NHL wild card race watch: Blue Jackets surge, Western Conference battle intensifies

We’re in the home stretch of the NHL’s 2025-26 regular season, but the playoff picture has yet to come into focus for the teams battling it out for a wild card berth. 

Only one point separates the three teams jockeying for the final playoff spot in the West, while the 10th-place Ottawa Senators are just five points back of the two wild card teams in the East. With less than a month remaining until the end of the season, qualifying for the playoffs could come down to the final day.

With that said, let’s get down to business and lay out the latest Wild Card Watch:

Western Conference:

• 7th Place – Utah Mammoth (73 points) 76 points
• 8th Place – Seattle Kraken (67 points) 71 points
• 9th Place – Los Angeles Kings (67 points) 71 points
• 10th Place – San Jose Sharks (66 points) 70 points

The Lowdown: The same four teams that were in last week’s two wild card spots and the ninth and 10th place are in the same positions this week. And three of the four teams – the Kraken, Kings and Sharks – all earned four standings points this week, while the Mammoth earned only three points.

According to Tankathon, the Kings have the easiest remaining schedule of any team in the league; the Sharks have the fourth-easiest; the Mammoth have the fifth-easiest; and the Kraken have the 14th-easiest, meaning Seattle has the hardest schedule of any of these four teams. 

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The Sharks have a game in hand on the Kings and Kraken, and San Jose has two games in hand on the Mammoth. Utah now has only 14 games left to stick the landing and sew up its first post-season berth in the organization’s five-year playoff drought. You’d think that makes the Mammoth the team most desperate for a playoff spot, but the Sharks haven’t made the playoffs for the past six seasons, so San Jose is slightly more desperate than Utah.

The teams ahead of the Mammoth, Kraken, Sharks, and Kings at the top of the West are starting to shift around, and there’s an increased possibility that the Dallas Stars wind up as the West’s best team. That means whoever finishes in the second wild card spot will face Dallas in the first round. So whoever earns a wild card berth will have their hands full in Round 1 and beyond.

Eastern Conference:

• 7th Place – Boston Bruins (82 points) 
• 8th Place – Detroit Red Wings (82 points)
• 9th Place – Columbus Blue Jackets (81 points)
• 10th Place – Ottawa Senators (77 points)

The Lowdown: The four teams that were in places seven through 10 in the East last week are the same four teams in the mix this week. But the Bruins and Wings traded places, with Boston earning four standings points and Detroit earning only three. Although the Bruins and Wings have the same number of points, Boston gets seventh place ahead of Detroit because the Bruins have the tie-breaker.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets and Senators repeat this week in the ninth-and-10th-spots respectively. But Columbus had the best week of these four teams, earning five points.

The Senators had only four points, so the Blue Jackets gained some breathing room, even if Columbus is only four points ahead of Ottawa.

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The Bruins have the hardest remaining schedule this year, while Columbus has the fifth-hardest schedule, followed by Detroit with the seventh-hardest and Ottawa with the ninth-hardest. That means the Sens have the easiest road ahead of these four teams, but not by much.

The Senators were the only team of these four who made the playoffs last season, so it really feels like the Bruins, Wings, and Jackets all need a playoff appearance at least as much as the Sens do, if not more.

There has been a significant change in the Eastern playoff teams this year, with teams like the Buffalo Sabres as a breath of fresh air at the top of the standings. But the battle to earn a wild card playoff position in the East is going to only get more ferocious than it already is. By the time it’s all said and done, there could be some seriously-surprising results in the playoff picture. 

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