5 NHL teams that will face a “playoffs or bust” season in 2024-25

Each year, you have teams that will be in “playoffs or bust” mode, and the 2024-25 season will be no different. Some of the teams who were in that predicament this season include the New Jersey Devils and the Calgary Flames, a pair of organizations that made some dramatic changes this season. 

The Flames appeared to be mired with a mediocre record for the second year in a row, and it made sense for them to ‘sell’ some of their better-known players. Things should be no different this summer as the organization looks to at least retool for the future. 

New Jersey found themselves in a similar situation, firing head coach Lindy Ruff in March, before ‘selling’ at the trade deadline while acquiring a couple of fill-in goaltenders who weren’t going to save the season. 

Quite a few NHL teams will be in “playoffs or bust” mode next season

Now that the 2023-24 regular season is almost finished and the playoff positions are (almost) all but set, a few organizations will find themselves in a similar predicament next year if they don’t make the postseason. Since the phrase “playoffs or bust” is subjective to an extent, not every franchise listed below will be going through a complete dismantling and rebuild if they don’t make it to the 2025 postseason, but changes will be inevitable. 

Two teams might see a new general manager and head coach in charge, even if retooling or completely rebuilding the organization may not be necessary. Another pair of teams should see complete rebuilds if they don’t make the playoffs next season, while another on this list could go in either direction. 

So, which franchises have no choice but to make the 2025 postseason if they hope to keep their respective organizations moving smoothly? Let’s start with one of the league’s biggest disappointments. 

Buffalo Sabres

There is no other way to put it for the Buffalo Sabres, whose playoff drought turned 13 last week. Most of this drought has come courtesy of constantly vetting front offices and coaches, but that ended when Kevyn Adams took over as general manager, and Don Granato was promoted to head coach. 

Now that Adams and Granato will be entering their fourth full season together, the time for building this organization has ended. The Sabres have the league’s best prospects pool, but it’s justifiable that the fans will no longer be proud of that. Prospect pipelines don’t punch tickets into the postseason unless they’re actively helping out the big club or if they have players getting traded elsewhere for established talent who will help out the big club. 

Adams and Granato can promote goaltender Devon Levi to the NHL full-time next season, as he’s been everything they expected him to be in Rochester, while Ryan Johnson, Jiri Kulich, and perhaps Isak Rosen can join them. If that were to occur, they would still be entering their first full seasons in the NHL, meaning Adams must also start trading others so this team can be everything next year that they were supposed to be in 2023-24. 

If he doesn’t and the Sabres struggle through another year like they’ve had between October 2023 and April 2024, both the general manager and the coach could be handed their walking papers. Anything less than a playoff appearance in Year 4 of the Adams/Granato era - Year 5, if you count the year they promoted Granato - will be a failure. 

Pittsburgh Penguins

Assuming the Penguins bring back Sidney Crosby and they make another run at the playoffs, general manager Kyle Dubas must build a team with so much playoff-caliber potential, it’s all but a guarantee the Pittsburgh Penguins will return to the postseason in 2025. If not, then there should be no point to keep this aging team together any longer, and someone must be brave enough to dismantle it. 

Crosby, along with Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell, Erik Karlsson, Ryan Graves, and Kris Letang still hold value, but if they can’t punch a ticket into at least the final weeks of April with what theoretically should be a better hockey team, it makes no sense to keep falling short. 

This season, we saw the Calgary Flames stick around the playoff race, but they weren’t afraid to start ‘selling.’ Fortunately for the Penguins, they have players who hold far more value even at their advanced ages. 

Trading who he can and retaining a few contracts along the way would load the Penguins with future NHLers who should eventually find themselves on the top-six or the top-four, and they would also acquire plenty of draft picks for 2025, 2026, 2027, and likely, even 2028. It would require a year or two of “rebuilding,” but give it a couple of seasons, and the fans would thank Dubas. 

Washington Capitals

There are a few teams on this list who were sitting in a top-three spot in their respective divisions at one point or another this season, and the Washington Capitals were the most recent addition until the New York Islanders had other ideas. But the Caps are also a mediocre team playing in the NHL’s weakest division, evidenced by their minus-40 goal differential heading into the season’s final full week. 

Whether they make the playoffs come the end of the week is irrelevant - this isn’t a good hockey team, and if the Metropolitan Division improves next season, if, say, the New Jersey Devils or even the Pittsburgh Penguins get better, it will show just how weak the Capitals are. 

Like the Penguins, this is an older hockey team, and it may be time to start moving some of those players who have been there for a while. Seeing the likes of Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson head elsewhere for 2025-26 and beyond while T.J. Oshie likely retiring would be strange for Capitals fans, but as with the Penguins, it would be time for a new era in the nation’s capital. 

But why keep a team together that’s continually falling short, even if they have an icon like Ovechkin? Like Crosby, he would still hold value if the Capitals don’t make the playoffs in 2024-25, so make the trade and get what you will. 

Seattle Kraken

The Seattle Kraken are the NHL’s version of the Carolina Panthers, if we’re making a sound comparison. In 1996, the Panthers made the playoffs in just their second season and they won their very first playoff game, much like the Kraken won their first playoff series. Ironically enough, the Panthers defeated the defending Super Bowl Champions, the Dallas Cowboys, to win that game, just as the Kraken beat the defending Stanley Cup Champs, the Colorado Avalanche. 

Carolina didn’t have much in the following seasons, and that may be the case for the Kraken, who could not earn a playoff berth in their third year of play. And if the Kraken miss the playoffs for the third time in their first four seasons, plus for the second year running, should they really continue with head coach Dave Hakstol?

The Kraken would have several pending notable unrestricted free agents for 2026 and 2027, meaning if the “playoffs or bust” mantra went into effect for this young franchise, it’s wise for them to make some trades in the summer of 2025 and start rebuilding. 

It would be a painful process for Kraken fans, especially with their rival, the Vegas Golden Knights, thriving. But a rebuild would at least give the fan base more hope than nominal contention year in and year out.