Since NHL players returned to work after the 2026 Winter Olympics, the race to the Stanley Cup Playoffs has proceeded at a gallop.

With just one game on the schedule on Monday and less than four weeks remaining until the playoffs begin on Saturday, Apr. 18, it’s a good time to take a look at how the post-season picture is shaping up.

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A New Champion Awaits

One thing is virtually guaranteed: there will be a new champion in 2026. After going to three straight Stanley Cup Finals and winning it all in both 2024 and 2025, the Florida Panthers haven’t been able to overcome the wear-and-tear of playing a league-high 68 high-intensity playoff contests over the past three years.

Florida’s season may have been over before it began when team captain Aleksander Barkov suffered a serious knee injury in pre-season.

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At the Olympic break, the Panthers were a daunting eight points out of a wild-card spot. Over the last month, they’ve gone 5-7-0 and are now 14 points out. And while Barkov started skating in a non-contact sweater earlier this month, he has plenty of company on his team’s injured list.

If there’s a simlver lining for the Panthers, it’s that they may have worked their way back into the first round in what’s believed to be a talent-rich 2026 draft.

When GM Bill Zito traded his team’s 2026 first-rounder to Chicago on Mar. 2, 2025 as part of the deal that brought back defenseman Seth Jones, he added a condition that the Panthers would keep the pick if it lands in the top 10.

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As of Mar. 23, the Panthers’ 71 points put them 23rd in the NHL standings — exactly 10th-worst in the league. If they can hold that spot and no non-playoff team with a better finish wins the draft lottery, Florida retains the selection and will pick in the first round for the first time since choosing Mackie Samoskevich at No. 24 back in 2021. There’s also a chance that a low-odds lottery win could move Florida up by as much as five spots.

As he turned the Panthers from also-rans into champions, Zito was named a GM of the Year finalist in four of his first five seasons at the helm. He is best known for his bold trades, many of which have paid big dividends, but has moved out many high draft picks for pieces that would provide more immediate help. A top-10 pick this year would be a major addition to a currently shallow prospect pool.

Welcome Back, Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim Ducks

Like the Panthers, last year’s regular-season-best Winnipeg Jets also look poised to miss the post-season this time around — although the Jets are making a late push. Earlier in the season, they dropped all the way to last place in the league. But after being 11 points out of Western Conference wild-card spot at the Olympic break, they’ve gone 7-3-4 since their MVP goalie Connor Hellebuyck backstopped Team USA to its Olympic gold medal. As of Mar. 23, the Jets are now just five points out of the wild card. But with three teams in front of them, MoneyPuck pegs their playoff odds as slim, at just 6.8 percent.

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When good teams falter, that opens the door for others. This year, two teams that have long been absent from the playoff picture look poised to return.

For nearly four months now, the feel-good story of the 2025-26 NHL season has been the Buffalo Sabres, who have thrived since replacing their former GM Kevyn Adams with Jarmo Kekalainen on Dec. 15.

In-season changes at the general manager position are relatively rare, so that may help explain why the ‘new-GM bump’ is not as well-known as the coaching equivalent.

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The Sabres’ change of fortune actually began a few days before Kekalainen took the reins. Since Dec. 9, they’re an NHL-best 33-6-3 for 69 points, nine better than the second-place Carolina Hurricanes over the same timeframe.

Buffalo’s success has been a balanced team effort, with captain Rasmus Dahlin speaking about the brotherhood that has evolved within the group.

After 14 years outside the playoffs, the Sabres look like they made a good call when they brought back coach Lindy Ruff, 66, who’s now in the second season of his second coaching stint with his old team. With 1,927 games of NHL coaching experience, third on the all-time list, Ruff’s closest brush with the Stanley Cup came in Buffalo’s famous ‘skate-in-the-crease’ loss to the Dallas Stars in 1999.

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Currently four points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning atop the Atlantic Division, MoneyPuck gives the Sabres a 99.96 percent chance of finally returning to the post-season this spring. On top of their large and long-suffering fanbase, they’re expected to have plenty of bandwagon fans on board — perhaps even some from nearby Toronto, where the Maple Leafs are limping toward their first playoff miss since 2016.

On the other side of the country, the Anaheim Ducks sit atop the Pacific Division, poised to make their first post-season appearance since 2018.

Like Buffalo, they’re also guided by a veteran coach. Joel Quenneville, 67, won three Stanley Cups as the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2010s, and returned to the NHL with the Ducks this season after resigning from the Panthers in 2021 as part of the fallout after the investigation into sexual misconduct within the Blackhawks organization while he was coach there.

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Quenneville sits fourth all-time and third among active coaches with 1,838 games. He took over a Ducks team that is rich with young talent after re-stocking through the draft and has added some high-character veterans with plenty of playoff experience including Cup-winners Alex Killorn and, at the trade deadine, John Carlson, along with former New York Rangers Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba.

At the Olympic break, the Ducks held the second wild-card spot in the West. With a record of 9-4-1 over the last month, they have leapfrogged the faltering Seattle Kraken, Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights to take over top spot in the Pacific.

And while it’s true that the Ducks’ 82 points would rank them 10th if they were in the Eastern Conference — outside a playoff berth — momentum can be critical when the post-season begins. Anaheim’s record since the Olympic break is tied for fourth-best in the league. MoneyPuck says the Ducks’ chance of making the dance is 99.4 percent.

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In both conferences, the battle for the final playoff positions looks like it will come down to the wire.

In the East, just two points separate six teams who are fighting for five playoff spots. As of Monday, the Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Islanders are in, while the Detroit Red Wings have fallen out thanks to a 5-5-2 record since the Olympic break amid a rash of injuries.

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The Ottawa Senators could also still have something to say about the final standings. They’re four points behind the Islanders, with two games in hand ahead of their meeting with the New York Rangers in Monday night’s lone game (7:30 p.m. ET).

Despite missing top defenseman Jake Sanderson, Ottawa is 8-2-2 since the Olympics, tied for seventh-best in the league. The Senators have made up just two points in the wild-card race but MoneyPuck has their playoff odds of 54.6 percent, just slightly below the Islanders (57.1 percent) and the Red Wings (57.9 percent).

Worth noting: Columbus has climbed to 76.2 percent thanks to a luminous run since Rick Bowness took over as coach on Jan. 12. The Blue Jackets are 18-3-4 under Bowness. With a record of 8-2-4 since the Olympic Break, they’ve moved from four points out of a wild-card spot to third place in the Metropolitan Division. They’re still facing pressure but if they get in, it will be their first playoff appearance since the 2020 pandemic bubble.

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The final spot in the West may come down to a two-horse battle between the Nashville Predators and the Los Angeles Kings. Since announcing their intention to move on from GM Barry Trotz on Feb. 2, the Preds are 8-5-3. They went into the Olympic break four points out of a playoff spot and now sit in the second wild card, two points ahead of the Los Angeles.

Three points out at the Olympic break, the Kings have gained only a small amount of ground, and that has come because the Pacific Division race has been so weak. Since replacing coach Jim Hiller with D.J. Smith on Mar. 1, Los Angeles is 4-4-3.

MoneyPuck pegs the Predators’ playoff chance at 52 percent as of Mar. 23, and the Kings’ at 41.2 percent. The Kraken sit four points out but have been among the NHL’s worst teams since the Olympics, with a record of 4-9-0. The San Jose Sharks are five points out but have also lost ground over the last month, at 5-6-2.