The current playoffs format is BROKEN

[KingPuckChoo]

My proposal for realignment:

• Division 1 (Far West): Los Angeles Kings, Vegas Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks
• Division 2 (Pacific): Vancouver Canucks, Seattle Kraken, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames
• Division 3 (Mountain): Utah Hockey Club, Colorado Avalanche, Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild
• Division 4 (Central West): Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks
• Division 5 (Central East): Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadephia Flyers, Washington Capitals.
• Division 6 (Great Lakes): Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets
• Division 7 (Atlantic): New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins
• Division 8 (Southeast): New Jersey Devils, Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers

Of realignment notes and reasonings, I wanted to split up all NY based teams from one division and basically every northeast teams in Canada and the United States are so close geographically and all of those teams make sense if you remove all 3 NY teams but I aligns them based on the past playoffs rivalries that made sense. Feel free to blender this realignment but I wanted this to be 8 division with 4 teams with my new playoff proposal.

You will get only one boring round, the divisional playoff series for round 1. Rest of the way, you get some variety of match-up is what you wanted all along.

Although I like your realignment idea, it feels so wrong to separate Toronto from the Atlantic division

 

[Crashsunday]

Not gonna lie, this third round sucks. Should be the best two left in each conference…that this is not.

 

[coolboarder]

Although I like your realignment idea, it feels so wrong to separate Toronto from the Atlantic division

I understand your sentimental but it's time to balance all things together which is why I propose to separate all 3 NY based teams apart, NYR, NYI, NJD if I were to propose a playoff system.. You don't want to see round 1 being so ridiculous easy travel for divisional match-up series. Chance of them meeting round 2-4 is not very high so they must keep hopping on plane rather than a bus trip.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

My proposal for realignment:

• Division 1 (Far West): Los Angeles Kings, Vegas Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks
• Division 2 (Pacific): Vancouver Canucks, Seattle Kraken, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames
• Division 3 (Mountain): Utah Hockey Club, Colorado Avalanche, Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild
• Division 4 (Central West): Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks
• Division 5 (Central East): Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadephia Flyers, Washington Capitals.
• Division 6 (Great Lakes): Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets
• Division 7 (Atlantic): New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins
• Division 8 (Southeast): New Jersey Devils, Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers

Of realignment notes and reasonings, I wanted to split up all NY based teams from one division and basically every northeast teams in Canada and the United States are so close geographically and all of those teams make sense if you remove all 3 NY teams but I aligns them based on the past playoffs rivalries that made sense. Feel free to blender this realignment but I wanted this to be 8 division with 4 teams with my new playoff proposal.

You will get only one boring round, the divisional playoff series for round 1. Rest of the way, you get some variety of match-up is what you wanted all along.

Any alignment that splits up New York, New Jerseys and Philly or Montreal, Toronto and Boston will instantly be rejected by every one of their respective owners. Literally zero shot it would ever be humored much less anything else. Splitting up Toronto and Ottawa would be equally odd, and likely vetoed immediately.

It's a gate driven league and rivalries bring in fans

 

[jackjohnson]

This format is dumb as we always get the same match-ups year after year. The NHL is such a f***ing stupid league.

I agree, a stupid league that keeps changing everything even if it's not broken. Like please, stop messing with the rules, format and scheduling every year and at least have something consistent.

 

[jackjohnson]

Are you not excited by the formation of rivalries that all end with the first round?

- The League, probably

Problem is they mostly think about entertainment value versus thinking what is good for the sport and the fans and keeping the tradition and culture of hockey intact. They would probably introduce buzzer beaters and make the puck round if it makes the circus act look more "entertaining"

 

[jackjohnson]

People cry and want to change the format because Florida is beating everybody. That isn't happening so the next thing is to get better as a team and beat them. Why do things need to change because other teams are getting dominated?

No I think they are tired of seeing Edmonton face the king's in the 1st round for the next 20 years. The old format gave us something different every year. It gets boring to see the king's lose in the 1st round year after year to the same team. Also you get tired of seeing the same matchups over and over and over again. Rivalries is something that should occur organically not be forced.

 

[stealth1]

Problem is they mostly think about entertainment value versus thinking what is good for the sport and the fans and keeping the tradition and culture of hockey intact. They would probably introduce buzzer beaters and make the puck round if it makes the circus act look more "entertaining"

What's good for the sport is go back to the 80s setup. Ditch the dumbass wild card and make it top 4 in each division. If you want different series so bad,, teams need to get better.

 

[Mr grumpy]

Quick solution only the top 4 teans in the nhl make it. In reading the comments, people really hate upsets and when their team loses

 

[Golden_Jet]

How would things look if the NHL went to straight seeding the 16 playoff teams?

For starters, Calgary would be in and Montreal out

#1 Winnipeg vs #16 New Jersey
#2 Washington vs #15 Calgary
#3 Vegas vs #14 St. Louis
#4 Toronto vs #13 Minnesota
#5 Dallas vs #12 Ottawa
#6 Los Angeles vs #11 Florida
#7 Tampa Bay vs #10 Carolina
#8 Colorado vs #9 Edmonton

There are reasons that format only lasted 2 years, and was already voted to get rid of it, before the the second year of playoffs even started.

 

[Based Anime Fan]

I propose eliminating the wild card and replacing the current playoff format with a new divisional structure. My plan involves creating eight divisions and removing the conference-based schedule, focusing instead on divisional games during the regular season. In the first round of the playoffs, matchups will be a straightforward 1 versus 2 within each division. The division winners will be crowned divisional champions for the year, resulting in eight division winners advancing. From round two to round four, matchups will be seeded as follows: 1 versus 8, 2 versus 7, 3 versus 6, and 4 versus 5. The semifinals will be reseeded with 1 versus 4 and 2 versus 3. This format ensures the best possible teams reach the Stanley Cup Final, regardless of their geographic location, potentially allowing a top-two matchup from the West to create an all-Western final. It’s possible that two top teams from the same division could meet in the first round due to the schedule matrix works. The regular season will consist of eight divisional games—four home and four away—for a total of 24 games, plus two games (home and away) against each non-divisional team, totaling 56 games. This brings the regular season to 80 games, a number consistent with the traditional total from the expansion era. If the goal is to reduce the number of games, this format sacrifices only one home game’s revenue, rather than two or three games worth.

For rounds 2 through 4 of the proposed playoff series, matchups will be determined by each team’s overall regular-season record, excluding divisional game results, to establish their reseeding standings. This approach prevents a top team in a weaker division from accumulating points that secure home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, eliminating the influence of divisional win-loss records to balance competition in rounds 2 to 4 while maintaining the regular season’s importance. The teams with the best non-divisional records will be seeded 1 through 8. Due to the regular season’s unpredictability, I propose a 2-3-2 playoff series format for rounds 2 through 4 to reduce travel, while round 1 will use a 2-2-1-1-1 format.

To address concerns about travel and fairness, the top seed in each series will choose whether to start the series at home or away, minimizing complaints about playing three consecutive road games in the middle of a 2-3-2 series and reducing the risk of the away team splitting games. The top seed also selects the series format from the following options: 2-2-1-1-1, 2-3-2, 3-4, 1-2-2-1-1, 2-3-1-1 or 1-3-3. The lower seed must have at least two consecutive home games before game 4 or three home games before game 6. The top seed can determine the number of home or away games before game 4 but must ensure the lower seed has two consecutive home games before game 4. The series format must be finalized before the first game is played, adding excitement and strategic depth to the playoffs.

My proposal for realignment:

• Division 1 (Far West): Los Angeles Kings, Vegas Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks
• Division 2 (Pacific): Vancouver Canucks, Seattle Kraken, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames
• Division 3 (Mountain): Utah Hockey Club, Colorado Avalanche, Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild
• Division 4 (Central West): Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks
• Division 5 (Central East): Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadephia Flyers, Washington Capitals.
• Division 6 (Great Lakes): Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets
• Division 7 (Atlantic): New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins
• Division 8 (Southeast): New Jersey Devils, Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers

Of realignment notes and reasonings, I wanted to split up all NY based teams from one division and basically every northeast teams in Canada and the United States are so close geographically and all of those teams make sense if you remove all 3 NY teams but I aligns them based on the past playoffs rivalries that made sense. Feel free to blender this realignment but I wanted this to be 8 division with 4 teams with my new playoff proposal.

You will get only one boring round, the divisional playoff series for round 1. Rest of the way, you get some variety of match-up is what you wanted all along.

The Devils are further north than Columbus, Philadelphia, and Pittsburg, how did they end up in the Southeast?

Why are the Islanders part of the Great Lakes? They're further away from the lakes than Columbus and the Rangers.

Columbus is more Central East than every team in that division but Detroit.

These alignments are whack.

 

[jackjohnson]

What's good for the sport is go back to the 80s setup. Ditch the dumbass wild card and make it top 4 in each division. If you want different series so bad,, teams need to get better.

I was thinking maybe guarantee the top 2 seeds in each division playoff spots and the rest would be according to points. It would be more fair while assuring at least 2 teams from each division would be represented in playoffs. And the seeding in playoffs and home ice would be determined based on points only. So a team 2nd in division might end up being last seed if they had the fewest points out of all the teams that made the playoffs. It makes it more fair to all teams while bringing variability and dynamics to playoff matchups. I don't like the rigid playoff format we have now since it will get boring very fast if the same teams keep meeting each other in the 1st round.

 

[Oilking83]

Not gonna lie, this third round sucks. Should be the best two left in each conference…that this is not.

Which east teams are better than FLA and CAR? And which west teams are better than DAL and EDM?

 

[avocadosmoothie]

Kings don't look so oof in comparison now

The West Conf Finals WAS The Kings & Oils

So yeah, this current format is punishing for the 2nd/3rd seeds on both conferences

this year's Kings could have beaten anyone in the West

 

[coolboarder]

The Devils are further north than Columbus, Philadelphia, and Pittsburg, how did they end up in the Southeast?

Why are the Islanders part of the Great Lakes? They're further away from the lakes than Columbus and the Rangers.

Columbus is more Central East than every team in that division but Detroit.

These alignments are whack.

I explained my reasoning in my notes regarding splitting up 3 NY metro area teams. The East are so close geographically when compared to the West. It is clear you didn't read and I said, feel free to make your own realignment to match the playoff system proposal. The playoff first round would be divisional so you do not want bus trip every year with NY area teams. Which is the reason why if the owners really taking their time to look at it will realize that 3 teams really have it easy if they are grouped together in 4 teams division proposal with new playoff system idea I have made.

 

[Based Anime Fan]

I explained my reasoning in my notes regarding splitting up 3 NY metro area teams. The East are so close geographically when compared to the West. It is clear you didn't read and I said, feel free to make your own realignment to match the playoff system proposal. The playoff first round would be divisional so you do not want bus trip every year with NY area teams. Which is the reason why if the owners really taking their time to look at it will realize that 3 teams really have it easy if they are grouped together in 4 teams division proposal with new playoff system idea I have made.

No, I read it. This however makes almost no sense:

Of realignment notes and reasonings, I wanted to split up all NY based teams from one division and basically every northeast teams in Canada and the United States are so close geographically and all of those teams make sense if you remove all 3 NY teams but I aligns them based on the past playoffs rivalries that made sense.

 

[PistolPete]

This format is dumb as we always get the same match-ups year after year. The NHL is such a f***ing stupid league.

And you spend enough time watching it to allow yourself to acquire enough familiarity with it to come to this conclusion.

So, what's their motivation for changing things?

 

[avocadosmoothie]

Which east teams are better than FLA and CAR? And which west teams are better than DAL and EDM?

East is genuinely terrible. Metro could only send three teams and they were all fodder

 

[PistolPete]

during playoffs should be 1v16 2v15 etc.

So dumb so have a western and eastern team for the finals , people want the best.

Then the RS schedule needs to reflect this

 

[coolboarder]

Any alignment that splits up New York, New Jerseys and Philly or Montreal, Toronto and Boston will instantly be rejected by every one of their respective owners. Literally zero shot it would ever be humored much less anything else. Splitting up Toronto and Ottawa would be equally odd, and likely vetoed immediately.

It's a gate driven league and rivalries bring in fans

I kept the long-time rivalries together, for instance, Pilly-Pitts, Montreal-Boston and split up NY metro teams and is not an easy thing to figure out to balance travel and making sure rivalries kept together as much as possible. Imagine if the NHL has only one NY team, who do you put together? Basically NY teams is central to everywhere, even to Canada and you basically could easily group any one of them but I kept things in mind when it comes to past playoff history, for instance, NJD played against the Canes many times in last few years I could group Washington to the South but how do you split up two remaining teams? Keeping Philly, Pitts together? If they were to be split up, it would make my life a lot easier to group Washington to the South division. I also wanted to avoid Montreal-Toronto for a reason, a chance of having future Cup final between Leafs and Canasdiens being made possible someday in the future with this playoff system or a chance of al-Western teams Cup final or even a NYR-NYI cup final? You want to keep 28 teams possible Cup final in a blender match-up. It would also help to even out the travels for all teams especially out to the west.

The goal for the league with that many teams should be kept simple, win the division, having two possible best match-up every year and maintain the regular season tradition, creating every match-up matter so much that you deserve everything.

 

[Booker T]

East is genuinely terrible. Metro could only send three teams and they were all fodder

The Pens, Caps, Boston, and Lightning dominated the east for 20 years. They’re on the downswing now, other teams will rise in their place (like the Cats). That doesn’t mean go and change everything. The West sucked for years, now they don’t. It’s a pendulum.

 

[PistolPete]

Time zones. Doesn't matter in the East, but one size must fit all for some reason.



Not quite tradition. O6, there was only one division. 67 expansion, for some reason they guaranteed an expansion team a trip to the Final for 3 years. Which is worse than anything Bettman has ever done. And in 1967, real hockey men were running the league. Then multiple years of 1st rd byes for a couple teams. Then it was 1-16 for a couple years. Then it went to a strict top 4 per division.

Real hockey men?



This is satire right?

Go and delve into some of the stupudity of what those real hockey men did.

Why does St. Louis have a team? The NHL awarded it to the city because Norris wanted to unload the arena he owned (and they were was no bidder from St. Louis)

They refused to axxomodate tv, with one owner, upon being asked whether won't take seats out to put a TV camera in: "Are they going to pay for those lost seats?"

They kept the league at 6 teams for 25 YEARS! Almost of the leagues were already on the West Coast by 1960 and had at least 12 teams but the NHL stayed a mom and pop shop.

The PO format? 1st v 3rd and 2nd v 4th for the first round

And that's a few of many stupid things thr league did

 

[KingsFan7824]

Which east teams are better than FLA and CAR? And which west teams are better than DAL and EDM?

It's pretty clear that there are only two real teams in the league, Florida and Edmonton. The best team, and the best player.

 

[Mr Positive]

As an Oiler fan I'm torn in that it's too many Kings matchups already, and it's better for the league to add variety. However, it is nice to face an opponent where you just have their number and it amounts to a soft bye to the 2nd round. I'm trying not to be insulting to Kings and their fans here, truly. I'll say that the Kings might be a much better team than the results show. Sometimes a team just owns another team for stylistic reasons or who knows....

 

[stealth1]

this year's Kings could have beaten anyone in the West

I hear that all the time from every fanbase that loses in the first round. Doesn't it really make difference when a team loses? At the end of the day you still lost.