The five longest active playoff droughts in the NHL
Playoff droughts are not created equal across the major North American pro sports. The record in Major League Baseball is 20 seasons (Seattle Mariners 2002-2021), reflective of the fact only 12 teams make it and only eight did as recently as 2011. Only 14 teams make the big dance in the NFL, up from 12 as recently as 2020. The sport’s record drought is 17 (Cleveland Browns, 2002-2019).
In the NHL and NBA, in which 16 teams make the big dance, it’s harder to miss the postseason. Which makes what has happened to the Buffalo Sabres since 2010-11 all the more shocking. In league known for its parity and annual playoff turnover in which several teams cycle out for new contenders, it’s extremely difficult to go 13 seasons in a row without postseason hockey.
Which teams have the longest active playoff droughts in the NHL? Let’s count down the top five.
5. San Jose Sharks, five seasons
Last playoff appearance: 2018-19
In the 2018 offseason, the Sharks were fresh off 13 playoff appearances in a 14-year span, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance and five division titles. They couldn’t get over the hump, so GM Doug Wilson took a big swing and acquired superstar defenseman Erik Karlsson. They made it to the Western Conference Final in his first year with the team, but the massive extension he signed in 2019 for eight years at an $11.5 million AAV ended up being the Trojan Horse that rotted the team. Joe Pavelski walked as a UFA that summer and ended up going to the Stanley Cup Final with Dallas the following season while San Jose missed the playoffs. It has taken years to clean up the mess of bad contracts, and the Sharks finally bottomed out this past season, scoring the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft and nabbing Macklin Celebrini.
4. Anaheim Ducks, six seasons
Last playoff appearance: 2017-18
It’s fascinating that, in the case of so many playoff-starved teams, the drought follows an extended period of competitiveness. The Ducks, riding the peak years of Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, had reached 11 of their previous 13 postseasons, making four Western Conference Finals and winning the Stanley Cup in 2007. But a sweep defeat in Round 1 of the 2018 playoffs gave way to a miss in 2018-19 as Getzlaf, Perry and Ryan Kesler all struggled to stay healthy. Anaheim bought out Perry that summer and the team has struggled mightily to develop high-end talent since. That appears to be changing now, as the Ducks have assembled one of the league’s most promising groups of young talent. Will the likes of Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier and Mason McTavish soon lead a shift to competitiveness?
3. Ottawa Senators, seven seasons
Last playoff appearance: 2016-17
The Sens captured some real magic during that 2016-17 playoff run. It was a dagger when the Pittsburgh Penguins KO’d them on a double-overtime winner in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final, but no one knew at the time that it was truly the end of Ottawa’s fun. In the ensuing seasons, the Sens dismantled their group, trading away Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman and many more core players. They have since assembled what is supposed to be a young core ready to make playoff runs – and they have all been paid as such on long-term deals. But Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson and Co. have not been able to steer Ottawa even close to a playoff berth since 2017. Will the acquisition of a Vezina Trophy winning goaltender in Linus Ullmark finally change that?
2. Detroit Red Wings, eight seasons
Last playoff appearance: 2015-16
By summer 2016, GM Ken Holland’s Red Wings had made the playoffs 25 consecutive seasons but were no longer any kind of threat once they got in, limping along as a veteran-laden club loaded with questionable contracts. I asked him whether the 25-year streak had actually become a curse, because it created a pressure to keep winning and handing out veteran deals when it might have been wiser to take a step backward. His response was that he couldn’t bring himself to make a determination about the team five years in the future and that he had to keep trying to win as long as he had a roster constructed to be competitive. He felt a true rebuild would require missing the playoffs five, six, seven years in a row.
Yikes, did those words ever prove prophetic. It took Detroit so long to get out from under the Justin Abdelkaders and Frans Nielsens of the world that the 25-year run indeed set them back badly, to the point Detroit has now gone eight years without making it. It’s debatable whether GM Steve Yzerman acted too rashly in free agency in the past few summers and built a veteran-heavy roster before assembling a strong enough young talent pool, but he has undeniably made the Wings more competitive. They missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker this past season, so even the tiniest amount of progression could halt the drought.
1. Buffalo Sabres, 13 seasons
Last playoff appearance: 2010-11
The granddaddy of all hockey playoff droughts. The last time Buffalo made the playoffs, Macklin Celebrini was four years old. Terry Pegula had owned them for just two months. The NHL was two seasons away from a lockout. Buffalo’s last playoff series ended nine days after season 1, episode 1 of Game of Thrones premiered. They’ve since picked in the top two of the NHL Draft four times (Sam Reinhart, Jack Eichel, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power). No matter how many times this franchise rebuilds its rebuild, it falls flat. The Sabres have made eight coaching changes since 2011, cycling through so many that they’ve come all the way back to the bench boss who last took them to the playoffs in Lindy Ruff.
Buffalo got to within a single point of ending the streak in 2022-23, only to regress by seven points and comfortably miss the big dance in 2023-24. It continues to pack its pipeline with high-end prospects, but theoretical still hasn’t translated to actual success. Coming off a summer in which the Sabres’ biggest moves were buying out Jeff Skinner and trading blue-chipper Matt Savoie for checking center Ryan McLeod, it doesn’t feel like Buffalo oozes optimism at the moment. Will the drought stretch to 14?
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