One of the few guarantees in life used to be the Detroit Red Wings making the playoffs.

The Red Wings made the post-season every year for a quarter century between 1991 and 2016, with current general manager Steve Yzerman playing a starring role for many of those teams, including a few that went on to win the Stanley Cup. Now, the Wings aren’t just having a tough time getting back to the summit — they’ve struggled just getting back to the dance.

Detroit has missed the playoffs for close to a decade, and just when it seemed like the drought was coming to an end, the Wings are suddenly seeing their post-season hopes slip away. The Red Wings are now one point out of a wild-card spot after spending the majority of the season locked in a top-three spot in the Atlantic. Teams like the Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets seem to pick up points just about every night, leaving Detroit struggling to keep pace.

After a big win over the Sabres on Friday, Saturday’s loss to the Philadelphia Flyers was a massive missed opportunity. Ottawa, Columbus and Pittsburgh — teams the Wings are fighting with for a playoff spot — all lost in regulation, not to mention the Flyers’ victory put them back into the mix as well. If Detroit wants to qualify for the tournament, there’s going to be a ton of work to do over the last few weeks of the season.

The Red Wings had been somewhat insulated from criticism for their playoff drought thanks to the futile Sabres having a lengthier one. But that is coming to an end this season, and Buffalo looks like it’s going to be a post-season mainstay for the foreseeable future. If Detroit doesn’t collect itself and find its way in, fingers are going to start being squarely pointed at Yzerman for any shortcomings.

Yzerman deserves to be on the hot seat if Detroit fails to make post-season

When Yzerman took over in 2019, he planned to rebuild and stockpile picks and young prospects — an outlook affectionately known as the Yzerplan. Quickly put into action, it has seen the Wings re-stock the cupboards and create a new core of talent with players like Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, Simon Edvinsson and Marco Kasper. There is more talent to come as well, with the likes of Sebastian Cossa, Nate Danielson and others.

The influx of new faces has yet to pay major dividends on the ice, though. Detroit made some strides two years ago while narrowly missing the playoffs, but took a step back last season. There are still depth issues down the middle and on the blue line the Wings need to improve upon.

If they fail to make the playoffs this season, the seventh in Yzerman’s tenure as general manager, fans will no doubt start to get restless. Seven seasons is an eternity for a rebuild, and while the Wings are clearly in a better state today compared to when Yzerman took over, it could be difficult to justify continuing down the same path without some success and tangible results.

It really does feel like Detroit is starting to turn a corner, even if it is happening as slowly as an ocean liner rounding a peninsula. That said, things can change quickly, and Detroit should look no further than division rival Buffalo as an example. It really did feel like the Sabres were going to watch another season spiral into disaster before they suddenly turned things around. Buffalo fired general manager Kevyn Adams during its early-season struggles, only to suddenly watch the team he built turn into a wagon seemingly overnight. Now, the Sabres could very well end up finishing first in the Eastern Conference. That doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing is going to happen in Detroit, but you can certainly see the makings of a good young team coming together in the Motor City.

You also can’t fault Yzerman for trying to improve the team this year in a wide-open conference at the deadline. I do think he could’ve made a bigger splash, though he added Justin Faulk and David Perron to the group in an environment that appeared difficult to make trades. He also traded for John Gibson last summer to help solidify the goaltending, and he has been excellent.

In a season where Toronto and Florida are going to miss the playoffs in the Atlantic, and potentially Ottawa or Boston as well, it would be very disappointing if Detroit can’t capitalize. Patience should definitely be running thin in the Wings organization, but moving on from Yzerman would still be a little bit hasty.

Few players have had the type of season Macklin Celebrini is putting together before their 20th birthday. The San Jose Sharks forward is easily going to eclipse 100 points and remains in the Hart conversation as we head into the final month of the campaign. Any chances at winning the award will likely hinge on the Sharks making the playoffs, something that could be a long shot. San Jose had lost six in a row prior to Saturday, in part because Celebrini was starting to slow down. As he goes, they go. Celebrini had just a single assist in five games before picking up a pair of points Saturday, and the Sharks are now 1-16-3 in games where he doesn’t record a point. Given his recent lengthy slump, it’s fair to say Celebrini is hitting a wall after all the hockey he’s played this year.

Celebrini has been so outstanding this season that it’s easy to forget he’s still only 19. Two years ago, in his final season at Boston University, Celebrini played in just 38 games, and as a rookie, he was limited to 70 because of injury. Grinding through a full NHL season is a big adjustment for any 19-year-old, especially under these circumstances, with the Olympics having condensed the NHL schedule, giving teams more back-to-backs and fewer nights off. Plus, Celebrini played at said Olympics. He’s also skating massive minutes for the Sharks, averaging 21:24 per night. It’s completely understandable if Celebrini isn’t clicking at the rate he did earlier in the year, but unfortunately for the Sharks, their post-season hopes are hinging on Celebrini finishing strong.

Joel Hofer will be the Blues’ starting goalie next season

It may not be the ideal time for it, but Joel Hofer is playing some very good hockey down the stretch. Unfortunately, the St. Louis Blues are out of the playoff race and would be better off increasing their lottery odds, though that’s been tough to do with Hofer between the pipes. The 25-year-old owns an incredible .959 save percentage in March and has won six of his past eight starts. Hofer has also allowed more than two goals in only one of his eight appearances this month. He’s starting to put together a pretty decent sample size over the past three seasons and now boasts a .909 career save percentage, with six shutouts in 2025-26. Given the way Jordan Binnington has struggled in recent years, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Hofer take over the starting duties in 2026-27.

Hofer’s play is too hard to ignore. There’s been a lot of grace given to Binnington because of how he guided the Blues to a Stanley Cup victory, but that was several years ago. Since then, he’s mostly regressed, bottoming out this year with an .873 save percentage. There’s also a possibility that Binnington could be traded this off-season. St. Louis was trying to sell around the deadline, and with Binnington heading into the final year of his deal at $6 million with a rising cap, his contract is a lot more moveable. Hofer could easily be the goaltender of the future for the Blues, and even if Binnington returns, he may find himself in a backup role moving forward.

The league should go back to the 1 vs. 8 playoff format

It’s almost time for a tradition unlike any other. No, not The Masters. I’m talking about the annual complaints about the NHL’s playoff format. A large majority of fans have been unhappy with the current setup for years and have been hoping the league would eventually go back to the 1-vs.-8 model.

Some of those complaints are certainly justified. This new format was created to spark new rivalries, but instead, we’re often seeing high-profile teams bow out in the first round while others have much easier paths. This year, the Central may arguably have the three best teams in the league, but two of those are guaranteed to miss out on the conference finals. Meanwhile, the entire Pacific division would not be better than ninth place if they were in the Eastern Conference. Is it finally time for the league to go back to the old playoff format?

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t hate the current structure. For one, knowing the path you have to take and what teams you have to go through to make a deep playoff run should inform how you build your team. Do the Minnesota Wild go all in on a Quinn Hughes trade without an eye on the Colorado-Dallas gauntlet? Perhaps, but realizing early on they had to topple two of the league’s best teams if they want to make a conference final run probably pushed Bill Guerin to go all out to improve his squad.

Plus, you get a lot of really good first-round matchups. Some might say it’s better to try to save those for the conference finals, but usually by that point, teams are so banged up that the quality of hockey drops considerably. There’s a good chance that by Round 3, a handful of players from every team are being held together by scotch tape, and quite a few probably wouldn’t even be playing if it were the regular season. Having your best matchups earlier rather than later helps showcase a better product on the ice.

The strength of teams and divisions is very cyclical, so maybe the Central will have a tough go of it this post-season, though there’s no guarantee what next year will bring. Organizations need to look around their division and build a team that can compete with anybody and push to improve at the trade deadline, since it doesn’t sound like there’s any appetite from the league to change the format anytime soon.

If you are a general manager hoping to transform your team in free agency this summer, you’re likely going to be very disappointed. It’s a very thin free-agent class, and with Nick Schmaltz coming off the board recently with a contract extension, it’s maybe most bleak at the centre position. That could mean someone like Charlie Coyle, who is having a career season for the Blue Jackets, could be the most sought-after centre on the market. The 34-year-old already has 55 points on the season, so he figures to easily surpass his career high of 60. It’s the perfect time for Coyle to have a huge season, but at his age and with so many teams desperate for help down the middle, there’s a big risk of someone giving Coyle a contract they’re going to regret.

The biggest issue with a Coyle contract this summer is going to be term. At 34, the Blue Jackets forward is likely going to be looking for as much of it as he can get, considering his age and the fact that this might be his last/best shot to cash in. It’s a dangerous proposition for a team hoping to sign him, as Coyle has only cleared the 50-point mark three times in his career, with one of those coming nearly a decade ago. Someone is likely going to be desperate enough to give him a lucrative deal, though. Too many teams have a need for a centre, and there just isn’t much available. With the cap going up, an organization will surely convince itself it can afford to overspend a bit on Coyle, even with the risk the deal may not age well. Buyer beware.