NHL Playoff Standings 2023: Top Seeds, Wild-Card Update and Predictions
With the 2022-23 NHL season nearing its completion, the teams that will compete for the Stanley Cup have separated themselves from the rest of pack, earning postseason berths and, in one case, wrapping up the Presidents' Trophy in record time.
In the East, one team is head and shoulders above the rest and clear favorites to cash their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final. The Western Conference is as competitive as ever, with the top six teams all having the ability to emerge as its representative.
Which squad leads each division and conference as the league enters the homestretch and which two can fans expect to compete for the top prize in the sport?
Find out with this look at the current standings and predictions for the conferences.
- (x) Carolina Hurricanes (49-18-9; 107 points)
- (x) New Jersey Devils (41-28-8; 104 points)
- (x) New York Rangers (45-21-11; 101 points)
- (p) Boston Bruins (60-12-5; 125 points)
- (x) Toronto Maple Leafs (45-21-10; 100 points)
- (x) Tampa Bay Lightning (45-26-6; 96 points)
- New York Islanders (39-30-9; 87 points)
- Pittsburgh Penguins (38-29-10; 86 points)
- Florida Panthers (39-31-7; 85 points)
- Buffalo Sabres (37-31-7; 81 points)
- Ottawa Senators (37-34-6; 80 points)
- Detroit Red Wings (34-33-9; 77 points)
- Washington Capitals (34-34-9; 77 points)
- Philadelphia Flyers (29-34-13; 71 points)
- Montreal Canadiens (30-41-6; 66 points)
- Columbus Blue Jackets (24-44-8; 56 points)
Metropolitan Division
Atlantic Division
Wild Card
(p) denotes Presidents' Trophy
(x) denotes clinched playoff spot
- (x) Dallas Stars (42-21-14; 98 points)
- (x) Minnesota Wild (44-23-10; 98 points)
- Colorado Avalanche (45-24-6; 96)
- (x) Vegas Golden Knights (48-22-7; 103 points)
- (x) Los Angeles Kings (45-22-10; 100 points)
- (x) Edmonton Oilers (45-23-9; 99 points)
- Seattle Kraken (42-26-8; 92 points)
- Winnipeg Jets (43-31-3; 89 points)
- Calgary Flames (36-26-15; 87 points)
- Nashville Predators (38-30-8; 84 points)
- St. Louis Blues (35-35-7; 77 points)
- Vancouver Canucks (34-35-7; 75 points)
- Arizona Coyotes (27-38-13; 67 points)
- San Jose Sharks (22-39-15; 59 points)
- Anaheim Ducks (23-44-10; 56 points)
- Chicago Blackhawks (24-46-6; 54 points)
Central Division
Pacific Division
Wild Card
(x) denotes clinched playoff spot
For the entirety of this season, the Boston Bruins have been better than everyone else. So much so that they have already wrapped up the Presidents' Trophy, awarded to the team with the season's best overall record.
They will be the top seed in the Eastern Conference, have accumulated 18 points more than the second-place team, and have played the best and most consistent hockey all season long.
At one point, it appeared as though it would be a two-team race in the East for the No. 1 seed, with Toronto chasing a Stanley Cup it has not hoisted since 1967.
A good Carolina team made it a three-team race, while inconsistent play of late from the Leafs has Tampa Bay in a position to drop them to the third seed in the Atlantic Division.
Even with those three teams providing competition, it is difficult to foresee a scenario in which the Bruins do not breeze into the Stanley Cup Final.
Boston holds a 7-3 record against those teams and an overall record of 35-7-3 against the Eastern Conference this season, per Statmuse. The B's are riding a three-game win streak and would have be a first-round matchup with Pittsburgh as things currently stand.
Expect a charging Florida team to leapfrog the Penguins and earn the final wild-card spot based on its play and a favorable remaining schedule. It will not matter in the long run, though, which team the Bruins plays in the first round.
Perhaps the only thing that can derail Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Co. is a perceived curse.
That Presidents' Trophy the team locked up extraordinarily early this season? Only eight of the 36 teams to win it have gone on to hoist the Stanley Cup at season's end. The last to accomplish that feat? The Chicago Blackhawks a decade ago in a lockout-shortened season.
Other than hockey lore and superstition or devastating injury to a star player, there is little reason to believe the Bruins will not appear in the Final.
At the very least.
Eastern Conference Prediction: Boston
The Western Conference is much more wide-open than its Eastern counterpart.
The Colorado Avalanche are red-hot, with an 8-2 record in their last 10 games. Ironically enough, the defending Stanley Cup champion is the only team of the top three in the Central Division not to have already clinched a playoff berth.
The last thing the West wants is for Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and the rest of the squad to get hot and make it into the postseason, where they have the tools to repeat as conference champs.
Least of which is the Dallas Stars, whose mediocre play of late has them looking like an early out, something that would not have been the case earlier in the season.
Vegas and Los Angeles also bear watching as they surge into the final stretch of regular-season games, with just three points separating them in the Pacific. Both are 7-2-1 in their last 10 and could easily flip-flop control of that division before the start of the playoffs.
Despite strong play from all, the hottest of any team in the West is Edmonton, which has not lost a game in their last 10 and could unseat both Vegas and L.A. for the Pacific crown before all is said and done.
Seattle and Winnipeg are most likely to earn the wild card, but both are a bit too inconsistent to make much of a dent.
Dallas could always rediscover the play that led it to the top of the Central, but it will need to improve on its sub-.500 play of late to give fans and analysts a reason to buy them as a threat to emerge from the West.
None of the Western teams in contention for the playoffs have a winning record against Boston this season, amassing a 4-10-2 record against the Eastern favorites.
Western Prediction: Vegas
