Which 2025-26 bubble playoff team would be the scariest Round 1 opponent?
It’s hard to believe it, but we have less than a month remaining in the 2025-26 NHL regular season. The incredible parity means a shocking number of teams are still warring on the playoff bubbles in each conference, and we know a finite number can make it.
Among those bubble-tier teams in the Wildcard range…Which one is the scariest potential Round 1 opponent, capable of upsetting a high seed?
MATT LARKIN: It’s the Columbus Blue Jackets for me. Since Rick Bowness took the reins from Dean Evason in the shocking January coaching change, the Jackets have the sixth-best expected goals share in the NHL at 5-on-5. They boast a game-changing defenseman in Zach Werenski; one of the best young goaltenders in the league in Jet Greaves; sneaky-good forward depth, especially at center; and one of the best two-way players in the game in Kirill Marchenko. They look like a group who could push almost anyone in the wide-open East across a seven-game series.
PAUL PIDUTTI: Love the Columbus pick, Matt. Along those same lines, it’s the suddenly-confident Ottawa Senators for me. Travis Green’s crew has had exceptional underlying metrics all season. Now, they’re finally getting the NHL-caliber goaltending needed to string together wins. Make no mistake: the Sens wanted to build on last year’s return to the playoffs, so this isn’t a team playing with house money like the Sharks in the Western Conference. But the now-Pesky Sens are the trifecta of a credible underdog: they have the revenge angle of a team written off most of the season; they know major changes are in order if this year proves a step back; and they’ll have to be playing exceptional hockey to slip in. You love to see it.
STEVEN ELLIS: Maybe a shot in the dark, but how about the New York Islanders? They’ve exceeded all expectations this year, and Matthew Schaefer has been incredible. They have been one of the best teams in the NHL the past two months and have done that without any high-end scoring. Instead, Schaefer has been electric, Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat have played some of their best hockey of the year, and guys like J-G Pageau, Simon Holmstrom and even Cal Ritchie have looked good. Ilya Sorokin has proven he can come up huge, too. It’s not an exciting team, but if they can channel those COVID-level shutdown performances that made them so difficult to go against at the start of the 2020s, they could be in good shape.
ANTHONY TRUDEAU: Nabbing Mackenzie Weegar from Calgary gave the Utah Mammoth one of the deepest, most well-rounded defensive corps in the NHL. Staggering captain Clayton Keller (44 P in last 42 GP) and play-driving sniper Dylan Guenther (33 G) across different lines has buoyed coach Andre Tourigny’s offense, and Karel Vejmelka has been a competent workhorse goalie in Salt Lake City. The Mammoth are good, and they might be lucky, too; the new kids on the block will likely finish seventh and end up on the same side of the bracket as a lousy Pacific Division. Would Utah even be an underdog against a sluggish old Vegas outfit that can’t buy a save? What about an upstart Ducks squad that has shown neither interest in nor aptitude for defense, or the notoriously top-heavy Edmonton Oilers possibly sans Leon Draisaitl? All the Mammoth need to do is knock off two out of three to get to the Western Conference Final. Nothing comes easy in the spring, but that’s doable.
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POST SPONSORED BY bet365
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