How Many Teams Go To The NHL Playoffs?

How many teams go to the NHL playoffs?
The NHL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the conclusion of the NHL regular season to determine the Stanley Cup champions.

Introduction

The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league composed of 30 teams: 23 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the North American major professional sports leagues.

How Many Teams Make The Playoffs?

The NHL playoff system is designed so that 16 teams out of the 31 total teams in the league make the playoffs every year. This gives teams a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup, and it also makes the regular season more interesting and important.

Conference Breakdown

In order to make the playoffs, a team must first play well enough during the regular season to earn one of the playoff spots. There are two conference playoff spots available for each division. The conference breakdown is as follows:

-Eastern Conference: Atlantic Division and Metropolitan Division
-Western Conference: Central Division and Pacific Division

The top three teams in each division make the playoffs, for a total of six teams from each conference. The next two teams with the best records in each conference also make the playoffs, for a total of eight teams from each conference.

Division Breakdown

The top three teams in each division automatically qualify for the playoffs, regardless of conference. That leaves two “wild card” teams from each conference that qualify based on the best regular-season record among non-division-winning teams.

In other words, the first four playoff spots in each conference are taken by the division winners. The next two spots go to the wild-card teams with the best records, regardless of division. From there, it’s a bracketed tournament until a winner is crowned in each conference.

How The Playoffs Work

Since the NHL expanded to 31 teams in 2017, 16 teams have qualified for the playoffs each year. The top three teams in each division make the playoffs, along with two wild-card teams in each conference. The first two rounds of the playoffs are divisional, meaning the teams are reseeded after each round and the division winners are guaranteed to face a wild-card team in the first round.

Seeding

The NHL playoffs are a best-of-seven tournament held after the conclusion of the regular season to determine the league champion. The playoffs involve 16 teams, eight from each conference. These teams are seeded one through eight in their respective conferences, with the division winners holding the top three seeds and the wild card team occupying the final spot. The playoffs begin in April and conclude in June with the Stanley Cup Final.

In each conference, the first seed plays the eighth seed, the second seed plays the seventh seed, and so on. The higher-seeded team has home ice advantage in each series, meaning that they will host Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 (if necessary). This is intended to give them an advantage over their opponents, as they will have more rest and will be playing in front of their home fans.

The four winning teams from each conference then advance to the Conference Semifinals where they are reseeded one through four based on their regular season record. In this round, the first seed plays the fourth seed and the second seed plays the third seed. Again, home ice advantage is given to the higher-seeded team. From here, the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final follow a similar format with two teams remaining in each conference vying for a spot in hockey’s biggest game.

Format

The Stanley Cup playoffs (French: Les séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley) are an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League (NHL) consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series to determine the league champion and the winner of the Stanley Cup. Eight teams from each of the two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season points totals. seeded according to their conference and divisional standings. The final round, whose winner is awarded the Stanley Cup, is a best-of-seven series played between the conference champions, with home ice advantage determined by regular season points totals. The winners of each series advance to the next round along with any other team that earned at least as many points as the lowest-ranked qualifying team from their conference in the regular season.

Conclusion

In recent years, the NHL playoffs have included 16 teams total, 8 from the Western Conference and 8 from the Eastern Conference. The Stanley Cup Finals is a best-of-seven series between the conference champions.