CALIFORNIA — With each NHL team facing ten or fewer games before the regular season concludes on April 16, the three California franchises — the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks — are each positioned differently in the Western Conference playoff race. The Ducks lead the Pacific Division, while the Kings and Sharks trail other teams for wild-card positioning.

The Ducks hold 87 points and 24 regulation wins through 74 games, sitting atop the Pacific Division. According to Stathletes, Anaheim has a 99.9% chance of qualifying for the postseason. The Sharks, with 75 points and 22 regulation wins through 72 games, carry a 60.5% playoff probability, according to Stathletes. The Kings, at 76 points and 19 regulation wins through 73 games, have a 22.6% chance of reaching the playoffs, according to Stathletes.

Both the Kings and Sharks trail the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights for Pacific Division playoff seeds. They also sit behind the Nashville Predators for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. San Jose, however, holds games in hand on several of the teams it is chasing — one on Los Angeles, two on Nashville and three on both Edmonton and Vegas.

The Kings have the second-fewest regulation wins in the NHL this season, with only the Vancouver Canucks having fewer. The Canucks hold the league's fewest regulation wins and are 20 points below the next-worst team in the standings.

It remains mathematically possible for all three California teams to qualify for the playoffs. That scenario would require either the Oilers or the Golden Knights to lose enough games in the final stretch for Los Angeles and San Jose to overtake them in the standings.

Two of the three California clubs face off on Wednesday, when the Ducks play the Sharks at 9 p.m. ET on TNT. That same evening, the Kings host the St. Louis Blues at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN+.