NHL Playoff Picture 2023: Bracket Predictions and Teams to Watch

The battle of New York. A Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs rematch. Playoff hockey in Seattle for the first time.

The potential for interesting storylines to watch in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs continues to grow. First, however, there are a few major decisions left to be made in the final 12 days of the regular season. Among them are the wild-card spots up for grabs in both conferences and the still-undecided Western Conference title.

Here's a glimpse of how the 2023 playoff seeding might end up—and a look at three squads that, no matter how these next two weeks shake out, hockey fans should be watching as the postseason begins.

Eastern Conference

1. Boston Bruins

2. Carolina Hurricanes

3. New Jersey Devils

4. Toronto Maple Leafs

5. New York Rangers

6. Tampa Bay Lightning

7. New York Islanders

8. Pittsburgh Penguins

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Western Conference

1. Vegas Golden Knights

2. Edmonton Oilers

3. Los Angeles Kings

4. Colorado Avalanche

5. Minnesota Wild

6. Dallas Stars

7. Seattle Kraken

8. Winnipeg Jets

The 2022-23 Bruins are officially one of the winningest teams in league history.

With a 4-3 victory in St. Louis to eliminate the Blues from playoff contention Sunday, the Bruins became the fourth NHL team to record 60 wins in the regular season.

If they can win three out of their five remaining games, they have the potential to beat out the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings (62-13-7) and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning (62-16-4) for the most regular-season wins in NHL history.

Neither the 1996 Red Wings nor the 2019 Lightning made it to their respective Stanley Cup Final, but the Bruins look poised for a deep playoff run in 2023.

Boston is being led on offense by a stunning breakout season from winger David Pastrňák, who became the 11th player in franchise history to record 100 points in one season with his hat trick against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.

The biggest threat the Bruins bring to the 2023 postseason, however, is that they are one of the only teams in the league to claim a true goaltending duo.

For the past two months, Boston has been leaning almost equally on Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, famous for their hugs as well as their ranking among the top four save percentages in the league, to man the crease.

When schedules condense and injuries ramp up during the postseason, having two netminders you can depend on is often the quality that separates early exiters from true contenders.

After a franchise-record 13-game winning streak in November was followed by a six-game losing streak in December, it seemed like New Jersey's early-season success might have been a fluke.

Stellar performances from a few of the most important Devils during this final stretch of the campaign means it's time to rethink that assessment.

The Devils are currently threatening to overtake the Hurricanes' spot at the top of the Metropolitan Division thanks to both a poorly timed slump from Carolina as well as stellar play from captain Nico Hischier, who put up a point per game in March, and Dougie Hamilton, who on Saturday became the second defenseman in Devils history to hit 70 points in a season.

It hasn't been all been roses for New Jersey. A 6-1 loss to the Jets on Sunday renewed worries about Mackenzie Blackwood, the backup goaltender whose inconsistent play has brought his role as backup to Vítek Vaněček into question.

But this squad does boast one element that will help it in the playoffs. In comparison to some of the other contenders, this is a team powered by younger leaders. Four of the team's top five scorers, including Hischier and 40-goal scorer Jack Hughes, are 24 years old or younger.

That youth—and the mood in New Jersey, where fans are excited to have a contender playing in Newark for the first time in years—could bring enough energy to propel the Devils deep into the postseason.

The deadly combination of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl has not yet been enough to get the Oilers past the conference finals—but that has the potential to change this year.

The Oilers are enjoying career campaigns from both McDavid and Draisaitl, which is saying something for players with multiple 110-plus-point seasons under their belts.

What's more, for the first time, they are being backed up by a third triple-digit producer. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is three points away from his 100th of the season.

Thanks to Nugent-Hopkins' breakout year and a career campaign from Zach Hyman, whose 80 points so far beat his previous personal-best season total by 26, the Oilers have more firepower coming from numbers outside of 97 and 29 than ever.

This Edmonton squad also has another element that has been missing for stretches of the McDavid era: goaltending.

Stuart Skinner was named the NHL's Rookie of the Month for March after leading the league with 10 wins in 12 games (10-1-1), including a 43-save shutout against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday.

Skinner is a huge part of the reason the Oilers have won nine of their last 10 games (9-0-1), making them a threat to overtake the Golden Knights for the No. 1 spot in the West and giving them dangerous momentum heading into the playoffs.