Three surprising playoff contenders have emerged at NHL's halfway point

The 2023-24 NHL season has officially reached the halfway point and some surprising teams have emerged as unexpected Stanley Cup contenders.

A lot of the usual suspects are at the top of the list (Colorado Avalanche, Boston Bruins, Dallas Stars, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Las Vegas Golden Knights, Los Angeles Kings) but there are a handful of teams that nobody expected to be in the playoff hunt that has rapidly emerged. Let's take a look at three of them.

Winnipeg Jets

The Jets have been one of the league's most mediocre teams for about a decade now. When they do make the playoffs, it is typically as a bottom seed and one that does not find much success. They don't make many changes to their roster and typically keep things the same. However, everything has seemed to click with the roster this season and the Jets enter Friday on an eight-game winning streak, a 9-0-1 record in their past 10 games and the league's best overall record. 

They have some depth concerns that might need to be addressed but possess great top-line talent (Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers) and one of the league's best goalies in Connor Hellebuyck. Hellebuyck has helped the Jets allow the fewest goals in the league per game, averaging just 2.29 goals against. What makes this current hot streak so impressive is that it has been done entirely without their best goal-scorer — Kyle Connor — who has not played since Dec. 10 due to an injury. 

Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks are just behind the Jets as of Friday and own the second-best record in the NHL. While the Jets are the NHL's best team at preventing goals, the Canucks are the highest-scoring team in the league averaging more than 3.90 goals per game (0.22 more than the next closest team.)

Their success is being driven by their current top line of Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser. All three players are among the top 15 in points league-wide, while Boeser (28) and Pettersson (22) are in the top 10 in goals. Additionally, the Canucks have one of the leading candidates for the Norris Trophy (best all-around defenseman) in Quinn Hughes, who finds himself in the top 10 in scoring. 

But the real difference-maker this season has been the bounce-back performance from starting goalie Thatcher Demko. After struggling through an injury-filled 2022-23 season, Demko has played like a No. 1 goalie this season and owns a .916 save percentage entering Friday. That places him 10th out of the 51 goalies that have appeared in at least 10 games this season.

Philadelphia Flyers

The Flyers are not quite on the same level as the Jets and Canucks when it comes to being serious Stanley Cup contenders, but they do have a legitimate shot to make the playoffs and even that is a stunning development. 

There were almost zero expectations for Philadelphia entering the season as it continued what was expected to be a long-term rebuild. 

But head coach John Tortorella is never going to concede anything and has his team playing tough defense (eighth in the league in goals against) while offensively possessing an aggressive forecheck that produces odd-man rushes. 

Another big factor has been the return of top-line forwards Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson. Both veterans missed the entire 2022-23 season due to injury, and there was concern as to whether or not Couturier would ever be productive again due to his back injuries. But Couturier has returned as a top-line center and already has 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) in 39 games and has been outstanding defensively.