{"id":334245,"date":"2025-12-02T17:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T17:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/334245\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T17:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T17:20:09","slug":"playoffs-or-draft-lottery-can-the-calgary-flames-continue-to-inch-closer-to-a-playoff-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/334245\/","title":{"rendered":"Playoffs or draft lottery: Can the Calgary Flames continue to inch closer to a playoff spot?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Calgary Flames\u2019 hot stretch continued last week, bringing their record to 4-1-1 in their last six. That\u2019s points in five of six games, something that seemed impossible back in October. Just like that, the Flames now sit just five points out of a playoff spot, albeit with two extra games played. With their recent shift in results<\/a>, are the playoffs looking like an actual possibility again? Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n

Current NHL standings<\/p>\n

As mentioned, the Flames are somehow only five points out of the playoffs now. With that said, they\u2019re still in the NHL\u2019s basement at the same time.<\/p>\n

TeamRecordPoints %Toronto Maple Leafs11-11-3.500St. Louis Blues9-10-7.481Vancouver Canucks10-13-3.442Calgary Flames9-14-4.407Nashville Predators8-13-4.400<\/p>\n

Even with the Flames picking up points in five of their past six, they still sit second last in the NHL ahead of only the dreadful Predators. They\u2019ve finally passed the .400 point percentage threshold though, so that\u2019s a win at least. Their five wins in their last 10 are also the most of any bottom-five team right now.<\/p>\n

Path to the playoffs<\/p>\n

So, if the organization still believes the playoffs are still possible, what must the Flames do in the remaining 55 games to get there? Well, the outlook actually looks worse than it did a week ago due to a pair of losses to Tampa Bay and Carolina.<\/p>\n

For this exercise, let\u2019s assume 97 points is the playoff cut-off this year, as that was the organization\u2019s very vocal target coming into the year. Here are some different outcomes and how close they\u2019d leave the Flames to the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Point % in Final 55 GamesSeason-end Point Total.55083.595 (Flames in 2024\u201325)87.677 (Flames in 2021\u201322)96<\/p>\n

The Flames\u2019 playoff hopes continue to look out of reach when you consider how well they have to play the rest of the way to sneak in. Even with a recent stretch of .750 hockey across six games, they\u2019d still need to play .677 hockey in the remaining 55 games to even get to 96 points and a wild card spot.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve watched the Flames this year, you\u2019d know just how unsustainable their recent stretch is, so counting on them to play .677 hockey for the next four months seems like a stretch. Only four teams in the entire NHL have played at that pace so far this season: the Avalanche, the Stars, the Lightning, and the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

If they manage to replicate their point pace from last season (.595) when they nearly made the playoffs, they\u2019d still come nowhere close to the playoffs with only 87 points at year\u2019s end. That pace would still leave them around 10 points shy of the playoffs, likely.<\/p>\n

Road to a top-five pick<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s take a look at the reverse, and see where the Flames could land in the draft lottery based on different results the rest of the season. Their recent stretch has hurt their odds a bit, but make no mistake, this is still very much a bottom-feeder team.<\/p>\n

For context, the bottom five in the NHL last year ranged from 52 points in dead last to 76 points in fifth last to 82 points in 10th last.<\/p>\n

Point % in Final 62 GamesSeason-end Point Total.407 (current pace)67.409 (Flames in 1997\u201398, worst pace in franchise history)67.470 (2013\u201314 Flames, highest draft pick in franchise history)74.50077<\/p>\n

Even with a hot stretch of late, the Flames still seem destined for a spot in the bottom five. If they continue to play at their same pace for the rest of the season, they\u2019d end the year with only 67 points. That total would\u2019ve been good for third last in the NHL in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

If the Flames were to play .500 hockey the rest of the way, they\u2019d still manage to land at just 77 points. That would\u2019ve placed them seventh last in 2024-25, and just a single point out of fourth last. In other words, middle-of-the-road hockey for the next 55 games will still lead to a top six or seven draft pick when it\u2019s all said and done.<\/p>\n

Signs of a turnaround?<\/p>\n

Even with a hot stretch of late, the Flames\u2019 playoff hopes remain incredibly small. Unless the team keeps up their play of late for another 55 games, a bottom-10 finish for the Flames and a place in the lottery still seems likely despite what ownership wants you to believe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Calgary Flames\u2019 hot stretch continued last week, bringing their record to 4-1-1 in their last six. That\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,896,5,43732,4,2968,43733,43734,43735],"class_list":{"0":"post-334245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-calgary","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-calgaryflames","11":"tag-flames","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-lottery-team","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-nhl-standings","16":"tag-playoff-chances","17":"tag-playoff-odds-flames","18":"tag-standings-projections"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115651125375273409","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}