Can the Flyers make the playoffs? It’s an uphill climb, but here’s the rundown on their chances.

Denver Barkey doesn’t try to look too much. Trevor Zegras looks every day.

What they are looking at is the standings, and 66 games into a season that could have gone several ways, the Flyers are still hanging around the playoff picture.

“I’d be shocked if someone in here did not know,” Zegras said about where they are in the standings.

It’s not that they don’t know. But maybe they don’t want to know.

“Obviously, we’re pushing for it, so the odd time you check in and just see how you’re doing, and see how close you are, but personally, I try to not look at that stuff and just take it day by day, game by game,” Barkey said.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ playoff push takes a hit with 2-1 home shootout loss to Columbus

Both sides of the equation are fair because, as Owen Tippett noted, “it’s important to look at them ... [but] don’t think you need to look too much into it.”

So with a sweet 16 games left on their 2025-26 slate, and the Flyers heading west for a three-game California swing, let’s break it down.

According to MoneyPuck’s latest NHL playoff odds, the Flyers have a 5.1% chance of making the playoffs. But they are actually in two races at the moment, as they are in single-digit deficits for both the Metropolitan Division’s final two slots and the Eastern Conference’s two wild cards.

Entering Sunday, the Flyers were seven points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders for the second and third-place positions in the Metro. They have a game in hand on the Islanders, whom they face one more time this season.

“With our division, everything’s changing overnight, so I think it’s really important to always kind of keep an eye on it and see where we’re at,” Tippett said. “Obviously, coming down the stretch here, we’ve got some work to do, and use it as motivation.”

Entering Sunday, the Flyers were six points behind both the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings — who were each two points behind the Montreal Canadiens for third in the Atlantic Division and four points behind the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning — for the wild card. The Flyers have a game in hand on Detroit, with three games still to play between the two clubs.

“I think every guy in the room is one-track minded, still on getting in, there’s no ifs, ands, or buts,” defenseman Jamie Drysdale said Saturday after a 2-1 shootout loss to Columbus. “Was this an important game to get two points? Absolutely. In saying that, I think we’re not out till we’re out.

“So I think that this team could kind of build off that, and that’s kind of our attitude, and I know for a fact that that’s how everyone in our room feels.”

The short answer is: kind of.

The Flyers will obviously need help, but across their 16 remaining games, seven are against opponents standing in their way of a playoff spot (highlighted in bold below). They also face four teams (italicized below) who are lower than them in the standings, and the Anaheim Ducks, whom they face on Wednesday, are just one point above the Flyers in the NHL. However, they also face the second-best team in the NHL, the Dallas Stars, and the third-best team, the Carolina Hurricanes, too, which will be tough games.

But, a funny thing — or maybe not so funny thing, depending on how you view it — is that the Flyers sit 16th across the entire NHL. If they were in the Western Conference, they would be tied for sixth with the Utah Mammoth and quite comfy in a playoff spot. MoneyPuck projects the Flyers to finish with 89.6 points, which would put them above the San Jose Sharks — whom they face on Saturday, have a 55% chance of making the playoffs, and were the last wild card in the West entering Sunday.

Now, for the good news: the Flyers are 12-6-5 this season against the teams they face the rest of the way. However, that does not include the Red Wings, whom, by some weird quirk of the schedule, they have not played against yet.

Could the Flyers have used two points against the Blue Jackets on Saturday? Sure. But entering this stretch, the Flyers are 6-3-1 in their last 10 and have nine road games remaining (16-12-4 record this season) and seven at home (15-11-8).

“I was actually thinking about that [playing meaningful games] today — I can’t say that I’ve played too many of them in my career,” said Zegras, who has won gold at World Juniors but has never played a playoff game.

“So I think to a lot of the young guys like [Alex Bump] and Barkey, like you almost have to explain to them, that, at least from my experience, it’s not like this every year, you know?

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Garrett Wilson, 34, plays first NHL game in over six years

“And I know we’re not, like, in it, but we’re pretty close. And if we keep playing the way we’re playing, maybe sneak in and do something cool.”

The good news is that Bump, who just won a national championship with Western Michigan, and Barkey, who captained London of the Ontario Hockey League to the Memorial Cup, are two of seven players 25 or under on the roster who have played meaningful, high-pressure games.

Of the 23 players on the roster, 11 have played in a playoff game — Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Garnet Hathaway, Luke Glendening, Dan Vladař, Carl Grundström, Noah Juulsen, Nick Seeler, Owen Tippett, and Garrett Wilson. But that means 12 haven’t seen the postseason yet, including Rasmus Ristolainen, who has the NHL active record for most regular-season games played without reaching the playoffs.

“You’ve got to be careful, because you don’t want to put too much pressure on it. It’s hockey,” coach Rick Tocchet said on Saturday morning. “They’ve played hockey since they were 5 years old; just do the things that [you were doing] when you’re growing up and enjoy the game, enjoy the moment. I don’t want guys to be scared of the moment.”

Outside of just straight-up winning, the Flyers must get regulation wins. Right now, they have 20 wins in 60 minutes, tying them for second-fewest in the Eastern Conference with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are all but eliminated; the New York Rangers are last with 19.

Regulation wins are the first tiebreaker if every team reaches 82 games, and the Flyers are quite behind. The Penguins and Capitals have 28; the Senators and Bruins have 27; the Red Wings have 25; the Islanders have 24; and the Blue Jackets have 23.

If two or more teams are tied in points when the regular season ends, here is how the standings are determined: