Finding 3 positive thoughts for each of the NHL’s 15 most hopeless teams

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The theme of this post is kindness.

As in, let’s be kind to the fans of the league’s worst teams. It’s easy to forget these days, as some fans watch their teams fight for a playoff spot and others are already thinking about the Stanley Cup, that not all of us are having fun right now. Some of us cheer for teams that are already out of the playoff hunt, and in some cases might have been for months now.

That’s where the kindness comes in. Let’s show empathy and basic human decency to those fans, the ones who have the misfortune of rooting for one of those horrible, embarrassing, miserable loser teams.

I’ll admit that last sentence could have gone better. Kindness isn’t easy. But it can be instructive.

For example, we did this post last year, featuring 11 teams. Of those 11 teams who were in bad shape, two — the Devils and Senators — have already clinched playoff spots this year. Another, the Canadiens, is about to join them. Optimism can be real.

Um, and one of those 11 teams ceased to exist a few days after the column ran. So sure, a mixed bag. Let’s stay focused on the positive. Kindness, remember.

According to Dom’s model, there are 15 teams that are either eliminated from playoff contention or have odds of less than 1 percent. In other words, they’re done. And they could probably use a kind word or two. Well, we’re going to give them three, as in three positive thoughts in a season of despair.

As always, we’ll do this in order, starting from the easiest team to be positive about and working our way down to the most challenging.

15. Utah Hockey Club

The negative: After being a trendy playoff pick, they only sort of stayed in the race, ending up stuck in the mushy middle.

Positive thought #1: Guys, you have a team now. I’d call that an improvement over last year.

Positive thought #2: Maybe someday soon you’ll even get a real name.

Positive thought #3: Last summer was chaos, understandably so, and it was probably unrealistic for folks like me to expect Utah to light up the offseason. But now you have that first season under your belt, plenty of prospects, a few extra picks for down the road and an owner with actual money. This year was the awkward pilot episode; the fun starts in a few weeks.

OK, “you didn’t exist before but now you do” is about as easy as this gets. Let’s keep going …

14. San Jose Sharks

The negative: You’re going to finish dead last for the second year in a row. Is that bad? It seems bad.

Positive thought #1: You have Macklin Celebrini, who didn’t just live up to expectations but may have already passed Connor Bedard on the next-big-thing rankings.

Positive thought #2: You’ve got lots of other great young players both in the lineup and on the way, and unlike a lot of rebuilding teams, that talent is spread out through every position, including goaltending. Mix in extra first-round picks in each of the next two drafts, and no team has a brighter future.

Positive thought #3: Honestly, why did you even click on this article? I feel like you’ve had enough smoke blown up your caudal fins. We get it, you’re going to be amazing soon, leave some young talent for the rest of us.

13. Columbus Blue Jackets

The negative: After shocking the hockey world by staying in the playoff race into March, a six-game losing streak dashed their wild-card chances. Now they’ll probably both miss the playoffs and pick outside the top 10.

Positive thought #1: Coming off a 27-win season followed by the Johnny Gaudreau tragedy, the Blue Jackets didn’t just exceed expectations — they shattered them. It’s possible no other team silenced as many doubters as Columbus did.

Positive thought #2: More important than the plaudits, though, is how the Blue Jackets got here. Start with Zach Werenski, who made The Leap into the Norris conversation. Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli look like future studs, Kirill Marchenko is pretty much there, and just about all the other young pieces are living up to expectations or exceeding them. The goaltending is an issue, sure, but that’s both a big problem and one that can be solved in one move, if it’s the right one. The point is that this season doesn’t feel like a one-off fluke, and if anything, Dean Evason has this team looking like they’re finally on the verge of being real contenders.

Positive thought #3: Along the way, they became the league’s best story and everyone’s second favorite team. Seriously, if this were a reality show, the Blue Jackets would be the contestant who gets the standing ovation from the other competitors on their way out. In an unimaginably tough season, you did us all proud.

Spoiler: This is the part where the difficulty starts to ramp up …

12. Anaheim Ducks

The negative: They made some progress this year, but was it enough, or is the ceiling on this group starting to lower?

Positive thought #1: If you had to choose one young player on the team to have a breakthrough, Lukas Dostal wouldn’t be a bad pick. He doesn’t just solidify the goaltending outlook for years to come, but might help make a John Gibson trade finally happen with just two years left to go on that deal.

Positive thought #2: Speaking of contracts, the cap outlook is excellent and there are no UFAs you’d worry about for at least two more years.

Positive thought #3: While the overall numbers for some of the younger players weren’t great, guys such as Leo Carlsson and Mason McTavish were more productive as the season went on. And Jackson LaCombe might be on the verge of becoming a legitimate blue-line star (and is super cheap for another year).

The Ducks are steadily making progress with good and sometimes great seasons from their young stars. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

11. Philadelphia Flyers

The negative: A year after flirting with the playoffs, the Flyers collapsed down the stretch, losing 18 of 27, which led to a weird coaching change.

Positive thought #1: Any team can play the “we’ll improve if our goaltending does” card, but few teams can do it with as much confidence as the Flyers. The goaltending will absolutely be better next year, and probably significantly so, because it could hardly be worse.

Positive thought #2: Matvei Michkov looks like the real deal. No, he didn’t come in and dominate the league, and he won’t win the Calder we all assumed was his for the taking. But he’s here, a lot earlier than anyone expected, and he’s already showing he belongs. The big swing in 2023 worked, and that was the single biggest thing you could hope for heading into this season.

Positive thought #3: John Tortorella is a very good coach, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t the wrong guy for this team at this time. Look around the league at some of the new-coach bounces in places such as Columbus, Ottawa, Winnipeg and St. Louis. Get this hire right, and the baseline can be reset.

10. Chicago Blackhawks

The negative: In what was supposed to be a season where they’d take a big step forward, the Hawks seemed to regress. Maybe even worse, Connor Bedard hasn’t looked like the next great superstar and is even occasionally hearing the word “bust.”

Positive thought #1: Bedard will be fine. Yes, the year-two Hart Trophy stuff was way out over its skis, but he’s had two 60-point seasons already. Leon Draisaitl had 60 points total in his first two years. Joe Thornton didn’t get over 60 until year three. Nathan MacKinnon had 63 as a rookie and then didn’t top that until year five. Trust in the talent.

Positive thought #2: Not that Hawks fans don’t know this, but the pipeline remains great. Just stop being mean to Corey.

Positive thought #3: Mitch Marner’s people are going to convince him to take $15 million to be the face of the franchise in the summer, and by the time he realizes he’s made a huge mistake, it will be too late.

9. Vancouver Canucks

The negative: They followed a 109-point season with a near-total collapse full of infighting, drama and (eventually) a roster detonation. Now they’ve missed the playoffs, everyone thinks their coach is about to head to Philadelphia, Brock Boeser is probably gone and they’re still not sure if their $11.6 million forward is worth anywhere near that.

Positive thought #1: Let’s start with the obvious — Quinn Hughes absolutely rocks. He’s also young, signed cheap for a few more years and plays the position that’s the toughest to find sure-things to build around. There’s lots of work to do in Vancouver, no doubt, but they have just about the best foundational piece you could ask for to start from.

Positive thought #2: Hey, remember that comeback against Dallas? That was fun. In fact, let’s watch it again:

Good times.

Positive thought #3: I know it seems bad now, as you head toward the finish line of an 80-something-point season and miss the playoffs with little in the way of optimism. But I remember a team that was in a similar situation two years ago, and then they improved by 26 points pretty much out of nowhere. That would be the Vancouver Canucks. Hockey’s weird, is the point here, and this team’s true talent is probably somewhere in between the extremes of 2023-24 and this year. That’s not a bad starting point for a retool, especially on a team where basically nobody important is over 30 yet.

8. New York Islanders

The negative: A team whose entire strategy seems to be “be old and boring and just barely good enough to sneak into the playoffs” got the old and boring part pretty much right, but didn’t come all that close to sneaking into the playoffs.

Positive thought #1: Mathew Barzal got hurt and missed 52 games. He’s their best offensive player, so you can give them a bit of a mulligan for struggling to score.

Positive thought #2: Ilya Sorokin didn’t exactly have a rebound season, but he looked OK and is back as the clear starter. Given there’s really no world where the Islanders contend without Sorokin being a star, we’ll squeeze whatever positivity we can out of his season.

Positive thought #3: Um … I mean, you got to see the Alex Ovechkin goal up close, which was extremely cool. Let’s rewatch that a few times while we wait for a new GM to arrive and start fixing this mess.

7. Seattle Kraken

The negative: You kind of forgot they were a thing, didn’t you?

Positive thought #1: It took a while, but it sure looks like Shane Wright is going to be a legitimate NHLer after all, and maybe even one who lives up to some of that draft-year hype.

Positive thought #2: Speaking of top-five picks, there could be another one on the way this year. Remember, this team has had only two high picks in its entire history, and building from scratch is tough without those.

Positive thought #3: Don’t forget they added two more firsts at the deadline. Not for this year’s draft, unfortunately, but having 2026 and 2027 picks from an aging Lightning squad isn’t a bad bet at all. Bottom line: The present is extremely uninspiring, but the future is … well, maybe not bright, but at least mildly luminous.

After a circuitous start to his NHL career, Shane Wright is starting to live up to his draft pedigree. (Steve Roberts / Imagn Images)

Man, there are six teams that are bigger bummers than the Kraken? Rough year. OK, let’s keep going.

6. Detroit Red Wings

The negative: After falling just short of the wild-card last year, the Wings took a step back while being passed by several teams they were supposed to be ahead of in the rebuild process.

Positive thought #1: Hey, remember how painful it was to miss the playoffs by a single point last year? At least they didn’t put you through that again.

Positive thought #2: The goaltending wasn’t great, yet again. But unlike other teams on this list, the Wings have the future all set at the position. Now it’s just a case of waiting for that future to arrive.

Positive thought #3: This one applies to a lot of teams on this list, but just take a minute to look at this year’s Montreal Canadiens. They had 76 points last year, and everyone figured they had a few more years of steady progress ahead of them to get back into the playoffs. Now they’re (probably) there, just one year later. It can happen way quicker than the experts think.

5. New York Rangers

The negative: After winning the 2024 Presidents’ Trophy with 114 points, they are currently on pace for (checks numbers) not 114 points.

Positive thought #1: Coming into the season, the big question was whether they could get Igor Shesterkin signed. And they did. Yep. Sure did.

Positive thought #2: You probably can’t tear it down this summer, because everyone other than Artemi Panarin is locked in for years to come. Fine. But this was the best team in the league one regular season ago. Assuming a new coach and front office to refresh the vibe, are we sure they can’t at least be a playoff team, and maybe much more than that if Shesterkin heats up? Like, completely sure? I’m not.

Positive thought #3: Do you know what happened the last time the Rangers went from Presidents’ Trophy winner to missing the playoffs in one year? Let’s just say the following season turned out OK.

4. Boston Bruins

The negative: After years of contending, the Bruins’ window didn’t just close, it slammed shut and then shattered all over the floor. Just two years removed from arguably the best regular season in NHL history, they’re on pace to miss the playoffs by 20 points.

Positive thought #1: As painful as the season was, missing by a mile is a far better result for this franchise than falling just short. There can’t be any excuses now, or any talk of just needing a mild reset. This organization has kicked the can down the road on tough decisions over the years, and it has paid off. But a reckoning is needed and this season will make sure that it happens. (And they’re actually set up to do it in the summer, if they choose to.)

Positive thought #2: You’re going to pick in the top 10 for the first time since 2011, and maybe even in the top five. You haven’t been this excited for a draft since 2015, and that was … OK, bad example, the point is that high picks are good. Usually.

Positive thought #3: You get to hate-watch Brad Marchand in the playoffs for the first time. It’s a lot of fun, you’re going to love it.

3. Pittsburgh Penguins

The negative: They’re old and expensive and bad, which would at least open up some opportunity for their prospects, except they don’t have any.

Positive thought #1: (Insert “rigged lottery” joke that’s so old and worn out that the Penguins just gave it a long-term contract.)

Positive thought #2: Next season’s cap situation isn’t great, but a ton of money comes off the books in the summer of 2026. This might be a long rebuild project, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.

Positive thought #3: Honestly, the next few years could be rough. But you’re going to get to watch Sidney Crosby while it happens, which will be more fun than fans of most teams get to have in a lifetime. Enjoy that part of the present, reminisce on a wonderful past, and the future will get here. Eventually.

Sidney Crosby is still every inch the game-breaking superstar even at 37, which is far more than many other teams can boast. (Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)

2. Nashville Predators

The negative: After a frantic summer that was supposed to push them into contention, they crashed badly and now look like a capped-out mess.

Positive thought #1: Well, at least there’s no cap money for another UFA spending spree this summer.

Positive thought #2: They haven’t had a top-five pick since 2013, when they took Seth Jones. And the only other one besides that was David Legwand in their very first draft. That’s somehow it, for the entire history of the franchise. Now they’re guaranteed one this year, even if the lottery gods smite them twice.

Positive thought #3: Speaking of guarantees, the Predators are the only team in the league who are completely locked into their standings spot. That means there’s literally no reason for their fans to be watching any hockey for the next few days. It’s spring and you live in Nashville. Go have fun, try to forget this season ever happened and just be glad you’re not these next guys …

1. Buffalo Sabres

The negative: It’s been 14 years since their last playoff game. Four years since the fan base appeared to hit rock bottom. Twenty-two months since they watched the franchise savior who quit on them be rewarded with a Stanley Cup. And most important of all, two years since they finished a 91-point season, their first time finishing over .500 since 2012, to finally signal that better days were ahead and they were ready to contend for the playoffs.

And … they took a big step backward. Again. Again!

I’ve been doing this column gimmick since the Grantland days, and the Sabres have been in every single one. In 2019 I wrote, “It could be worse.” In 2021 I wrote, “It can’t get any worse.” In 2017 I wrote, “Eventually some super volcano will erupt and none of this will matter,” and I’m kind of mad about that because I could sure use that line now.

Honestly, I don’t know how you Sabres fans do it.

Here’s the worst part: Those last four paragraphs were just a straight cut-and-paste from last year. All I changed were the lengths of time. I’ve literally run out of words to describe how miserable it is to be a Sabres fan, which isn’t great because coming up with words is my whole job. I’m reduced to just tapping the sign.

Did I mention that I don’t know how you Sabres fans do it? Because I don’t know how you Sabres fans do it. And by “it,” I mean find the will to live. On that note, here we go:

Positive thought #1: I mean, at least you didn’t have to CTRL + F to figure out where your team would rank like all the other fan bases did.

Positive thought #2: Hey, remember how last year the Coyotes were on this list and then they ceased to exist apart from a vague and non-binding promise to someday get to start all over with an expansion team? Maybe that could happen to the Sabres!

Positive thought #3: OK, fine, let’s do this. As bad as it’s been, you’re not starting from scratch. You’ve got some pieces up front, including a 27-year-old giant who can score 40+ without much support. The blue line is young and promising. The goaltending might be OK for now, and the future outlook is actually decent. It’s all added up to something nowhere near good enough, but there’s plenty to work with here.

There’s also plenty of cap room, which unfortunately leads us into ownership and the front office. And yeah, this doesn’t feel like an organization that’s built to win much of anything. But that can change. You have to think it will change, if not this summer then very soon.

Most of this ultimately falls on Terry Pegula, and sure, a bad owner is usually a death sentence for a fan base’s hopes. The difference with Pegula is that he’s having success with the Bills, meaning there’s at least proof of concept here. With most bad NHL owners, it’s impossible to imagine them ever winning anything. With Pegula, you don’t even have to look all that far to see it happening. So … maybe, right?

That “maybe” is the best I can do here. But for Sabres fans, unquestionably the most loyal and downtrodden fan base in the league, maybe it’s all they need. If you’re still a fan of this team after the last 14 years, then you might not even need that. What do you need? A stiff drink and a time machine, probably. But failing that, a little hope can go a long way. The Sabres have a little hope. Very little, fine, but a little.

Just know that the rest of us are rooting for it to pay off for you someday. Or at least that you let some other team have the top spot on next year’s list.

(Top photo: Luke Hales / Getty Images)

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