{"id":386800,"date":"2026-01-02T16:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T16:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/386800\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T16:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T16:31:14","slug":"sitting-26th-on-new-years-day-what-history-says-about-the-calgary-flames-season-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/386800\/","title":{"rendered":"Sitting 26th on New Year\u2019s Day: What history says about the Calgary Flames\u2019 season so far"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we cross over to 2026, the Calgary Flames rank 26th in the NHL based on points percentage. While they\u2019ve been much better as of late<\/a>, sitting 26th on January 1st means the team still has a lot of work to do to get into the playoffs.<\/p>\n

So how have teams that rank 26th when the calendar flips to the new year fared at season\u2019s end, and are the Flames fighting an uphill battle? Let\u2019s break it down.<\/p>\n

26th overall hasn\u2019t been kind to teams<\/p>\n

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but if history is any indication, the Flames will be in tough to make the playoffs by season\u2019s end. Here\u2019s how the last 10 teams that ranked 26th on New Year\u2019s Day finished their seasons. All numbers are courtesy of NHL.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Season26th place team (by points %)NHL rank at season\u2019s endPlayoffs?Final Draft Spot2025-26Calgary Flames??2024\u201325 (32 teams)Detroit Red Wings21stMissed by 5 points13th2023\u201324 (32 teams)Buffalo Sabres22ndMissed by 7 points11th2022\u201323 (32 teams)Montreal Canadiens28thMissed by 24 points5th2021-22 (32 teams)Chicago Blackhawks27thMissed by 29 points7th2019\u201320 (31 teams)Ottawa Senators30th*Missed by 19 points5th2018\u201319 (31 teams)St. Louis Blues12thWon Stanley Cup31st2017-18 (31 teams)Edmonton Oilers23rdMissed by 17 points10th2016\u201317 (30 teams)Vancouver Canucks29thMissed by 25 points5th2015-16 (30 teams)Winnipeg Jets25thMissed by 9 points2nd (won lottery)2014-15 (30 teams)Philadelphia Flyers24thMissed by 14 points7th<\/p>\n

The playoffs don\u2019t happen often<\/p>\n

Well, if you\u2019re Don Maloney and the Flames management group, you\u2019re looking at the 2018\u201319 season as a reason to continue pushing the idea that the start of the season was a blip. That year, the St. Louis Blues entered 2019 as the 26th-ranked team in the NHL, only to end the year as Stanley Cup champions. The Blues ended up going 30\u201310\u20135 once the calendar flipped to the new year. Can the Flames do the same?<\/p>\n

Outside of that, once in a lifetime Blues team, every other team that entered the new year in 26th failed to make the playoffs. Some got closer than others, but none of them were able to climb their way into a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

A top-three draft spot is a distant dream<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re looking at worst-case scenarios, it\u2019s continuing to play well, but narrowly missing the playoffs. AKA the Calgary Flames way and their current path in 2026. Funny enough, the closest near misses both happened in the past two seasons. Those examples were the 2024\u201325 Red Wings and the 2023\u201324 Sabres, who missed by five points and seven points, respectively.<\/p>\n

So while both of those teams had strong results from January to April, both still ended up falling short of the playoffs, while also missing out on a top draft pick. The Red Wings ended up picking 13th, and the Sabres ended up with the 11th overall pick.<\/p>\n

On the opposite end of the spectrum, it\u2019s much more common for the 26th-ranked team to remain where they are in the standings or sink even lower. Of the last 10 teams, seven of them ended up landing a top 10 pick in the draft.<\/p>\n

The bad news for those hoping for a top-three pick is that none of the past 10 26th-ranked teams ended up picking in the top-four (without lottery luck). The highest non-lottery pick has been 5th overall, which the 2022\u201323 Canadiens, 2019\u201320 Senators, and 2016\u201317 Canucks all achieved.<\/p>\n

Stuck in the middle<\/p>\n

As is always the case in Calgary, the Flames once again seem stuck in the middle of the NHL standings. As history has shown, the 26th-place team on New Year\u2019s Day rarely makes the playoffs, while also never picking in the top-four of the NHL draft without some lottery luck. Here\u2019s hoping the Flames can buck that trend in 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we cross over to 2026, the Calgary Flames rank 26th in the NHL based on points percentage.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,2626,896,5,49625,4,182],"class_list":["post-386800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-calgary-flames","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-flames","tag-calgaryflames","tag-draft-lottery","tag-flames","tag-hockey","tag-new-years","tag-nhl","tag-playoffs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115826464089509305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386800","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=386800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}