Every spring at the NHL trade deadline, players on expiring contracts are dealt away from teams with no chance of making the playoffs to clubs gearing up for championship runs.
We're still pretty early in the year to identify the full 14-team list of teams that won't be competing in the postseason, but we aren't too early to look at some of the laggards around the NHL. We identified six teams that already need to have tremendous runs just to equal the record of the final playoff seeds in their respective conferences last season.
Those six teams are as follows, along with the record each would need in order to equal the lowest-seeded playoff club in their conference last season:
Philadelphia Flyers: 38-19-9
Columbus Blue Jackets: 38-15-12
Colorado Avalanche: 39-21-6
Toronto Maple Leafs: 39-19-8
Edmonton Oilers: 39-19-7
Calgary Flames: 39-19-6
It's not impossible, of course, that one of those six teams will defy probability and go on a hot run. Columbus has done if before; other clubs on this list might surprise. But it's likely all six will be sellers at the deadline, so it's not a bad idea to take a look at their rosters for players on exp ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Jonathan Willis
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