How the NHL Playoffs Work

The Stanley Cup playoffs are the best two months in hockey, and the format is easier than it looks once you see how the bracket is built. Here is who gets in, who plays whom, and how a team gets from the first round to the Cup.

Who makes the playoffs in the NHL?

At the end of the 84-game regular season, 16 of the 32 teams qualify, eight from each conference. In each conference:

• The top three teams in each division get in automatically. That is six teams per conference.
• The two best remaining teams in the conference, from either division, get the wild-card spots.

Everything is decided by points, with regulation wins as the first tiebreaker (see how NHL standings work). There are no play-in games and no byes. Half the league makes it and half goes home.

How many teams make the NHL playoffs?

Sixteen. That has been the size of the field since 1980, apart from the 2020 pandemic tournament, which started with 24 teams.

How is the NHL playoff bracket set?

The NHL uses a fixed, division-based bracket. There is no reseeding after each round.

In each conference:

1. The division winner with the better record plays the second wild card (the lowest-ranked playoff team in the conference).
2. The other division winner plays the first wild card.
3. In each division, the second-place team plays the third-place team.

The winners stay on their side of the bracket. So the first two rounds are mostly played inside the division: the second round is often called the division final. A wild-card team crosses over into whichever division bracket it was placed in.

How do the Stanley Cup playoffs work game to game?

Every series is best-of-seven: the first team to win four games advances. The team with home-ice advantage hosts games 1, 2, 5 and 7, and the other team hosts games 3, 4 and 6. This is called a 2-2-1-1-1 format.

In the first round, division winners have home ice. In later rounds, the team with the better regular-season record gets it. That is one reason the end of the regular season matters even for teams that have already clinched.

Playoff games cannot end in a tie or a shootout. If a game is tied after 60 minutes, teams play full 20-minute five-on-five overtime periods until someone scores. See overtime and shootout rules.

How many games does it take to win the Stanley Cup?

Four series wins, so 16 playoff wins. A champion plays between 16 and 28 playoff games. The last champion was the Carolina Hurricanes, who beat the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2026 Final.

When do the NHL playoffs start?

The playoffs start a few days after the regular season ends. In 2026-27 the last regular-season games are on April 10, 2027, so the first round starts in April. The NHL publishes the exact schedule once the matchups are known, and the four rounds run through June.

When does the second round of the NHL playoffs start?

Each round starts once the previous round is finished, so there is no fixed date. The second round usually begins in late April or early May, depending on how quickly the first-round series wrap up. Teams that sweep can get several days of rest while others are still playing.

What does the playoff picture look like right now?

During the season, the playoff race is about two cut lines in each conference: third place in each division, and the second wild card. Here are the division leaders today:

For the full picture, with every team's odds of making it, their projected points and who to root for tonight, see the NHL playoff picture. The odds come from simulating the rest of the season 10,000 times; the methodology page explains how.

What is the Presidents' Trophy?

The Presidents' Trophy goes to the team with the most regular-season points. It guarantees home ice in every round the team plays, but it is not a championship. The Stanley Cup is the only trophy that counts in the spring. Read Stanley Cup history for the champions and the records.

Why did the NHL choose this format?

The division-based bracket, in use since 2013-14, is designed to build rivalries: teams that play 4 times a season in the regular season often meet again in the first two rounds. The trade-off is that the two best teams in a conference can meet in the second round if they are in the same division, which is the most common complaint about the format.