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Teddy Ricketson
The end of the NHL regular season is approaching, but the most exciting hockey games of the year are on the horizon. Every sport boasts that its playoff system is the best, but there is truly nothing that matches the excitement of playoff hockey.
Sixteen teams, eight from each conference, will make the playoff field. The final games of the regular season are scheduled for Thursday, April 17, and the first-round matchups are expected to start the following weekend. The Stanley Cup Finals will be held in June, giving us almost two months of playoff hockey.
The Panthers won the Stanley Cup last season and are looking to win back-to-back championships. Another Florida hockey team, the Lightning, last accomplished this in 2020 and 2021.
Here’s everything you need to know about the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.
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Here’s how the playoff bracket looks in the Eastern and Western Conferences:
(A1) Toronto Maple Leafs vs. (WC1) Ottawa Senators
(A2) Tampa Bay Lightning vs. (A3) Florida Panthers
(M1) Washington Capitals vs. (WC2) Montreal Canadiens
(M2) Carolina Hurricanes vs. (M3) New Jersey Devils
(C1) Winnipeg Jets vs. (WC2) St. Louis Blues
(C2) Dallas Stars vs. (C3) Colorado Avalanche
(P1) Vegas Golden Knights vs. (WC1) Minnesota Wild
(P2) Los Angeles Kings vs. (P3) Edmonton Oilers
SN’s NHL HQ: Live NHL scores | Updated NHL standings | Full NHL schedule
The tables below will be updated with the latest NHL standings on a daily basis until the playoffs begin (current through April 16 games).
Atlantic Division
Metropolitan Division
Wild Card
X = clinched playoff
E = eliminated
MORE NHL: Why did Flyers fire John Tortorella?
Central Division
Pacific Division
Wild Card
X = clinched playoff
E = eliminated
The playoff field has beeen finalized for the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The 2024-2025 regular season will end on Thursday, April 17.
The first round of the NHL playoffs is expected to start on Saturday, April 19, but this is subject to change by the league.
Sixteen teams qualify for the NHL playoffs, eight from each conference. The top three teams in each division will get the top six seeds in their respective conference’s playoff bracket. The remaining two spots in each conference will be filled with the next two highest-placed finishers, regardless of division. So, theoretically, one division could send five teams to the playoffs while the other sends only three.
In the first round, the division winner with the best record in each conference will face the worst wild-card team. Then, the teams that finished second and third in their division will face off. The winners from those games will play each other in the second round. Those winners will duke it out in the conference finals, sending one representative to the Stanley Cup Finals from each conference. Each round of the playoffs is best-of-seven, so the first team to win four games will advance.
Teddy Ricketson is a Digital Content Producer at The Sporting News. He joined the team in 2024 after spending the last three years writing for Vox Media as part of its DK Nation/Network team. Teddy does his best to support the South Carolina Gamecocks and Carolina Panthers, but tends to have more fun cheering on the Atlanta Braves. In his free time, he loves spending time with his wife, Brooke, and their two dogs, Bo and Hootie.
