{"id":508643,"date":"2026-03-17T23:50:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/508643\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T23:50:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:50:03","slug":"a-look-at-the-current-state-of-vgks-points-to-elimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/508643\/","title":{"rendered":"A Look At The Current State Of VGK’s Points To Elimination"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a> (Photo Credit: @GoldenKnights on X\/Twitter)<\/p>\n

There are just 15 games left on the schedule, which means it\u2019s officially time to start checking in on Points To Elimination.<\/p>\n

For those new to SinBin.vegas, Points To Elimination is a stat we created<\/a> in Year 1 to track exactly how close the Golden Knights are to clinching a playoff berth. Like a \u201cmagic number\u201d in baseball, Points To Elimination are ticked off each time Vegas earn points and when opposing teams fail to earn them.<\/p>\n

Current VGK Points To Elimination
Vancouver 5
Calgary 14
Los Angeles 26
Seattle 28
Edmonton 28
San Jose 29
Anaheim 32<\/p>\n

Chicago 18
St. Louis 19
Winnipeg 23
Nashville 24
Utah 29
Minnesota 41
Dallas 49
Colorado 54<\/p>\n

To clinch a playoff berth, the Golden Knights need to reduce the number to zero for either five teams in the Pacific or eight teams in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

With 15 games to go, VGK have a total of 30 points in their control. Every other team in the West has between 14 and 17 games left. Here\u2019s a look at the percentage of points necessary for the Golden Knights to eliminate each team. (These are points won by VGK or lost by each team)<\/p>\n

Percentage of available points needed for VGK to eliminate
Vancouver 8.1%
Calgary 23.3%
Los Angeles 43.3%
Seattle 45.2%
San Jose 45.2%
Edmonton 48.3%
Anaheim 53.3%<\/p>\n

Chicago 29.0%
St. Louis 31.7%
Winnipeg 37.1%
Nashville 37.1%
Utah 50.0%
Minnesota 70.7%
Dallas 81.7%
Colorado 87.1%<\/p>\n

VGK can \u201celiminate\u201d Vancouver as soon as Thursday, as each team has two games. If the Golden Knights win them both, the Canucks would just have to lose one game in any fashion to become the first team checked off the list.<\/p>\n

(Reminder: Points To Elimination are calculated solely in relation to the Golden Knights. So, the number reaching zero means they cannot pass Vegas. It does NOT mean that team cannot reach the playoffs.)<\/p>\n

Based on the numbers, it\u2019s extremely likely VGK will eliminate Vancouver, Calgary, Chicago, St. Louis, Winnipeg, and Nashville. That means to clinch a playoff berth, they\u2019ll only need to knock out two more teams.<\/p>\n

Another way to look at it is to consider how many points each team can get if the Golden Knights reach a certain plateau. VGK currently have 76 points with 15 games to go. Let\u2019s show aggressive, conservative, and pessimistic options.<\/p>\n

How many points each team would need to finish above Vegas
(Points percentage needed in parentheses)<\/p>\n

Aggressive
*VGK collect 20 points in the final 15 games, finish with 96 points*<\/p>\n

Anaheim \u2013 18 (.533)
Edmonton \u2013 20 (.714)
Seattle \u2013 24 (.750)
Los Angeles \u2013 24 (.800)
San Jose \u2013 25 (.735)<\/p>\n

Colorado \u2013 0
Dallas \u2013 1 (.033)
Minnesota \u2013 7 (.250)
Utah \u2013 19 (.679)<\/p>\n

Conservative
*VGK collect 15 points in the final 15 games, finish with 91 points*<\/p>\n

Anaheim \u2013 13 (.433)
Edmonton \u2013 15 (.536)
Seattle \u2013 19 (.594)
Los Angeles \u2013 19 (.633)
San Jose \u2013 20 (.588)<\/p>\n

Colorado \u2013 0
Dallas \u2013 0
Minnesota \u2013 2 (.071)
Utah \u2013 14 (.500)<\/p>\n

Pessimistic
*VGK collect 11 points in the final 15 games, finish with 87 points*<\/p>\n

Anaheim \u2013 9 (.300)
Edmonton \u2013 11 (.393)
Seattle \u2013 15 (.469)
Los Angeles \u2013 15 (.500)
San Jose \u2013 16 (.471)<\/p>\n

Colorado \u2013 0
Dallas \u2013 0
Minnesota \u2013 0
Utah \u2013 10 (.357)<\/p>\n

So, as you can see, the Golden Knights pretty clearly control their own destiny. It\u2019s no surprise that the projections still have VGK at a 90% or better chance to reach the playoffs.<\/p>\n

They just have to stay the course and not slip up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo Credit: @GoldenKnights on X\/Twitter) There are just 15 games left on the schedule, which means it\u2019s officially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,182,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-508643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-goldenknights","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-playoffs","13":"tag-vegas","14":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","15":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116247202720212697","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508643","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=508643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}