There will be good teams in the NHL’s Eastern Conference that don’t make the playoffs in 2023-24, and it stands to reason that at least one not-so-good team in the Western Conference will qualify for the postseason.
Even after a Stanley Cup champion was crowned out of the Pacific, the current disparity between the East and West has been affirmed this offseason. And there might not be a worse division than the Central as a new NHL calendar nears.
That’s good news for the Avalanche, a consensus Cup contender recently named the best team in the league by Sportsnet.