Thirty teams all start the NHL season with at least one thing in mind: make the playoffs. From there, anything is possible.
Whether you're the defending Stanley Cup champion or the league's last-place team, you start from scratch in the fall with 82 games to gather enough points to be in the top eight slots in the Eastern and Western Conferences.
Of the 14 teams that didn't qualify in 2015, five made the leap this year. The Philadelphia Flyers and Florida Panthers qualified for the 2016 playoffs in the East. The Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars did it in the West—with the Sharks making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
Those teams offer hope to the squads that fell short this year, and we're picking another five with a decent shot at getting out of the NHL Draft Lottery and into the crapshoot that is the playoffs.
Some have suffered for years, others have had what look like minor hiccups. The ability to add key free agents, or shore up an obvious deficiency through trades, high-end draft picks on the horizon or a good young core that is on the verge of coming together are som ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Steve Macfarlane
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