Between now and the end of the 2024-25 regular season, we’ll update the standings – both for the playoff race and 2025 draft lottery positioning – the day after every Seattle Kraken game.
For Incurable Optimist Seattle Kraken Fans (Feb. 24, 2025)
In each of the four NHL divisions, the top three teams qualify for the postseason. The 7th and 8th playoff qualifiers are the two remaining teams in each conference with the most points (“Wild Card 1” and “Wild Card 2”).
Western Conference “Wild Card 2” is what the Seattle Kraken are chasing. Our first table shows the current occupant of the West’s final playoff spot, and the distance between them and the Kraken.
Significantly complicating matters for Seattle is that four other Western Conference teams are ahead of the Kraken in the standings, also trying to catch Vancouver for the final playoff spot. A check of websites which deal in playoff probabilities reveals the Kraken’s chances as “not bloody likely.”
Until the Kraken’s chances improve beyond “not bloody likely,” we won’t trouble you with standings tiebreaker minutiae.
For Realistic Seattle Kraken Fans (Feb. 24, 2025)
Teams without realistic playoff hopes down the stretch try to take comfort in the hopes of landing a franchise-changing player in the next NHL Draft. It’s not that simple, of course, and one reason is that sports leagues in recent years have taken steps to de-incentivize “tanking” – purposely losing games for a better draft position.
These days, the 16 non-playoff teams (or any team that has acquired one of the 16’s 1st round draft pick) are involved in a pre-draft lottery. Highlights of the rules from TSN.ca:
- The Draft Lottery is a weighted system to determine the order of selection for the first 16 picks of the Draft. (The key is the word “weighted.”)
- Only the top two spots in the draft are determined by the lottery.
- A team can move up a max of 10 spots, making 11 eligible for the first overall pick.
- A team can win the lottery no more than twice in a five-year span.
There’s quite a bit more intricacy to it, but because I like you, I’ll spare the fine print.
The word “weighted” is what counts when looking at the standings. The worse a team’s record, the better the chance of moving up to first or second pick. Got all that? Don’t worry, neither do I. Our final table shows the Draft Lottery sweepstakes.
