In the salary-cap era, it has become common in the NHL to see teams quickly rise from being in the basement one season to competitive the next -- and to see clubs fall from atop their division to mediocrity.
Use the Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens from last season as examples. Florida outpaced projections by winning the Atlantic Division, and Montreal, in large part due to an injury to superstar goalie Carey Price, sank from the top to sixth place. The Dallas Stars were second to last in the Central two seasons ago and then won the division last season, while the Vancouver Canucks dipped from second in the Pacific in 2014-15 to second to last in 2015-16.
While rises and falls happen every season, worst-to-first or first-to-worst scenarios are pretty rare these days. It has happened only once since the league changed to its current divisional format in 2013-14. The Colorado Avalanche slipped from the top of the Central in 2013-14 to last place the following season.
This season, circumstances may allow for another huge leap from the bottom to division champion or a slide from the top all the way to the cellar. Let's have a look at the candidates for this season (ranked from most likely to least likely to go worst to first or first to worst):