A deeper look into the 13 teams that have yet to play in a championship round in the big four North American professional sports leagues.
With the NFL playoffs quickly approaching and the regular seasons for the NBA and NHL well underway, sports fans of all kinds are looking forward with either cautious optimism or more of the same frustration.
As I mentioned in part one of this series, an integral part of sports fandom and the communal experience associated with it is the shared misery experienced upon a heartbreaking loss. While fans of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Lakers have a long list of triumphs they’ve seen their teams achieve, most other sports fans in the U.S. and Canada are in prolonged pain.
Though these pieces focus on the teams that have never even made it to the championship round in their respective league, there are plenty of franchises who have made it before and are mired in decades of poor play.
Take that from essentially any fan of a Canadian NHL team – the Ottawa Senators, Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets are all awaiting their first-ever Stanley Cup, while a Canadian team hasn’t won the prized trophy since 1993 when the Montreal Canadiens took home their 24th Stanley Cup.
Fans of several NFL teams who were not mentioned in part one fall into this camp – the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions have both never been to the Super Bowl, previously winning championships in the preceding era when there was an NFL Championship Game. Other teams, such as the Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Chargers and Minnesota Vikings also remain in long-term suffering despite appearing in a Super Bowl previously.
After part one explored the first seven teams to still hold this distinction, here’s a quick look into the other six franchises that are still left waiting for a shot at glory:
1. New Orleans Pelicans
The second team on this list with a revised franchise history, the Pelicans’ official franchise history begins in 2002, following the relocation of the original Charlotte Hornets to New Orleans, with the team known as the New Orleans Hornets from 2002 to 2013.
Despite a competitive era in the late 2000’s led by Chris Paul and a generational first overall draft pick in Zion Williamson in 2019, the Pelicans haven’t sniffed the NBA finals in their first 23 seasons as a team.
The team’s deepest run came in 2008, the same season Chris Paul finished as the NBA MVP runner-up. Despite holding 2-0 and 3-2 leads in the Western Conference Semifinals, the San Antonio Spurs rallied back to eliminate the Hornets in a seven-game series.
The Pelicans have made it to the Conference Semifinals on just one other occasion, a five-game defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors in 2018.
Fans in the Big Easy shouldn’t be expecting much to change in 2026, with the Pelicans off to an abysmal 3-15 start, holding the worst record in the Western Conference.
2. Columbus Blue Jackets
Established in 2000 as part of a two-team expansion to the NHL, the Blue Jackets remain the only professional sports team in Ohio’s largest city – and their franchise history hasn’t exactly been illustrious.
The Blue Jackets have made just six playoff appearances in their first 24 seasons as a franchise, only making it out of the first round on two occasions – occurring in back-to-back seasons in 2019 and 2020.
The 2018-19 team remains the most accomplished in Blue Jackets history, with the club pulling off one of the most remarkable playoff series upsets of all-time in recent sports history, sweeping the Presidents’ Trophy winning Tampa Bay Lightning in four emphatic wins.
Though an incredible series victory, the slipper did not quite fit Columbus’ foot that season, with the Jackets falling to the Boston Bruins in six games in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Columbus is off to an 11-9-3 start to the 2025-26 season, holding seventh place of eight teams in the NHL’s Metropolitan Division.
3. Minnesota Wild
The other team added to the NHL alongside the Blue Jackets, the Wild helped fill a notable void in Minnesota by ending a seven-season absence from the league in the Hockey State following the relocation of the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas.
While the Wild has never been short on fan support, the franchise has developed a reputation for routinely falling short in the postseason. The Wild has made the postseason in 14 of their 24 seasons thus far, though only one of those runs made it as far as the Western Conference Finals – coming in their first-ever playoff appearance.
The accomplishments of the Cinderella story 2002-03 Wild remain the peak for the franchise, with the Wild upsetting the Colorado Avalanche and Vancouver Canucks in seven-game series’ in the first two rounds before falling to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in a four-game sweep in the Western Conference Finals.
Despite playoff appearances in eight of the past 10 seasons, the Wild has failed to make it out of the first round in each of those campaigns, last winning a playoff series in the first round of the 2015 playoffs against the St. Louis Blues.
Minnesota currently holds a 12-7-4 record, occupying a playoff position and third place in the Central Division behind the Avalanche and Dallas Stars.
4. Winnipeg Jets
Not related to the original Winnipeg Jets who went on to become the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes in 1996, this iteration of the Jets began play in 1999 as the Atlanta Thrashers, with the team located in Atlanta from 1999 to 2011.
Based in Winnipeg since the start of the 2011-12 season, the Jets have come across more playoff success in Winnipeg than in Atlanta, but are still hungry for their first Cup Final appearance. The franchise made just a single playoff appearance as the Thrashers, getting swept by the New York Rangers in the first round of the 2007 playoffs.
The Jets have made the postseason eight times since moving to Winnipeg, with the team’s deepest run coming in 2018 with a trip to the Western Conference Finals. After taking down the Wild and Nashville Predators in the first two rounds of the postseason, the Jets fell in just five games to the first-year expansion Vegas Golden Knights.
Winnipeg has failed to find the steam to make it back to that point since, falling short to the Stars in the Second Round of the Western Conference playoffs last season after a miraculous comeback in Game 7 of the First Round against the Blues.
Winnipeg is off to a 12-9-0 start to the 2025-26 season, currently out of a playoff position and in fifth place in the Central Division.
5. Seattle Kraken
The league’s second-newest team, the Kraken began play in the 2021-22 season as the league’s first team in Seattle, completing a long-awaited expansion to the American Pacific Northwest.
The Kraken has compiled mostly mediocre results as a franchise thus far, though it has come with one impressive playoff run in their second season as a team. After a surprising 100-point season, the Kraken dethroned the defending champion Avalanche in seven games in the First Round before falling in a seven-game defeat to the Stars in the Second Round.
The 14-game rendezvous remains the franchise’s lone playoff appearance, though things are looking up for the Kraken so far this season. Seattle is off to an 11-5-6 start to the season, holding a playoff position and second place in the NHL’s Pacific Division.
6. Utah Mammoth
The league’s newest franchise, the Mammoth began play last season as the Utah Hockey Club, technically starting as an expansion franchise despite taking on the assets of the former Arizona Coyotes.
Therefore, the Mammoth’s history does not include the playoff runs of the Coyotes and original Winnipeg Jets, who failed to make it past the Western Conference Finals in their deepest playoff run.
The Mammoth was a solid team in their first season, posting 89 points and finishing seven points behind the final playoff qualifier in the Blues. The franchise is off to a decent start this season as well, holding a 12-8-3 record while holding a Wild Card spot and fourth place in the Central Division.
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