NHL wish list 2023-24: What gift each team needs most this holiday season

What’s at the top of your favorite NHL team’s holiday wish list?

Is it a trade to fill a need? Or a goalie to find his game? Or, the classic: health in the new year?

The Athletic asked its NHL staff for one last-minute gift idea per team. Here’s what they said.

The best-case news on Leo Carlsson’s injury: The worst fears appeared to be realized when the 18-year-old’s knee appeared to buckle after Calgary’s MacKenzie Weegar rolled onto it and he couldn’t put any weight on his right leg. Carlsson was to undergo an MRI exam Friday afternoon and the Ducks should find out the severity of his injury. They’ll hope that a sprain is revealed instead of a tear and that he could miss several weeks instead of several months. Until the injury, it seemed as if the day was coming when The Leo Plan would soon cease and general manager Pat Verbeek felt comfortable having his standout rookie centering Anaheim’s top line every night. He has 15 points in 23 games and his 0.65 points per game trails only Connor Bedard, Connor Zary and Marco Rossi among first-year players. And he only figures to get better. — Eric Stephens

A playoff berth: If you exclude the bubble playoff year, 2020, in which 24 teams qualified for postseason play, the Coyotes haven’t made the playoffs in a full NHL season since 2012. Indeed, there were years, amid all the turmoil and off-ice controversies relating to ownership and arena issues, when the Coyotes looked as if they were actively trying not to make the postseason, to enhance their draft position. All that changed this summer, when they went out and signed real NHL players to supplement their growing young nucleus, and now they appear to be turning an organizational corner, currently holding a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Making the postseason, in a full, true NHL season would represent an important first step in the upward trajectory of the franchise. — Eric Duhatschek

A top-six wing: The Bruins are all set in goal. Their defense is good. They don’t have any game-breaking centers, but the ones they have are dependable. Matt Poitras could return from the World Junior Championship with more presence than upon his departure. But the Bruins need scoring punch on the wing in a big way. The offense drops off after David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. — Fluto Shinzawa

Three straight wins: It has to start somewhere, and the Sabres have a striking record when they’ve won two in a row: 0-1. That’s right, the Sabres have won consecutive games only once all season, and they couldn’t make it three. With several games in hand over the Senators, the Sabres are barely ahead of them for last place in the Eastern Conference. Any shot at a playoff push for a team that has insisted there will be no excuses for missing a 13th straight season will rely on a lengthy streak. — Tim Graham