The National Hockey League loves to market the post-trade deadline action as a sprint to the postseason.
Watch a game between the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night and you’ll see exactly what the league is hoping for – spirited, up-tempo, passionate hockey between two teams jockeying for position in an uber-competitive division.
The only problem? Results across the league may vary. And in the Pacific Division, the sprint to the playoffs feels more like a crawl to the playoffs, where one contender after the other lines up to disappoint.
Because of the NHL’s forced divisional playoff format, each division produces no less than three playoff teams per season, and that number can rise to as many as five –depending on how the two wild-card berths shake out. The top three teams in the Pacific Division for most of the year have been the Anaheim Ducks, Vegas Golden Knights, and Edmonton Oilers, with teams like the Seattle Kraken and San Jose Sharks trying to stay in the race for an outside shot at a wild-card spot.
Anaheim is a bit of an upstart team, whereas Vegas and Edmonton came into this season with bona fide Stanley Cup aspirations. But the reality is those two teams have been shockingly mediocre across the board. And beyond them, Seattle and San Jose offer even less.
One of the first things I like to look at when determining a team’s potential viability as a contender is how they are performing against other playoff-calibre teams. And what stands out to me is how poor these teams have looked against the rest of the likely playoff field.
Every single one of the remaining Pacific Division contenders has a steep negative goal differential, a stark contrast to what you see in the Central:
Yost1 Yost
Those are ugly numbers, and they don’t improve by much when looking at the full season results.
Only Vegas (+4) and Edmonton (+9) have favourable goal differentials in the Pacific on the year, a rather stunning collapse in performance for these organizations compared to where they were just two seasons ago. And yet, the remaining field is having just as hard of a time trying to dethrone them.
However, no fewer than three teams will qualify. How would you gauge the field? In these situations I like to explore the relative core strengths of each team as I stack them against one another. Let’s go through all five hopefuls:
Anaheim Ducks (73 Points): Stars of the shootout!
Every point in the standings matters right now and Anaheim has forced their way to the top of the division because they have stolen many points through the shootout.
Their 8-0 record in the extra session (compared to, say, the 1-6 Golden Knights) has buoyed them in the standings, and while these results can be volatile, personnel matters here – goaltender Lukas Dostal has been outstanding all season, and their skilled forward group has little difficulty confusing opposing goalies.
The shootout may go away in the playoffs, but in the regular season it can be a meaningful differentiator, and it has been so far for the Ducks.
Vegas Golden Knights (72 Points): Special-teams monsters
For as tough of a watch as this team has been at 5-on-5, the Golden Knights have stayed afloat through special teams dominance, and it’s on both sides of the ice.
Their power play is third in the league (10.5 goals per 60 minutes), thanks in large part to 29 goalscombined on the man advantage from Pavel Dorofeyev and Tomas Hertl.
But this is also a team with the 10th-ranked penalty kill (6.7 goals against per 60 minutes) – a surprising achievement considering how much goaltenders Adin Hill and Carter Hart have struggled, and how much the team has had to rely on journeyman Akira Schmid as a result.
Edmonton Oilers (70 Points): The two-headed monster
I know this Oilers roster has come under immense criticism. I understand the goaltending quagmire this organization continues to find itself in, replacing a struggling Stuart Skinner with another struggling goalie in Tristan Jarry.
But for as long as any team can ice the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, they are alive. Even in a relative down year, the duo has combined for 69 goals, trailing only the duo of Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy in Minnesota (71).
Seattle Kraken (67 Points): The goaltender room
The Kraken have lived through some horrifying goaltending in years past; that hasn’t been the case in 2025-26.
The combination of Philipp Grubauer (91.3 per cent stop rate; 22 goals saved above expected) and Joey Daccord (90.2 per cent stop rate; 17 goals saved above expected) have made the Kraken a relatively tough nut to crack on the defensive end of the ice. Across all situations, Seattle’s conceding 2.8 goals per 60 minutes played, good for 10th in the league.
San Jose Sharks (66 Points): Macklin momentum?
Of the five teams, the Sharks have the hardest mountain to climb to reach the postseason, and this is still a relatively talent-thin team that’s seeing itself through another year of their rebuild.
But you would be remiss to ignore the effect Macklin Celebrini is having on this organization, especially after his breakout during the 2026 Winter Olympics with Team Canada. He looks like the league’s next big superstar, and he’s playing like it too – his 10 goals since Jan. 1 mirror that of Vegas’ Jack Eichel, while his 27 points match that of Islanders forward Mathew Barzal. His line continues to pose problems for the rest of the league.
Enjoy the stretch run. Or in the case of the Pacific Division, enjoy the rock fight!
Data via Natural Stat Trick, NHL.com, Evolving Hockey, Hockey Reference
