As the NHL’s 2025-26 regular season approaches its final stretch, several teams are heading towards the ‘mushy middle’ of the league. This is a position where a team is not good enough to contend for a championship, but also not bad enough to land a lottery draft pick.
It’s a dead zone where no team wants to be at season’s end.
Teams Stuck in No Man’s Land
This year’s ‘mushy middle’ teams include a recent Stanley Cup winner transitioning to a new era, an underachieving team with high hopes, and veteran-laden rosters unlikely to surge into a playoff spot.
Nashville Predators’ Mediocrity
Some hockey pundits believed the Nashville Predators wouldn’t be a playoff team this season, and that could still be the case. The Preds have been feisty this season, pushing closer to a playoff spot than they deserve to be, possibly to their detriment.
Nashville is 19 points ahead of the last-place Vancouver Canucks, but seven points away from being fourth in the Central Division.
The Predators have an aging core. GM Barry Trotz did very little at the trade deadline, dealing only right winger Michael McCarron and left winger Michael Bunting, among other minor moves.
They held onto Steven Stamkos, Ryan O’Reilly and Jonathan Marchessault, all of whom could’ve fast-tracked Nashville’s rebuilding process by acquiring draft picks and prospects. The Preds need generational talents to build around for the next decade, but that didn’t happen at the deadline.
The result is that the Preds aren’t strong enough to make the playoffs, but they’re too good to land a top-five draft pick. They’re almost the dictionary definition of a mushy middle team.
Although there will be a GM change in the future, the Predators still lack the type of young, foundational talent that wins Cups. Until they change their competitive philosophy, the Preds will be destined for mediocrity, which doesn’t serve Nashville’s fan base well.
New Jersey Devils’ Unfulfilled Potential
Hopes were high for the New Jersey Devils this season, and in recent years. However, the group New Jersey GM Tom Fitzgerald put together this season has consistently played like it was less than the sum of its parts.
With only 17 games left to play this season, the Devils are in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division, 15th place in the Eastern Conference, and 12 points behind the eighth-place Boston Bruins. New Jersey is also four points ahead of the 16th-place New York Rangers.
On the trade front, Fitzgerald didn’t make the big-swing move many expected from him, making only a minor trade that sent veteran left winger Ondrej Palat to the New York Islanders for right winger Maxim Tsyplakov.
While New Jersey’s prospect pool is promising, the bigger issue
Mushy Middle Consequences
- Teams are not good enough to contend for a championship
- Teams are not bad enough to land a lottery draft pick
- Teams are in a dead zone
The Predators need generational talents to build around for the next decade.