It’s kind of funny.

For all the narrative about the struggles of the Vancouver Canucks in the 2024/25 season, those Canucks remain in a playoff position – at least as of this writing.

This is a team, after all, that has made the postseason exactly twice in the last decade or so. By that context, just being in the playoff picture should be counted as a success. And yet, the achievements of the 2023/24 Canucks were such that expectations were raised to new heights.

Just being on the edge of the playoffs isn’t going to cut it this year. Especially not when the Canucks are trending in a general downward direction, and not with so much pressure on them from other teams below them in the standings.

Fans didn’t come into this season looking for a dramatic, down-to-the-wire race for a playoff spot. But that’s what they might end up with all the same.

As of this writing, the Canucks are hanging on to the last Wild Card spot in the Western Conference at an 18-12-10 record for 46 points and a .575 point-percentage. That puts them a full six points behind the Los Angeles Kings for third in the Pacific Division, with the Kings holding two games in hand.

At this point, the Canucks moving down seems more possible, at least in the immediate future, than their moving up. So, which teams are the biggest threat to them from below? Well, that’s what this article is all about.

Technically speaking, the Flames are the closest team to catching the Canucks right now. They’re just a single win away from it as these words are written, and so there’s a decent chance they’ve already done it by the time you read them.

And yet the Flames don’t feel like an exceptionally dangerous threat. They started the season out hotter than they had every right to, and have since sunk to about where most predicted them to finish – on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.

But the Flames are competitive enough right now to ensure that they won’t be selling off pieces, and that means the Canucks will be forced to take them seriously from here on out. The Flames are healthy, they’ve got a better record than the Canucks over the last ten, and rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf is beginning to be a difference-maker.

With just one game left against each other on the schedule, Vancouver and Calgary won’t have much say in the other’s fortunes. But that one game could wind up being a fairly significant one.

The Blues, like the Flames, are a team that wasn’t really expected to be even this good at the outset of the season. But their point total is also a bit of a mirage, because they’re tied for the most games played in the Western Conference at 43.

The numbers that should more concern the Canucks are the record over the last ten and the goal differential, which makes St. Louis the only team below the Canucks in the standing with an equal differential to them. Those numbers, and the fact that the Blues have already begun to make additions to their roster, like Cam Fowler.

A run of success for Jordan Binnington as Canada’s starter at the 4 Nations Face-Off could lead to the Blues being a very hot club in the second half, and that makes them worth worrying about at least a little.

No one really knew what to expect out of the untitled Utah team this year. They charged pretty hard out of the gate, perhaps boosted by the excitement of the move, but have flagged of late, and are trending toward dropping below .500 in the next few games.

But Utah has also had some key players return to health lately, especially on their blueline. They’re also facing one of the easier remaining schedules in the league. And they’re also, in general, a younger team on the rise with plenty of players who could still give more.

Call the Utah Hockey Club the truest wild card in the Wild Card race right now. There’s a decent chance that the remaining two games the Canucks have against the Utahns are of some importance.

Of all the teams completing a rebuild in the West at the moment, the Ducks seemed like the team most poised to start making some noise in 2024/25. And they have, to an extent. The Ducks have rose up out of the very dregs of the standings and have put together some snatches of good play.

Swapping out Fowler, effectively, for Jacob Trouba might make the Ducks a more well-rounded team, and that’s a good thing, because their biggest weakness is their defensive porousness. Then again, goalie John Gibson is both back to health and back to playing like a real starter, and that should stem the tide of goals against in and of itself.

One saving grace here is that, as young as they are, the Ducks won’t feel the need to make an especially strong push for the playoffs. They may even sell off more parts in the coming weeks. That doesn’t mean they can’t make a push, points-wise, all the same, but it lessens the chances. 

We’re starting the stretch the definition of ‘threat’ here. The Kraken haven’t been in the picture much this year, and now they’ve fallen to a 2-7-1 record over their last ten, at the same time they’ve been hit by a couple key injuries.

Chances are the Kraken, with the third-hardest remaining strength of schedule, have dug themselves too deep a hole to climb out of. Two more games against them will allow the Canucks to play a hand in shoving their regional rivals even further into the cellar.

Honestly, we shouldn’t have listed the Predators here. They’re way too far out of it at this point.

But…they did have a famously hot second-half to the 2023/24 season. And they are drastically underperforming the composition of their own roster. And they do have the third-easiest remaining strength of schedule in the entire NHL.

Chances are good the Predators are already out of it. But then again, stranger things have happened…