Who's making the playoffs in S94?

[scoop 3,448]

Sometimes going into the season, it's not clear who will make the playoffs. I do feel like it's more often a case of there being more than five teams trying to compete, as opposed to fewer than five. That is to say, it's more likely that a team that would like to make the playoffs is left out, rather than a team making the playoffs simply because they are the best of the bad teams. This is why the playoffs are so unpredictable; there are almost always five teams that have a real shot at winning any series. This season, it looks like we have five teams in both conferences that I would label as contenders, making it easy to predict who will be making the playoffs. I don't necessarily thinks it's a guarantee, as teams that look good may underachieve while questionable teams exceed expectations, but I'm fairly confident about which teams will make the post-season.

 

North America

Seattle, Toronto, New York, Chicago, Vancouver

 

In no particular order, these are the five teams I believe will make the playoffs this season. Each of them could have a shot at winning a championship, though I do believe some have some work left to be done on their roster. I do think there is a fairly clear divide between the top five and the bottom three in North America. Teams like Toronto and New York will rely heavily on a few of their best players, while Seattle and Chicago have very balanced rosters with no glaring weaknesses. Vancouver is probably first in my ranking of the teams, but from one to five all teams have the potential to be competitive. The other three teams are simply not trying to compete, and I would be shocked if any of them are in the playoff picture at the end of the season.

 

Europe

Malmo, London, Moscow, Warsaw, Riga

 

While I do think Europe's bad teams look better than North America's, I don't see Davos or Helsinki making a serious run at a playoff spot. Riga is definitely the team that I think could be in jeopardy of not making it, but I don't give that much of a chance. None of the three teams that I have missing the playoffs have any stars on their roster, and while teams like Malmo, Moscow, and Riga all arguably have just one elite player on their roster, they have supporting casts that are noticeably better than the three non-playoff teams.

[CaptainSB 117]

Any predictions for the minors?