NHL wild card race watch: Major movement in the Eastern Conference, Predators continue to roll

NHL wild card race watch: Major movement in the Eastern Conference, Predators continue to roll originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The NHL’s 2025-26 regular season is winding down, but the Stanley Cup playoff picture is heating up, especially for the teams fighting to earn a wild card berth.

Once again, there are fluctuations in the NHL standings, with some teams falling out of the playoff picture and other teams that weren’t on our list last week suddenly surging into a post-season spot. We’re not going to be surprised if that’s the way things unfold the rest of the way this season. The parity in the league is such that a team in 11th or 12th place in the conference one week could be in seventh or eighth place the following week.

So you should expect more change right through the final games of the season. With that noted, let’s get to it and dive into this latest edition of the Wild Card Watch: Western Conference: 7th Place – Utah Mammoth (80 points) 8th Place – Nashville Predators (77 points) 9th Place – Los Angeles Kings (74 points) 10th Place – Seattle Kraken (72 points) The Lowdown: The West has seen many teams move in and out of its two wild card positions. Last week, the Mammoth held the first wild card spot, with 73 points, and they’ve put together a strong week to maintain their hold on that spot.

But surging up the standings are the Predators, who were in 11th place in the West last week with 69 points, but who’ve climbed to the second wild card spot after posting eight points. With the Kings hanging on to ninth place, and the Preds and Kraken in the eighth and 10th spots, respectively, the team that got pushed out is the San Jose Sharks , who sit in 12th after going 2-6-2 in their past 10 games and are on a five-game losing skid. The Sharks are crumbling at the worst time, and they now need help to get back into the playoff conversation.