or we run out of goalies.

Note: Our ECHL Goalies(Williams, Makala, Marchand) are not under contract to the Blackhawks, they are under ECHL deals.

Unsigned:

Corey Crawford 108GA 2.77GAA .917SV%, you know and love him, it's Crow. He's hot off a pretty decent playoff run, sure we didn't get past the 1st Round, but Crawford was out there trying to give us a chance every game. I think there is a decent possibility we re-sign Crawford for a short-term deal that's much cheaper and start planning for the future, possibly seeing how Delia or Lankinen would do in a 1B Position.

Malcolm Subban 3.18GAA 60GA .890SV%(No games played in a Hawks uniform), Subban is..not our goalie of the future. He was brought in simply because Vegas needed to get rid of him, so they could get Lehner(who we retained salary on). He had one good season and that was the first Vegas season, when they were crazy good. We'll probably end up dealing him at the draft for a 6th or 7th at best, or just a minor leaguer.
Prospects

Keep in mind none of them are signed and only Gravel has any shot(imo) of being signed.

Alexis Gravel 3.96GAA .883SV% in 40 GP for the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL. The Q isn't exactly full of the greatest goaltending, but his stats don't look like anything great, he definitely is headed to Indy in another season or two, if we sign him. We let his rights expire.
~~Wouter Peeters 3.13GAA .901SV% in 17 games for the Guildford Flames of the EIHL, Peeters is a bust, simply put. Couldn't make it in the USHL and couldn't make it anywhere else.~~ Rights expired.
Ivan Nalimov 2.50GAA .911 in 24 games, with HK Sochi of the KHL. Nalimov is never coming over, but the Hawks don't really want him either. He's had very few starts, so it's hard to judge him as a goaltender. Rights expired.
Dominic Basse 3.48GAA .887SV% in 37 games, for the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL.

Draft Eligible Goaltenders

According to NHL Central Scouting, the top goaltender prospect this year looks to be Iaroslav Askarov of SKA-Neva in the VHL. I'll skip the stat lines here and just give the highlight reel. Askarov looks like he could be a pretty good goaltender, with some development. He is definitely someone the Hawks should draft if possible, because he has the potential to be what they need.

I won't go into the full list, but check it out. NHL Top 10 Draft Eligible Goalies.

Goalies Entering Free Agency

On the chance that Crawford retires or leaves, here is a small list of goalies who will be entering free agency:

Braden Holtby, current cap hit of $6.1 Million, currently with the Washington Capitals. Holtby's spot as the starter was taken this year, by Ilya Samsonov and he may be ready to move on to a team willing to pay. My thought is he takes a one-year deal and goes to Seattle, to make big money. In essence he could perhaps take a slight pay cut this year, in exchange for bigger money by Seattle. Now will he? I don't know. There's a flat cap and Florida already paid Bobrovsky everything they had, who is willing to pay him big money right now?
Robin Lehner, current cap hit of $5 Million, currently with the Vegas Golden Knights. Negotiations for Lehner to come back to the Hawks have happened. They want two years, he wants three, that seemed to be the sticking point. Keeping in mind these talks most likely happened before the Return to Play, so who knows if anything has changed. Two or Three years would be perfect, gives the Hawks time to hopefully bring up a prospect as backup.
Jacob Markstrom, current cap hit of $3.67 Million, currently with the Vancouver Canucks. Hard to say if Markstrom leaves Vancouver, but I'm not so sure. He's still one of their better goalies and he's made it clear he wants to stay. I don't think they bring up DiPietro for a little while longer. Most likely he'll get a contract around $5 Million, to stay in Vancouver for an unknown amount of time.
Anton Khudobin, current cap hit of $2.5 Million, currently with the Dallas Stars. There is little chance Khudobin leaves Dallas, he is currently their backup, but he's been excellent for them.
Thomas Greiss, current cap hit of $3.3 Million, currently with the New York Islanders. Greiss will be a free agent this offseason, as the Islanders have gotten their prized goaltender prospect, Ilya Sorokin under contract, so Griess is the odd man out. This would be a chance for the Hawks to bring Delia or Lankinen into the backup role
Crawford will be a free agent, whether or not he retires(Concussion History and age) is up in the air. If we decide to not re-sign him and he doesn't retire, Buffalo, San Jose, Detroit could all be looking for a cheap goaltender for a few seasons. If he does re-sign, I predict it'll be much cheaper and shorter. He's not commanding $6 Million anymore, he's still good, but he's much older and the shelf life of goaltenders is so short.

The 3 that picked Dallas were:
Bill Price, Editor-in-Chief at NHL.com
David Satriano, staff writer at NHL.com
Steve Dangle at Sportsnet
16 picks from NHL.com
1 from Wyshnyski at ESPN
5 picks from NBCSN
1 pick from BR
1 from Sportsnet
It should also be noted that vegasinsider.com has VGK as a slight favorite advance to the SCF, while moneypuck.com has Dallas as a slight favorite to win the series, but these are live odds after the Stars won game 1 (9/7 ~12:00).

Edit: To clarify, the purpose of this post is to list players that other teams might want to offload to Seattle. Seattle in most cases would be able to get additional draft picks in exchange for taking the contract. Vegas did this in 2017 to great results as explained in my Eastern Conference post beelow.
Eastern Conference here.
Player name (age, position, years left x AAV Cap Hit in millions)

Central Division

Chicago

Brent Seabrook (36, D, 3 x $6.875) This is one of the worst contracts in the NHL because Seabrook has regressed hard from his dominant years when the Hawks were winning Cups. His contract really hampers Chicago's ability to improve their roster in the final years of Towes and Kane. Because of the money and term, this is a contract I'd be really nervous about Seattle taking but it's something Chicago would love to move out if possible.

Colorado

Erik Johnson (D, 33, 2 x $6)
Johnson is a solid player but is overpaid at $6 million. Both Cale Makar and Gaberiel Landeskog will need new contracts for 21-22 and won't come cheap. Colorado's blueline is set for the future between Makar, Girad, Zadorov, and prospect Bowen Byram so if they need to cut money somewhere then Johnson is a probable target.

Dallas

Joe Pavelski (37, RW/C, 1 x $7)
If the Stars are still contenting in 21-22 then this deal makes sense. Stud defenseman Miro Heiskanen will be exiting his ELC that summer and moving Pavelski out would cover most of Heiskanen's cost.

Nashville

Kyle Turris (31, D, 3 x $6)
Turris has under performed since coming to Nashville from Ottawa in the infamous 3-way trade that sent Duschene from Colorado to Ottawa in return for the Avs getting Ottawa's 1st round pick (Bowen Byram) and Nashville D prospect Samuel Girard. Turris is the only plausible cap dump on the Preds roster as everyone else with a large contract is signed for many more years.

Pacific Division

Anaheim

Ryan Kesler (36, C/RW, 1 x $6.875)
Kesler has probably played his last NHL game after undergoing season-ending hip surgery last year. The Ducks may or may not be back to contending for the playoffs depending on how their young players like Max Jones and Sam Steel turn out. Both Getzlaf's and Backes' contracts expire ahead of 21-22 so that might be enough cap relief to cover anything the Ducks want to do.

Calgary

Milan Lucic (33, LW, 2 x $5.25)
The Oilers signed Lucic to this contract for depth scoring but Lucic's offense has fallen off a cliff in recent years even after a trade to the Flames. The Flames are still in the prime of Gaudreau and just entering the prime of Matthew Tkachuck so they could use that money to improve their roster.

Edmonton

James Neal (33, RW/LW, 2 x $5.75)
The other half in the Flames-Oilers Lucic-Neal trade, Neal has bounced around the league but found success with Vegas in their expansion year. Maybe he can bring some of that Vegas mojo to Seattle?

Los Angeles

Dustin Brown (36, RW/LW, 1 x $5.875) or Jeff Carter (C, C/RW, 1 x $5.27)
Both Brown and Carter are in similar situations on a Kings team going through a rebuild. The Kings already have a deep prospect pool that's starting to take roster spots and has the #2 overall pick in the 2020 draft to add to it. The other salary dump option in Goalie Jonathan Quick but he has 2 years left so the forwards are more movable with 1 year left each.

Vancouver

Loui Eriksson (36, LW/RW, 1 x $6)
Vancouver is going to be in a massive cap crunch for 21-22 with potential franchise cornerstones Center Elias Pettersson and Defenseman Quinn Hughes both exiting their ELCs that season. Eriksson is commonly mentioned by Canucks fans as the most likely to go to solve it. The question is whether the Kraken will want to help their rivals out of the bind.

Vegas

Marc-Andre Fleury (36, G, 1 x $7)
This is a reach but hear me out. Fluery struggled this season and the Golden Knights picked up Lehner to give them a 1A-1B tandem heading into the playoffs. None of their skater contracts are obvious salary dumps. So Fluery might be the odd man out if he's no longer able to perform at a starter level after next season and the Knights need to find money from somewhere to pay a replacement.
Rules used:

The target team must believe they are or can be a playoff contender in next season, and therefore want to use the cap space they get to improve or re-sign existing core players
There is fan/media/owner pressure to improve quickly which puts pressure on making moves in free agency which you need cap space to do.
Longer contract term = higher value and higher risk. The worse the contract is, the more value Seattle can get from the team but the more risk to our own plans it is in the coming years.
1-2 years is ideal, 3-4 only if the player is good, the return is really good, or they are young/good/cheap enough to not be a problem
Players on long term injured reserve not expected to play again are especially likely to be traded
Only looking at contracts already signed.
Trades can involve the Kraken sending assets back when the player is actually good but just too expensive for the other team to afford keeping.

Welcome back to another edition of objective NHL power rankings! I’m sure many of you are looking to win bragging rights among your friends for being able to predict the outcomes of the play-in matchups, and I am here to help! (Spoiler: Always pick "in 4")
The original version of this was inspired by a ranking who was clearly not taking this season’s results into account back in November, and I continue to protest that notion by only looking at (regulation) results! Again, this is done by calculating an Elo score for each team from their results. I'm not assigning any numbers myself.
Keep in mind that these will be fairly different from the standings for some teams because I am only using regulation results, and because the strength of an opponent is taken to be their score at the time the game was played, so if two teams played each other 5 times and one team lost 5 in a row then won the next 5, the team winning the more recent games will be viewed as slightly stronger.
I have taken into account some of your comments, such as the one guy who suggested I do this again.
This will be ordered by eliminated teams first, then play-in teams, then bye teams, but generally increasing in power ranking.
Let’s begin!

Teams Eliminated from Playoff Contention

31. Detroit Red Wings 805 (Prev: 29, 938)
30. Ottawa Senators 889 (Prev: 28, 944)
28. Buffalo Sabres 907 (Prev: 26, 964)
Ok, so we’re missing #29 because a single team with a lower score than the Sabres made the play-in matchups. Perhaps you can be a little angry.
27. San Jose Sharks 921 (Prev: 27, 961)
Hey, I got one right!
25. Anaheim Ducks 954 (Prev: 24, 970)
16. New Jersey Devils 1014 (Prev: 23, 973)
They went 6-2-2 in their last 10 in regulation, with wins against the Capitals and the Blues and their losses coming against the Penguins and the VGKs. I’m going to score my early-season prediction of “You guys will be scary next year” as correct and clarify that I was referring to the calendar year, obviously.
10. Los Angeles Kings 1027 (Prev: 31, 883)
Look, I know this looks weird. No, I didn’t double-check the spreadsheet. But I did check it once and they had 5 wins and 2 draws to finish the season after losing to the Oilers on Feb 23rd.
If I were to compare my early-season predictions against someone else’s it would probably be best to use draft (pre-lottery) order rather than my end-of-season rankings, and let me assure you I was thinking that before I saw this.

Play-in Matchups: Sorted by Lowest Ranked High-Seed

20. Pittsburgh Penguins 971 (Prev: 14, 1013)
29. Montreal Canadiens 897 (Prev: 5, 1040)
Sabres fans can be mad now about not being allowed in. Two of the worst teams in the bracket going at it, we can probably expect to see some exciting, if sloppy, games. Montreal has fallen on hard times as the season has progressed from their great start, so maybe we can expect to learn some French curse words.
Pittsburgh wins 69% of the time (bien).

15. Toronto Maple Leafs 1015 (Prev: 17, 990)
14. Columbus Blue Jackets 1019 (Prev: 30, 933)
This is going to be exciting hockey. Maybe it won’t be the matchup it could have been on February 1st, when Columbus would have topped these power rankings, or January 1st when the Leafs were 4th, but if both teams return to mid-season form this should be a great matchup.
51% Columbus wins.

13. Florida Panthers 1021 (Prev: 9, 1027)
26. New York Islanders 941 (Prev: 1, 1108)
Two teams that peaked at very different points in the year, with New York being a top team from November and Florida being top 3 in February. Neither of them were close to their peak when the season ended, so this gives them a chance to try and figure out where they went wrong.
Florida wins 71% of the time.

12. New York Rangers 1025 (Prev: 8, 1028)
18. Carolina Hurricanes 1004 (Prev: 21, 975)
I know what you’re about to say: “I know we’re not a good hockey team but 18 is a joke. We’re even behind New Jersey who we beat 5-2 near the end of the season”. I don’t care.
New York wins, they sweep 15% of the time.

11. Nashville Predators 1026 (Prev: 12, 1019)
23. Arizona Coyotes 966 (Prev: 18, 988)
Two teams that have stayed around the same for most of the season. I guess the real story here is that the Tuscon Roadrunners are absolutely tearing up the Pacific division of the AHL, 28-19 in regulation and looking good while doing it. Between that and their first-overall pick, Arizona probably can’t be too upset about losing this series.
Nashville takes it, 66% odds.

9. Edmonton Oilers 1037 (Prev: 6, 1035)
22. Chicago Blackhawks 968 (Prev: 20, 976)
Very similar matchup to the last one. There’s a lot of people thinking that Chicago has some kind of special power, but I think Edmonton has something they don’t know about: The Talus Balls.
For those of you who don’t know, the Talus Balls were a statue commissioned by the Edmonton City Council at what many considered to be an exorbitant price. But I think we got a deal, because I think that one person associated with the city council knew that the Talus Balls were actually an ancient artifact of eldritch power. Consider their weird geometry and unnatural look. Do you think it’s a coincidence that they seem to move whenever you get close to them? It’s because your mind can’t process what’s actually happening, so it tries its best to approximate it without making you freak out. I’ve heard whispers among people who spend a lot of time in the river valley that they “just happened” to make a joke of paying homage to the Talus Balls when they pass them, but I don’t think it's a coincidence. I think these people are tapping into powers they cannot comprehend, for reasons they are not ready to delve into with their minds. I’ve done a bit of research into the lore of these artifacts, and I think the Talus balls were put here so they can protect this city from disaster, and give strength to its inhabitants. So say a prayer to the Talus Balls for the Oilers as you pass them, in addition to one for the city and one for yourself. From what I’ve read they probably do not grant great amounts of power, but have a near-limitless reserve of small favours, so I think this will not disturb any plans that City Council has set in motion with this artifact. (For the time being, please don't actually touch the Talus Balls.)
Anyway, Edmonton wins 68% of the time.

8. Minnesota Wild 1040 (Prev: 25, 967)
24. Vancouver Canucks 961 (Prev: 16, 990)
Minnesota improved a lot over the season while Vancouver peaked hard in February then slid back in the rankings. They’ve shown potential though, so I don’t think Minnesota can rest too easily.
Minnesota wins in 70% of my simulations.

5. Winnipeg Jets 1070 (Prev: 22, 974)
17. Calgary Flames 1011 (Prev: 15, 1002)
By at least one metric, the Jets deserve better than to have to deal with play-in games. But even so, the Flames won’t be a pushover. They’re the strongest of the low seeds outside of the Toronto-Columbus matchup, so this should be quality hockey.
Jets win, 65% of the time.

Non-Play-in Teams

21. Dallas Stars 970 (Prev: 1028)
2 games above .500 in regulation over the entire season, and they’re the ones getting a bye.
19. Washington Capitals 1003 (Prev: 2, 1101)
They were high, but going barely above .500 in regulation since New Years has dragged them down a fair bit. Fortunately for them they were unstoppable early in the season so they get a couple extra warm-up games here.
7. St. Louis Blues 1058 (Prev: 4, 1046)
6. Tampa Bay Lightning 1058 (Prev: 11, 1021)
4. Colorado Avalanche 1078 (Prev: 10,1025)
3. Vegas Golden Knights 1082 (Prev: 19, 981)
Turns out these guys are pretty good.
2. Boston Bruins 1124 (Prev: 3, 1086)
1. Philadelphia Flyers 1137 (Prev: 15, 1015)
Last time people thought I was generous at 15th! Take the top spot, you’ve earned it!

Hi, I'm going to use this post to combine a bunch of information that fans new to the hockey and/or the NHL may find useful for getting into the game.
More detailed info on the /hockey (main hockey fan subreddit) wiki: https://www.reddit.com//hockey/wiki/getting_into_hockey
CapFriendly.com is the best website to use for looking at teams' salary situation and has tons of other great info and tools including an expansion draft tool! Bookmark it because it's your best resource when trying to figure out who is on what team and who could be trade or expansion draft targets for Seattle. This is Seattle's CapFriendly page. They also have an expansion draft simulator.

How to Watch Hockey Now

The NHL is returning to play NEXT WEEK with a revamped Stanley Cup Playoffs format.
In the US, national games are televised on NBC, NBC Sports Network, USA network (playoffs only), and NHL Network. Almost every playoff game will be on one of those channels with most being on the NBC ones.
The NHL does have a streaming service, NHL.TV, but it's not a replacement for cable - it exists to let you watch games that otherwise are not on TV. But it does let you rewatch in full all games after they finish. The cost is ~$150 for a full season but there is a $5 deal for the playoffs for those interested. Again, mostly this will be useful if you want to re-watch games already played since playoff games are gonna be on TV.
If you don't already have cable, NBC Sports Net and USA are available on most streaming TV services like Sling, YoutTube TV, etc which allow you to easily cancel once the playoffs are over if you don't want to watch other TV.

How Playoffs Work

Normally 8 teams from each conference get in, for 16 total playoff teams in 4 rounds of best-of-7 series. The top 3 teams in each division plus the top 2 other conference-wide "wild card" teams get in and play each other in a set bracket.
This year, they added a 5th round to the playoffs. The top 4 teams in each conference by regular season points percentage get a bye to the traditional first round, but play each other in round-robin to determine seeding. So even if a team goes 0-3 in these games they aren't eliminated, they just get 4th seed. The next 8 teams in each conference play a best-of-5 "play-in" round against a single opponent for the right to advance to the normal first round.
Playoff games have the same rules as regular season games, expect overtime is 5-on-5 (not 3-on-3) and runs for full 20 minute periods until someone scores. No ties or shootouts in the playoffs! Yes this can lead to games lasting a very long time occasionally, it's not unusual to see a number of 2OT games and a few 3OT or more games over the entire playoffs.

How the Expansion Draft Works

Seattle will get to pick one player from each team in the NHL minus Vegas, who isn't getting a cut of Seattle's $650 million expansion check so won't lose a player. Other teams can protect from being drafted either:

7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and 1 goalies

or

8 skaters of any combination and 1 goalie

There are rules on which players have to be protected or exposed which are complicated but in short very young players won't even be eligible so teams don't have to waste a spot protecting them and teams are forced to protect players with a "No Movement Clause" in their contract.
Like Vegas did in 2017, Seattle will want to identify early on which teams can't protect 1 or more great players and then negotiate with those teams. Teams can offer up other players or draft picks for Seattle to agree to pick or not pick certain players. Vegas did this very well and ended up getting 2 additional 2017 first round draft picks and a bunch of other round picks.
Seattle can also work with teams to pick a player with a bad (expensive and/or long) contract off the other team's hands. I think this will be especially powerful considering the NHL Salary Cap is going to remain flat the next few years from Covid. So Seattle can agree to draft a player on a contract his team can no longer afford to keep in exchange for also getting a more useful player that otherwise would have been protected and/or draft picks.

How the Entry Draft Works

Players become draft-eligible when they are 18. The top 3 picks each year are decided by a lottery system, where each of the teams that missed the playoffs have a % chance to win a top 3 pick. The odds decrease in reverse standings order, so the worst team in the league has the best odds to win.
Seattle, like Vegas, will have lottery odds as if they were the 4th worst team, meaning they can draft anywhere from 1st overall to 7th.

How the Salary Cap Works

The NHL owners and player's union (NHLPA) negotiate a contract (CBA) every few years that determines the business rules for the league. Years ago the owners forced the players to agree to a salary cap by canceling an entire season.
Today, the salary cap splits "hockey related revenue" between the owners and players 50-50. Take that 50% of revenue, divide it by the number of teams in the NHL and you get the salary midpoint. That midpoint is then increased and decreased by a set percentage to determine the Salary Cap and Salary Floor, respectively. Currently the cap is $81.5 million and will stay there for a number of years.
The salary cap hit of a player is determined by dividing the total value of the contract by the number of years it lasts, creating the Average Annual Value (AAV) number which is the cap hit. So if Seattle signs a player to a $20 million, 4 year contract his AAV and cap hit is $5 million for all 4 years regardless of what he's actually paid in any given season.

How Free Agency Works

Players have their rights "owned" by teams that draft them until they turn a certain age or play a certain number of pro seasons. Contract expire on July 1 (not this year because of Covid) so there is a wave of signings on that day. Players can be in 1 of 2 groups when trying to sign a new contract:
RFA : Restricted Free Agent, someone who has their rights still owned by a team. They can only sign with the owning team and this usually reduces the cost of their contract unless they are a superstar franchise player.
RFA's can accept an "offer sheet" contract from another team, but the owning team can match. This most recently happened when Montreal gave an offer sheet to Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes but the canes matched so Aho still plays for Carolina. If Carolina didn't match, Montreal would have gotten Aho but had to pay Carolina a bunch of draft picks based on the value of the contract.
UFA : Unrestricted Free Agent, a player who can sign with any team without restrictions. Because of RFA rules, these are mostly older players and less skilled ones. Teams tend to re-sign star players before they hit UFA market or trade them in their final contract year to avoid losing them for no return. Star players rarely hit the UFA market but a recent example is center John Tavares leaving his drafting team, the New York Islanders, for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Tavares got boos and chants of "We don't need you!" on his first game against the the Islanders after going to the Leafs.
The biggest UFA this year is probably Braden Holtby, the longtime Washington Capitals goalie who helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2018. The worst contracts are usually handed out in UFA because teams are desperate to get better and players get a bidding war between teams going.

So I started a Seattle Kraken Franchise and just wanted to post the results of my first 3 seasons.
After the Expansion Draft our Lines were
Jordan Eberle - Eric Staal - James Neal
Josh Anderson - Adam Henrique - Anthony Duclair
Zach Hyman - Andrew Copp - Alex Killorn
Noah Acciari - Sean Kuraly - Dmytro Timashov
Scott Laughton

Mark Giordano - Haydn Fleury
Nikita Zadorov - Alex Goligoski
Calvin de Haan - Brett Kulak

Jacob Markstrom
Martin Jones
Casey Desmith
Notable prospects
Libor Hajek DFD 21 years old, Vyacheslav Korolev LW PLY 18 years 5th pick in the draft, Morgan Klimchuk LW SNP 24 years old
We finished second in the pacific division with 105 points. In round 1 we swept Anaheim. Round two we started the series down 2-0 and then 3-1. We won game 7 in San Jose to advance to our first Western Conference Final where would play Winnipeg. Unfortunately in the previous series against San Jose Eric Staal was injured and would not play again in the playoffs. We were swept by winnipeg who went on to win the cup in 5 games.

The offseason was very uninteresting I lost no notable players just signed a few extensions.

Season two our team performed about the same for 107 points and again second in the Pacific Division. It was Vyacheslav Korolev's first AHL season and he progressed nicely slotting onto my first line by the end of the season and taking the Portland Shockwave to the playoffs. Libor Hajek improved slightly and Morgan Klimchuk who I hadn't considered a prospect jelled nicely on a line with Korolev improving significantly during the season. In round one of the NHL playoffs we played Calgary and easily dispatched them in 5 games. Round 2 we drew Anaheim for the second straight season. We won the series 4-2. In the western conference finals we drew San Jose. We jumoed out to a quick 2-0 series lead. San Jose responded with big wins in games 3 and 4. We bounced back in game 5 but once again were dealt devastating injuries. James Neal our leading goal scorer in the regular season and leading overall scorer in the playoffs was going to miss 2 weeks. We lost game 6 and 7 and San Jose won the Stanley Cup against the Boston Bruins in 6 games. I felt like we were the better team but once agin injuries derailed our season.

This offseason was different several players were up for extensions and I was going to have reasonable cap space for the first time. Calvin De Haan was our first casualty he informed us he was not interested in a contract extension. Noah Acciari was next also expressing an unhappiness with his role on the team. Scott Laughton was asking for too much for a 13th forward so we had to part ways with him as well. Brett Kulak also departed due to lack of playing time. As far as our targets went we decided Olli Maatta could be a good fit for our 3rd pairing and promoted Hajek to play with him. Korolev and Klimchuk were both now 78 Overall and nearing the NHL but I didn't think there was enough playing time for them there yet. We signed Adam Lowry to play wing on our 4th Line and Marcus Foligno to fill in for any injuries. We also promoted Curtis Lazar from our AHL team for depth.

Season 3 started solid like seasons 1 and 2 but we were soon met with great adversity. Jacob Markstrom was injured for a significant period of time causing Martin Jones to become our starter. Casey Desmith was promoted from the AHL to serve as our backup. This became an issue for us when MArkstrom returned and Desmith was claimed on waivers losing our starting AHL Goaltender. Haydn Fleury missed abour half the season only playing 45 games. Alex Goligoski and Mark Giordano both declined exponentially going from solid top 4 defenseman to my bottom pairing by midseason. In Addition Alex Killorn dropped off seemingly out of nowhere and was replaced in the lineup by Lazar. At the deadline I was offered an interesting trade by the defending champion San Jose Sharks. Brent Burns and a 4th round pick for a forward prospect, Alex Killorn, and our 2nd and 3rd Round picks. We accepted hoping this could be the piece we needed to sure up our suddenly weak defense. In the AHL Korolev and Klimchuk were lighting the league on fire scoring around a point a game and proving they could play in the NHL. Just after the deadline they were called up due to injuries and Korolev has 9 points in 10 games played (4 goals 5 assists). Klimchuk only had 2 points both assists and when players returned to the lineup both were sent down so they could continue to get playing time. We finished with our best point total of 108 points and again finished second in the division but oddly this season Vancouver won the division instead of the usual Vegas. In round one we again took on Calgary after dropping game 1 we rolled off 4 straight wins to advance to play the winner of Vancouver and Vegas. Vegas pulled off an upset for another familiar playoff matchup. Vegas was swept easily. Again we were in the conference finals where we'd face the Colorado Avalanche. In familiar fashion we began the series with 2 losses and injuries. Josh Anderson and Andrew Copp were both out the rest of the round. We called up Korolev to play in place of Josh Anderson and Klimchuk filled in on the 4th line while Adam Lowry took over for Copp. We won the next 2 games to tie the series Korolev had a goal and in game 4 we won 7-2 looked like something was clicking. Game 5 went to overtime where we again triumphed on a goal from Jordan Eberle. Game 6 we would be without Sean Kuraly though due to injury. Since Josh Anderson was now eligible to return we decided to use Korolev as our 4th line center because he was both good an faceoffs and defensively and our AHL options were significant drop offs. We won game 6 to advance to our first Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes. After a game one victory we received devastating news James Neal would miss the rest of the series. We promoted AHL center Dominic Turgeon to play 4th Line center for us and Anderson filled in for Neal on line 1. Korolev then was moved to our LW on line two despite his underwhelming playoff numbers 1 point in 5 games. In game 2 he had 2 points rewarding the coaching staff's faith in him. Carolina won game 3 4-1. Game 4 was a blowout win 6-1 Seattle we were on game away from becoming champions. Again we were dealt a significant blow Anthony Duclair who had 3 goals in the series would be out for the remainder of the series. This blow meant that Klimchuk and Korolev would be reunited on our 2nd line and Marcus Foligno would return to the lineup. Games 5 and 6 went to Carolina and with Game 7 looming Sean Kuraly was able to return. In an exciting game 7 Seattle took a 2-1 lead into period 3 with around 12 minutes remaining Eric Staal Extended the lead to 3-1 which is where it would stay. Seattle had won the Stanley Cup.

Some notes over my 3 year franchise
James Neal went from 81 OVR to 87 OVR
Eric Staal went from 84 OVR to 87 OVR and won the conn smythe
Jordan Eberle improved from 84 to 86 OVR
Nikita Zadorov won the Masterson award for some reason maybe playing with Goligoski and Giordano's corpses was something to overcome
Zadorov refused to re sign with Seattle after the season due to our culture
Calvin De Haan Retired after we won the cup despite only being 30. I tried to resign him but he would not play for us and he spent the entire 3rd season of our franchise in the ahl.
Mark Giordano and Alex Goligoski went from 88 and 83 overall to 82 and 78 overall this season both were not resigned after the cup win.
Hajek is not improving at all he's still only 24 but has not improved past 79 overall I think he did that season 1 and he made no progress since.
Klimchuk was not a good prospect his sudden improvement during my second season made no sense to me he had low potential and seemed to be on his way to not getting renewed when suddenly he improved from 73 to like 77 overall in 2 weeks.
I'm not doing great developing prospects seems like my only one near the NHLis a defenseman who is about a year away. My drafting has been pretty poor I guess.
Thanks for reading I just wanted to tell someone.

24 clubs will resume play (confirmed).
2019-20 Regular Season is now complete.
Each conference will be assigned to two different Hub Cities that will be announced at a later date (approximately 3 weeks time). Bill Daly notes that the NHL "won't be in position to use" a Canadian city (EDM, TOR or VAN) as a hub city if Canada's 14-day quarantine requirement is still in place by then, for those entering the country.
Each team with be limited to 50 personnel in each Hub City.
Comprehensive system of testing will be in place (players will be tested every evening once they reach hub cites, Bill Daly says).
Phase 2 will commence in early June where clubs will return to home facilities for voluntary, small-group on- and off-ice training.
Phase 3: Formal training camp (no earlier than July 1st).
Phase 4: Clubs in 2 Hub Cities for conference-based round-robins, qualifying rounds and Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Bettman: "At this time, we are not fixing dates because the schedule of our Return to play will be determined both by developing circumstances and the and needs of our players."
Bettman also commented that Hub Cities have not been determined as of yet. However, these cities are under consideration: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, LA, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver. "Final determination will depend on COVID-19 conditions, testing availability and government regulations."
Standings are based on points percentages at the time of the pause.
Top 4 teams in each conference will claim automatic berths in first round (confirmed). Those teams will play each other to determined seeds in first round. These games will be played with regular season OT and shootout rules with ties in the final standings broken by regular season points percentage.
The remaining 8 teams will play in best-of-5 qualifying round series (confirmed) with playoff overtime rules.
After the preliminary round, each qualifying round winner will play top seeds in the first round. The match-ups for the first round series remain to be set as the Return to Play Committee (RTPC) is still discussing whether to determined them via seeding or a bracket.
RTPC is still discussing whether the lengths of the 1st and 2nd round series (either best-of-5 or best-of-7). In any scenario, the Conference and Stanley Cup Finals will be best-of-7, which will likely be played in one of the two Hub Cities.
Toronto is confirmed to play Columbus.
EDIT: Via Pierre LeBrun: "NHL says the round-robin/play-in are considered Qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs. And while this could still change, the NHL as of now considers that round a special set of games and not actual playoffs. So for record-keeping purposes, the playoffs weren't expanded from 16."

Draft lottery

Lottery will be conducted in 1 or 2 phases.
7 teams that will not resume play and the 8 teams eliminated in the qualifying round will enter draft lottery.
"At the time of the first phase draws, we won't know which 8 teams won't advance from the qualifying round. So, we have designated temporary place-holders with the odds that the collective groups would've had."
Phase 1 draws will be conducted on June 26th, prior to the round robins and qualifying rounds.
There will be 3 separate draws to determine which clubs posses the first 3 selections in the draft. Each will include the 7 non-resuming teams and 8 place-over teams. If any draw is won by one of the 7 teams, that team (or the team to which their 1st round pick was traded) gets that selection.
If all 3 draws are won by one of those 7 teams, there will not be a need for phase 2.
Should any of the 3 draws not be won by a non-resuming club, the league will conduct a phase 2 before the Conference Quarter-Finals. At that point, the assignment of the remaining top 3 selections will be determined through draws, including only the qualifying round clubs that failed to advance. For any and all phase 2 draws, all teams involved will have the same odds of winning. Once the top 3 selections are determined, all remaining clubs will be slotted in reverse order of their 2019-20 points percentage.
If it gets to phase 2, those teams will all have a 12.5% chance of winning the lottery.
No dates will be set by the NHL until they are approved to do so.

WARNING: this list may see some entries removed and some new entrants throughout the 2020 postseason. I'll simply list the chances of an entry being removed from this list.
A ton of postseason matchups has happened just once in the NHL. It's too bad we weren't able to see some of them more than once. Note that I've avoided Stanley Cup Final one-hit-wonders unless the two teams happen to be in the same conference at this point. Also, defunct teams are included just for fun.
Avalanche over Coyotes 4-1 (2000 WCQ): this series was largely decided by the playoff experience the Avalanche had, as they quickly overwhelmed the Coyotes as Phoenix could only muster a Game 4 win in this matchup. The Avs would make the WCF only to lose in 7 to Dallas. Happening this season? There's a good chance as of today's standings, but as always, we'll have to wait and see.
Avalanche over Blues 4-1 (2001 WCF): the series started getting exciting in Game 3 where St. Louis took a hard-fought OT game. But Colorado stormed back to win the next two games in OT capped off by Joe Sakic's series-clinching goal in Game 5. St. Louis once again lost got denied a trip to the Cup Finals. These Avs would go on to win the Cup this season. Happening this season? Considering how strong both teams are, I'm really hoping we get a rematch in at least the second round if not the conference finals. I think there's a good chance this happens.
Avalanche over Flames 4-1 (2019 WCQ): in an upset win (one that some saw coming, but still), the Avs overwhelmed the top-seeded Flames in 5 games, taking two crucial OT wins in Games 2 and 4 and then massacring Calgary in the decisive Game 5. These Avs would end their run with a 7-game second-round loss to the Sharks, but it was still an amazing season for Colorado. Happening this season? With the current standings, the best shot would be a second-round matchup IMO. It could very well happen, but Calgary has to get exorcise their first-round demons.
Blackhawks over Sharks 4-0 (2010 WCF): this series was a lot closer than the score indicates, but ultimately stronger play by Chicago led them to the Cup Finals and give the Sharks another rude exit from the playoffs. These Blackhawks would go on to win the Stanley Cup, their first since the 60s. Happening this season? No, I doubt both teams can make the playoffs even if Chicago can make a wild card push.
Blackhawks over Ducks 4-3 (2015 WCF): the Blackhawks fought back from a 3-2 deficit in the series by blowing the Ducks out in Games 6 and 7. Game 7 notably came on Anaheim ice, thus marking the third straight season in which the Ducks were eliminated in a home game 7 (and they would make it four straight after losing to the Preds on home ice in the WCQ of next season). This loss proved even worse for Anaheim as Chicago would proceed to win their third Stanley Cup of the decade. Happening this season? Highly unlikely with how bad Anaheim is playing and even Chicago's playoff hopes on the ropes.
Blue Jackets over Lightning 4-0 (2019 ECQ): the series that everyone knows and loves. The Blue Jackets had never won a playoff series and the Lightning had a record-setting season. Instead of winning the Cup, the Lightning instead became the only President's Trophy-winning team to get swept in the opening round as Columbus outplayed Tampa Bay all throughout the series. The Blue Jackets would lose in 6 to the Bruins in the next round, but it was still an awesome season overall. Happening this season? Possibly, but as of today, I don't think seeding is all that favorable to this one.
Blues over Jets 4-2 (2019 WCQ): in a tightly fought series, the Blues wound up winning all three games on Winnipeg ice (and all by one goal) then edged out another 1-goal victory at home in Game 6 to close out the deal. The Blues would eventually make–and win–the Stanley Cup Finals that year. Happening this season? Considering the Jets are very close to the last playoff spot at this point, it's quite possible we could see a first-round rematch.
Bruins over Blue Jackets 4-2 (2019 ECS): Columbus' Cinderella season was quickly put out by Boston's superior team, although they did put up a fight in taking a 2-1 series lead at one point. In the end, the better team won. The Bruins would go on to make the Cup Finals only to lose in 7 to the Blues. Happening this season? There's a good chance it could, as the Bruins and Blue Jackets are currently in prime position for a first- or second-round matchup standings-wise.
Canadiens over Canucks 4-1 (1975 Quarters): a fairly forgotten series as the Habs were quickly eliminated by the Sabres in the semifinals. An interesting Canadian matchup that saw the Habs win the decisive Game 5 in OT on a Guy Lafleur goal. Happening this season? No, as both teams are in opposing conferences and the Habs are quite terrible. Even if they pulled off a last-minute run to snag a WC spot, they'll likely get eliminated early.
Canadiens over Capitals 4-3 (2010 ECQ): this first-round matchup produced the Halaking memes as despite earning 121 points and the Presidents Trophy, the Caps blew a 3-1 series lead as they scored just 1 goal in Games 5-7 each. A Habs team that barely edged into the playoffs used this series as motivation to go all the way to the ECF where they lost in 5 to the Flyers. Happening this season? Likely not, as the Habs and Caps are light years apart in terms of quality right now and the Habs would need a very late push to snag a WC spot.
Canucks over Maple Leafs 4-1 (1994 WCF): in this interesting Canadian matchup, the lower-seeded Canucks played like they should've been the higher seed in denying the Leafs (yet again...) a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. They shutout Toronto in Games 3 and 4 then took Game 5 on a dramatic double-OT goal. Unfortunately, Vancouver would lose a heartbreaking 7-game series against the Rangers in the Finals. Happening this season? No, both teams are in opposite conferences now and even if they both made the playoffs, it's unlikely that both make the Cup Finals.
Canucks over Predators 4-2 (2011 WCS): this series has become more of a footnote, but it's notable in that Nashville gave Vancouver a surprisingly tough time in this series as no game was decided by more than 2 goals. Vancouver, ultimately, ended up playing stronger down the stretch and won all three games in Nashville to seal the deal. Vancouver would make the Cup Finals only to blow a 3-2 series lead and lose to the Bruins in 7. Happening this season? There's a slim chance, but it hinges on Nashville needing to go on a late-season run to snag a playoff spot.
Capitals over Senators 4-1 (1998 ECS): Washington was simply the better team in this series as Olaf Kolzig shutout the Sens over the last two games en route to an easy trip to the ECF (just their second at this point in time). Happening this season? No, the Sens currently sit towards the bottom of the East without much hope in sight. These Caps would go on to make the Cup Finals, but before that, there was...
Capitals over Sabres 4-2 (1998 ECF): in a very tightly fought series, Washington won three games in OT (including the series-winner in the deciding Game 6) and all three games in Buffalo as no game was decided by more than 2 goals. Buffalo suffered yet another heartbreaking postseason loss as Washington made their first Cup Finals, where they, unfortunately, got swept by Detroit. Happening this season? Probably not, but if the Sabres can somehow pull off a late-season run, perhaps they can meet in the first round.
Capitals over Maple Leafs 4-2 (2017 ECQ): this series was actually really close as five games were decided in OT, with Washington winning three of those, including the series clincher in Game 6. Washington would end up suffering another second-round loss to the Pens in the following round, however. Happening this season? Possibly, the Maple Leafs are still in prime position to snagging a WC spot at this juncture.
Capitals over Blue Jackets 4-2 (2018 ECQ): after falling behind 2-0, losing both games in OT at home, it seemed like we'd be getting the same old Caps only for them to pull out four straight wins to take the series...and eventually the Stanley Cup title that season. Happening this season? At this juncture, there's actually a good chance it will considering the current standings.
Coyotes over Blackhawks 4-2 (2012 WCQ): this series featured 5 OT games, with Arizona winning three of them, then shutting out Chicago in the deciding Game 6 to pull off the win. This series, unfortunately, will probably be more remembered for Arizona's Raffi Torres taking out Marian Hossa on a dirty hit that got him suspended for 20 games. Happening this season? With the current standings, not likely, as Arizona is holding on to a wild card spot and Chicago will likely have to settle for one themselves if they can make a late-season push. Arizona would march all the way to the WCF, but before that, there was...
Coyotes over Predators 4-1 (2012 WCS): this series was closer than the final result indicates, as no game was decided by more than two goals and Arizona had to win Game 1 in OT. Nevertheless, they played just slightly better hockey and advanced to the WCF as a result, where they would lose in 5 to the Kings. Happening this season? It's going to be even more difficult for Nashville to make the playoffs with the current standings, so probably not, but I'm not counting it out just yet.
Devils over Islanders 4-2 (1988 Wales Semis): this back-and-forth geographical rivalry wound up at 2-2 at one point, but the Devils then pulled off a 4-2 Game 5 win and a close 6-5 Game 6 win to pull off the series win. Notably, they allowed the Isles to score four unanswered in the decider when they were up 6-1, but they managed to weather the storm just enough. The Devils would march on to the ECF where they lost a tough one against the Bruins in 7 games. Happening this season? No, the Devils are just too terrible this year.
Devils over Sabres 4-3 (1994 ECQ): this was a very exciting matchup that saw 2 goals become the highest margin of victory in any game of the series. Notably, Buffalo pulled out a quadruple-OT victory in Game 6 to force the deciding Game 7. Unfortunately, Buffalo fans again tasted playoff heartbreak as the Devils won that game 2-1. New Jersey marched on to the ECF where they blew a 3-2 series lead and lost on Stephane Matteau's famous double-OT goal in Game 7. Happening this season? No, considering how poorly the Devils have played (and even the Sabres likely won't make it in either).
Devils over Red Wings 4-0 (1995 SCF): in a stunning upset, the Devils won their first Stanley Cup as Detroit could only manage 7 goals throughout the series. Detroit's long Cup drought was thus put on hold yet again with yet another disappointing playoff finish, while the Devils would kick start their own mini-dynasty in winning two more Cups. Happening this season? No, both teams are pretty bad this season and as of today are towards the bottom of the Eastern.
Devils over Canadiens 4-1 (1997 ECQ): Martin Brodeur and Co were simply too much for the 8th-seeded Habs and they got their butts kicked in this brief playoff matchup, only salvaging a triple-OT win in Game 4. The Devils would get eliminated in 5 by the Rangers in the next round. Happening this season? No, the Devils are way too out of playoff contention and the Habs probably won't make it in either.
Ducks over Canucks 4-1 (2007 WCS): this series was actually a lot closer than the final result indicates as Games 2-5 were each decided by one goal. Additionally, Games 2, 4, and 5 were decided in OT, with Anaheim taking the wins in the last two. Roberto Luongo probably wants that double-OT series-winner by the Ducks back as that was a stinker of a goal he let in. These Ducks would go on to win the Stanley Cup this season. Happening this season? No, the Ducks are awful in their current state.
Ducks over Jets 4-0 (2015 WCQ): in Winnipeg's first playoff series in many years (and the franchise's first in Winnipeg), the Jets were the unfortunate victims of blowing third period leads in Games 1-3 and an early lead in Game 4 to lose an otherwise close series in a sweep. The Ducks would go onto the WCF where they'd lose in 7 to Chicago. Happening this season? No, considering the Ducks are the second-worst team in the West right now.
Flames over Blues 4-3 (1986 WCF): this was a very hard-fought series that saw the Blues edge out the Flames in OT in Game 6 only for the Flames to counter with a tight 2-1 victory in Game 7 to once again deny the Blues a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. The Flames, however, wound up losing said Finals to the Habs in 5 games. Happening this season? It's actually fairly likely at this point, though we'll have to wait to see the final seedings to see exactly how likely.
Flyers over Canucks 2-1 (1979 Prelims): a fairly no-name series saw Philadelphia drop the first game at home then storm back to win the next two, scoring 13 goals combined in their two wins. Philly would get dumped by the Rangers in 5 in the next round, however. Happening this season? No, since both teams are in different conferences and it's unlikely that the Flyers make the Cup Finals this year.
Golden Knights over Kings 4-0 (2018 WCQ): what a way to start the postseason for Vegas in sweeping a division rival. They held the Kings to just three goals throughout the series and scored just enough on offense to finish off a series that was much closer than the result indicates (all games were decided by 1 goal). Happening this season? No, as the Kings are in the basement of the WC. These Golden Knights would march all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, but before that, there was...
Golden Knights over Jets 4-1 (2018 WCF): a first for both franchises, it was Vegas' Cinderella story that prevailed in this one. As with their quarterfinals matchup, the actual series was much closer than the result indicates as no game was decided by more than 2 goals. Games 4 and 5 were both 1 goal affairs that Vegas squeaked by to win the series. Unfortunately, Vegas' run would end in the Cup Finals as they lost in 5 to the Caps. Happening this season? Not likely, as both teams are fighting each other for the last playoff spot as of today.
Hurricanes over Maple Leafs 4-2 (2002 ECF): in another heartbreaker for Leafs fans, Carolina pulled off three OT victories in the series including the dagger in Game 6 to advance to their first Cup Finals and deny the Leafs yet another potential appearance on the biggest stage. Oh yeah, Toronto also lost all three games on home ice to drive the dagger even further. Carolina wound up losing to Detroit in 5. Happening this season? Probably not, Toronto has to fight really hard for a playoff spot at this point and even if they make it in, the seeding doesn't look conducive to this one happening.
Hurricanes over Sabres 4-3 (2006 ECF): I can't imagine how Sabres fans felt after this knife-turning loss. The Sabres had won a crucial Game 6 in OT but Carolina erased a 2-1 deficit in the third period of Game 7 and put the game away on an empty-netter with just under a minute remaining. So close, and yet so far, for Buffalo. And Carolina would go on to win their first Stanley Cup. Happening this season? Likely not, Buffalo has a long way to go if they want to try for a late playoff push while Carolina has their own problems to worry about ATM. Seeding likely won't be favorable.
Hurricanes over Capitals 4-3 (2019 ECQ): this was a fun matchup. Washington had a Cup to defend but it was Carolina who stole the show, coming back from down 2-0 and 3-2 and stealing the final game in Washington in double-OT to kickstart another Cinderella run by the Canes. Happening this season? With the current standings, it's actually quite likely, though Carolina would have to maintain its wild card position. Carolina would make it all the way to the ECF that season, but before that, there was...
Hurricanes over Islanders 4-0 (2019 ECS): Carolina's Cinderella run to the ECF continued with a dominant sweep over the Isles which included two close victories in New York and absolute domination in Carolina. Unfortunately, Carolina got swept by Boston in said ECF. Still a great season though. Happening this season? It could, Carolina will need to play strong and hold onto their playoff spot but if they do I wouldn't be surprised if it happens again.
Islanders over Kings 3-1 (1980 Prelims): the Kings were pretty much toast as the 12th seed facing the 5th-seeded Isles, although they kept things interesting with a 6-3 win in New York in Game 2 and taking the Isles to OT in Game 3. Ultimately, the better team won. And these Isles would go on to win their first Stanley Cup title that postseason. Happening this season? No, considering the Kings are not only basement-dwellers but also in a different conference.
Islanders over Nordiques 4-0 (1982 Wales Conference Final): the Nordiques had a nice run to the conference finals only to get curb-stomped by the Isles in four games. They put up a nice fight late in the fourth game but by then, it was too little, too late. These Isles would go on to win their third-straight Cup title. Happening this season? Not ruling out the possibility of an Avs-Isles Cup Finals, but it's not my number 1 pick at his point.
Jets over Wild 4-1 (2018 WCQ): after years of not even having a playoff win, the Jets not only got the first postseason win in franchise history, but also their first playoff series win, dominating the Wild in every aspect of play throughout the series. Happening this season? Likely not, both teams are fighting just to get in the playoff picture at this point. These Jets would march all the way to the WCF, but before that, there was...
Jets over Predators 4-3 (2018 WCS): the Jets continued their Cinderella run by dispatching the President's Trophy-winning team in 7 games. They put up dominating wins in Games 1, 3, 5, and 7 and were especially dominant on Nashville ice, taking three out of four in the Tennessee capital. Unfortunately, Winnipeg's run would end on a low note in losing in 5 to Vegas, but it was still a great season overall. Happening this season? Probably not, unless both of these teams can somehow make a playoff push and earn the right seedings.
Kings over Coyotes 4-1 (2012 WCF): Jonathan Quick had an outstanding series for the Kings in net and Los Angeles got the series-clincher in OT in Game 5 to move onto their second Stanley Cup Finals berth. Said Game 5 was notable for the Coyotes being less than enthusiastic in the postgame rituals as they felt that the refs cost them the game and should've disallowed the OT goal. Fair or not, it's not cool to do what the Coyotes did afterward. And yes, these Kings would go on to win their first Cup. Happening this season? Considering the Kings are in the basement, no.
Kings over Ducks 4-3 (2014 WCS): in this geographical matchup, the Ducks had a 3-2 lead but lost a close Game 6 then got completely wrecked in Game 7. This was the second of four straight home Game 7 playoff losses for Anaheim. As for the Kings, they'd go on to win their second Cup in franchise history. Happening this season? No, both teams inhabit the last two places in the West.
Islanders over Panthers 4-2 (2016 ECQ): this series is notable for ending a 23-season playoff series win drought for the Isles who took three clutch OT wins in the series, including Games 5 and 6 to steal the series from the higher-seeded Panthers. These Isles would lose to the Lightning in 5 in the next round. Happening this season? It might if the seeding works out and the teams can make deep enough playoff runs.
Lightning over Rangers 4-3 (2015 ECF): goalie Ben Bishop had shutout wins in New York in Games 5 and 7 and the Lightning stole an OT game in Game 3 which ended up being the difference in this series. Despite being the President's Trophy-winning team, the Rangers were simply outplayed on too many levels. The Lightning would get beaten in the Cup Finals by the Blackhawks in 6 games. Happening this season? Unlikely, as the Rangers aren't playing good hockey and would need a huge run to snag a wild card spot.
Maple Leafs over Flames 2-0 (1979 Prelims): despite being the 3-seed, the Flames (still in Atlanta) was hopefully outmatched by their 6th-seeded opponents and suffered another quick first-round loss to Toronto. Game 1 was a close 2-1 win but Toronto shellacked Atlanta in Game 2 with a 7-4 win. Toronto went on to get swept by Montreal in the next round. Happening this season? No, both teams are in different conferences and it's pretty much impossible that both teams will make the Cup Finals this year.
Maple Leafs over Sharks 4-3 (1994 WCS): yes, there was a time when the Leafs were in the Western Conference. This series was very exciting and back-and-forth, though Toronto got the upper hand by coming back from 3-2 down to steal the win, getting a clutch 3-2 OT win in Game 6 then closing it out 4-2 in Game 7. Unfortunately, the WCF was as far as the Leafs would go as they bowed out to the Canucks in 7. Happening this season? No, the Sharks are way too far out of a playoff spot and even if they made it in, they're not going to go very far. The Leafs have their own problems too.
Mighty Ducks over Coyotes 4-3 (1997 WCQ): in Anaheim's first-ever playoff matchup and the Coyote's first-ever playoff matchup in Phoenix, the Ducks pulled off a 3-2 comeback, winning Game 6 in OT then earning a shutout in Game 7 to take the series. The Mighty Ducks would lose a close sweep to the Wings in the next round (three of the four games in that series were decided in OT). Happening this season? No, the Ducks are putting up an utterly craptastic performance this season.
Mighty Ducks over Avalanche 4-0 (2006 WCS): Anaheim shutout Colorado in the first two games and only allowed four Avs goals throughout the series total. The closest Colorado got was in Game 3 but they allowed four Joffrey Lupul goals, including the game-winner in OT. These Ducks would lose in the WCF to the Oilers in 5 games. Happening this season? No, the Ducks are basement-dwellers as of today and likely aren't making a push to the playoffs at this point.
North Stars over Kings 4-3 (1968 Quarters): the inaugural season of both teams saw them deck it out in this exciting matchup that saw the North Stars comeback from 3-2 down, taking Game 6 in OT then blasting Los Angeles 9-4 in the deciding Game 7. I'm really surprised this matchup hasn't happened more often than it has, but so it goes. Minnesota would lose a tough 7-game series to the Blues in the semifinals, including surrendering the double-OT winner in Game 7. Happening this season? Considering the Kings are in the basement of the West, no.
North Stars over Bruins 3-0 (1981 Prelims): this 8-vs-9 matchup (Boston the 8th, Minnesota the 9th) saw the North Stars win three straight high-scoring affairs including a 9-6 Game 2 in Boston. The North Stars took full advantage of a shaky Rogie Vachon in net and pulled off this strange sweep. Happening this season? It's may not be the Cup Finals matchup we see this year, but who knows, both teams are doing pretty well ATM. These North Stars would go all the way to the Cup Finals, but before that, there was...
North Stars over Flames 4-2 (1981 Semis): this was a competitive series that was ultimately won out by Minnesota's high-scoring offense. It was 4-3 in the deciding Game 6 at one point until an empty-netter to punch Minnesota's first ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals. Unfortunately, they'd lose that one in 6 to the Isles. Happening this season? It very well could, considering how both teams place in the standings for the time being.
Oilers over Canadiens 3-0 (1981 Prelims): in a stunner, the 14th-seeded Oilers swept the 3rd-seeded Habs in three games in this interesting Canadian matchup. The Oilers weren't in their dynasty phase just yet but they were starting to show signs of making big splashes with this playoff win. This year, however, it wasn't to be as they would lose in 6 in the next round to the Isles despite putting up a good fight. Happening this season? No, the Habs are not making the Finals even if they somehow snag a playoff spot.
Panthers over Bruins 4-1 (1996 ECQ): Florida's first postseason appearance started off with a bang as they toyed around with the hopelessly-outmatched Bruins all throughout the series. All Boston could manage was a Game 4 victory. Happening this season? It's possible, and if it does, I'm calling second round. These Panthers would march all the way to the Cup Finals, but before that, there was...
Panthers over Flyers 4-2 (1996 ECS): Philadelphia put up a slightly stronger fight against Florida, going up 2-1 at one point, but Florida stole Games 4 and 5 in OT then got a comfortable Game 6 win to seal the deal and continue Florida's Cinderella run, punching their ticket to the ECF. Happening this season? I don't think so, even if Philadelphia makes the playoffs I don't think seeding will help this one out. Speaking of ECF...
Panthers over Penguins 4-3 (1996 ECF): the Bruins got 1 win against Florida, the Flyers 2, so naturally the Pens would get 3, which was still not quite enough to get the job done. Florida came back from 3-2 down winning close games in Game 6 and Game 7 to earn their trip to the Cup Finals. Unfortunately, their opponent, Colorado, continued the weird trend of getting one more win than the previous team that faced the Panthers. Florida ran out of numbers, as Colorado's 4 wins won them the Cup. Happening this season? There's a good chance it may, but the seeding will determine the likelihood of it.
Penguins over Hurricanes 4-0 (2009 ECF): this series was close for one game: Game 1 which Pittsburgh won 3-2. After that, the Hurricanes got completely annihilated. They had a good run, but ultimately Pittsburgh was just the stronger team by a large margin and they would go on to win the Cup that season. Happening this season? Maybe, but even if the Hurricanes manage to hold onto a playoff spot, the seedings still may not make that possible.
Predators over Blues 4-2 (2017 WCS): in a series where no game was decided by more than 2 goals, Nashville was simply able to execute better in the clutch and score where they needed to as they handed the Blues yet another early playoff exit. The Preds would go on to make the Cup Finals where they lost to the Pens in 6. Happening this season? Not likely, although if the Preds can make a late-season push to earn a WC spot, it might.
Predators over Avalanche 4-2 (2018 WCQ): Colorado put up a great fight in this series but ultimately wound up overwhelmed by the President's Trophy-winning team this season. If the Avs can take pride in anything, it's that they exposed Nashville's weaknesses which got exploited in their WCS matchup against the Jets. Happening this season? Even less likely than a Preds-Blues matchup, but then again, it's not too late for the Preds to push for a WC spot.
Rangers over Flames 3-1 (1980 Prelims): this occurred when the Flames were in their last season in Atlanta. They gave their fans a pretty lousy sendoff in losing yet another first-round series, this time to the Rangers. The two teams were separated by just one seed (Rangers were 8th, Flames were 9th) but New York was the better team by a long shot. The Rangers would get eliminated by the Flyers in the next round in 5. Happening this season? No, the Flames are now in a different conference making this matchup even more impossible.
Rangers over Blues 4-2 (1981 Quarters): this matchup feels strange today, but these teams met for a nice quarterfinals matchup in 1981. The Rangers put up scoring exhibitions in their wins in the series, including blowing the Blues out of the water 7-4 in the deciding Game 6. With the win, the Rangers also pulled off a 7-over-2 upset. Unfortunately, they would get swept by the Isles in the semifinals. Happening this season? No, the Blues are in a different conference and the Rangers aren't good this season.
Rangers over Nordiques 4-2 (1995 ECQ): this was supposed to be a great season for the Nordiques who took the 1-seed in their final season in Quebec City. Unfortunately, the defending Cup champions had something to say about that, and they took the series in 6 to give Quebec City a gut punch in their final game. These Rangers would not last much longer in their Cup defense, getting swept by the Flyers in the next round. Happening this season? As with Calgary, the Nordiques are in a different conference thanks to relocating to Denver so the odds are even more unlikely than they would be even if the Rangers were contending.
Rangers over Panthers 4-1 (1997 ECQ): the Panthers returned to the playoffs fresh off a Cup Final and were hoping to make another deep run only to get stuffed by the Rangers in the first round, dropping four straight after winning Game 1 and losing Games 3 and 5 in OT. These Rangers would make it all the way to the ECF where they got blasted by the Flyers in 5. Happening this season? Doesn't seem like it, the Rangers are just too far out of playoff contention IMO.
Rangers over Thrashers 4-0 (2007 ECQ): the Thrashers were a really, really bad team and even though they made the playoffs as a third seed in 2007, they got quickly exposed and shellacked by a superior Rangers squad. To Atlanta's credit, they did keep Games 1, 2, and 4 close but ultimately they got dominated in most aspects of play. The Rangers would go on to lose to the Sabres in the next round in 6 games. Happening this season? No, the Rangers are probably not going to make the playoffs.
Red Wings over Flyers 4-0 (1997 SCF): the Wings were just absolutely dominant this entire series and held Philadelphia to just six goals in each of their four matchups and only trailed once in this Stanley Cup Finals. This was Detroit's first Cup win since the 50s, so it was huge. Included since the Red Wings are in the same conference with the Flyers as of today. Happening this season? No, as the Wings are the worst team in the league by a long shot.
Red Wings over Capitals 4-0 (1998 SCF): this Cup Final was actually a lot closer than the sweep indicates, as Games 1-3 were each decided by 1 goal (Game 2 in OT) and even Game 4 was close at certain junctures. Nevertheless, Detroit pulled out a second-straight title with this one. Included since the Wings are in the EC with the Caps as of today. Happening this season? No, the Wings are just awful this year.
Red Wings over Blue Jackets 4-0 (2009 WCQ): this was Columbus' first postseason ever and it ended as most people would expect: getting completely drubbed by the Stanley Cup defending champions. The Jackets scored just two goals in the first three games and put up a good fight in Game 4 only to lose 6-5 on a goal with under 1 minute remaining. These Wings would lose in the Cup Finals to the Pens. Happening this season? No, the Wings are in last place in the East with no signs of climbing out.
Red Wings over Canucks 4-2 (2002 WCQ): this series actually saw Vancouver take a surprising 2-0 lead, winning Games 1 and 2 in Detroit. Unfortunately, Dan Cloutier happened (including allowing a terrible center-ice goal to Nicklas Lidstrom) and the Canucks lost 4 straight to get another early playoff exit. Happening this season? No, in addition to the Wings being bad, both teams are now in opposite conference. These Wings would go onto win the Cup this season and speaking of which...
Red Wings over Hurricanes 4-1 (2002 SCF): this series provided some entertaining moments such as Igor Larianov's Game 3 triple-OT winner, but for the most part, this series was all Detroit en route to another Stanley Cup win. Happening this season? Do I really need to mention how bad the Wings are this season, again?
Sabres over Blues 2-1 (1976 Prelims): this random playoff matchup saw the Sabres take the last two games in OT on home ice. Unfortunately, they got quickly eliminated by the Isles in the next round. Happening this season? No, even if the Sabres were to somehow make the playoffs they likely wouldn't get far.
Sabres over Maple Leafs 4-1 (1999 ECF): Toronto was simply outmatched in this matchup as they got the boot in yet another Conference Finals. Buffalo simply had too many scoring options while Mats Sundin was held to just 1 goal in Games 3-5. These Sabres would go on to lose the Stanley Cup in 6 games (Brett Hull PTSD moments). Happening this season? Not likely, unless both teams can manage a late push into a playoff spot. Won't be easy, though, especially for Buffalo.
Senators over Islanders 4-1 (2003 ECQ): the 8th-seeded Isles were going to have a tough time either way and they ended up not giving the Senators much of a fight as Ottawa won in 5 games. This Senators squad would advance all the way to the ECF where they were downed by the eventual SC-winning Devils in 7 games. Happening this season? No, the Senators are pretty terrible this season.
Senators over Lightning 4-1 (2006 ECQ): the defending Stanley Cup champs instead went out quietly in the first round against a much better Ottawa squad, which included an 8-4 drubbing in Game 3 (in Tampa too...). Ottawa would advance to the next round but proceeded to lose in 5, dropping three crucial games in OT including the deciding 5th game in OT. Happening this season? No, the Senators are too far removed from the playoff race as a basement-dweller.
Senators over Bruins 4-2 (2017 ECQ): Ottawa won three crucial OT games in this series including the deciding Game 6 in Boston. That game is notable for the much-maligned Clarke MacArthur scoring the series-clinching goal in a very heartwarming moment. Unfortunately, the Sens would lose a heartbreaking Game 7 in double-OT in the ECF and have not made the playoffs since. Happening this season? No, the Senators are not aiming for a playoff berth this season.
Sharks over Coyotes 4-1 (2002 WCQ): the Coyotes again failed to exorcise their first-round demons, and the Sharks make quick work of them in 5 games. These Sharks would put up a hard fight in the next round against the Avs but ultimately blew a 3-2 lead to lose in 7. Happening this season? Doubtful, the Sharks would need a miracle run to take a WC spot and even then, the seedings may not be favorable.
Stars over Wild 4-2 (2016 WCQ): Dallas got a nice gimme opponent in the first round as the 1-seed and they made sure to capitalize on that, although it was tougher than expected. They got a big scare in Game 6 but managed to hold off Minnesota's late rally to pull out the series win (their first since 2008). Unfortunately, Dallas's problems would get exposed in the next round against the Blues, a series they lost in 7 games. Happening this season? If the Wild can make a late playoff push, then maybe, but I don't see it being very likely.
Stars over Predators 4-2 (2019 WCQ): despite falling down 2-1 in the series, the Stars managed to win the last three games including the deciding Game 6 in OT. This was a really neat victory for Dallas as they had their fair share of struggles against Nashville in the regular season. Unfortunately, they would lose a heartbreaking 7-game series in the next round to the eventual SC winner in the Blues. Happening this season? Don't think so, the Preds would have to make a late playoff push and even if they do snag a WC spot, I don't think the seeding will work out.
Wild over Canucks 4-3 (2003 WCS): for the second straight series, the Wild battled from 3-1 down, outscoring Vancouver 16-5 in Games 5-7 to continue their Cinderella run onto the WCF and hand Vancouver yet another early playoff exit. The Wild would, unfortunately, get destroyed by the Mighty Ducks in said WCF as they scored just 1 goal throughout that series and got handily swept. Happening this season? Not likely, Minnesota would have to make a late playoff push and even then the seedings are not guaranteed to make this one happen.

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