Locks (A)
Anaheim
Looking Good-to-Great on paper (B)
St. Louis
Nashville
LA Kings
Chicago
Upper-tier bubble (C)
Winnipeg
Minnesota
Colorado
Dallas
Lower-tier Bubble (D)
Calgary
San Jose
Edmonton
Vancouver
Matthewsbowl (F)
Arizona
Even if the injury bug devastates Anaheim, they're probably still making it.
I'd be shocked if a B team misses, but there can be surprises, like last year with the Kings. St. Louis seems to be the best of the Central. Chicago gets the benefit of the doubt, but if Kane doesn't play, consider me highly skeptical.
The C teams are the obvious better bubble teams, having been to the dance last year or the year before from the Central (so mostly on their own merit and not the shootout failings of other teams in the division), but they do all have holes, whether it's goaltending (WPG, MIN, DAL), replaced and/or depleted scoring (WPG, MIN (mainly the shell of the human being that was Thomas Vanek), COL), a shaky d-corps (DAL, COL)... There's space for Edmonton and Calgary to rise, I know there is. But these teams, on paper, are just better.
Calgary is the best of the lower-tier bubble and they could easily bump out one of the other teams - they could very well be a higher-bubble team for acquiring Hamilton for a used jock strap, but I hate Calgary, so... Edmonton is on the rise, but we're the Oilers, so seriously, how many times are you going to fall for that gag? Vancouver, despite Benning's best efforts, is still a lower bubble team because Sedins and, tbt, they've got a pretty decent d-corps. San Jose is also still a lower bubble team, without any sort of identity but with all the right talented pieces - I have a bad feeling about Martin Jones going more Scrivens than Schneider.
I mean, Mike Smith could re-emerge, OEL could lift a team onto his back and Domi could win the Calder. And you don't want to count out stingy Tippett... If Arizona doesn't get last, it'll probably be us.
EDIT - Playoff bracket:
Anaheim v Colorado (WC2)
St. Louis v Winnipeg (WC1)
LAK v Calgary
Chicago v Nashville