NHL playoffs and wild cards explained
How playoff places are awarded and the bracket is built, illustrated by Dallas, Nashville and Colorado’s run to the 2022 Stanley Cup.
16 teams qualify for the NHL playoffs: the top 3 in each division and another 2 wild cards in each conference. Every series is best-of-7. Winning the Stanley Cup requires 4 series victories and 16 individual game wins.
Which teams make the NHL playoffs?
The NHL has 2 conferences, Eastern and Western, each containing 2 divisions. The Atlantic and Metropolitan belong to the Eastern Conference; the Central and Pacific belong to the Western Conference. The top 3 clubs in each of the 4 divisions qualify automatically, filling 12 places.
The remaining 4 places are wild cards. Each conference awards 2 to its best remaining teams, regardless of division. One division can consequently send 5 teams while the other sends 3. A team cannot take a wild card in the opposite conference even if its points would be enough there.
Those places follow the NHL's playoff format. A wild card is a route into the same playoffs, not a separate qualifying round.
What does a wild card mean?
Wild cards allow strong teams outside their division's top 3 to qualify. They are not reserved for one club from each division. Once the automatic places are allocated, the remaining teams are compared within their conference.
That happened in the Western Conference ahead of the 2022 playoffs. Dallas and Nashville finished fourth and fifth in the Central but took both wild cards. Vegas, fourth in the Pacific, missed out. The Central sent 5 teams to the playoffs and the Pacific sent 3.
Who meets in the first round?
The bracket is not a simple conference-wide list pairing first with eighth, second with seventh and so on. It is organised around the divisions:
- The division winner with the most regular-season points in its conference meets the lower-ranked wild card.
- The other division winner meets the higher-ranked wild card.
- The second- and third-placed teams in each division meet each other.
Colorado won the Central with 119 points in 2021/22, ahead of Pacific winner Calgary's 111. Colorado therefore drew Nashville, the lower-ranked wild card. Dallas faced Calgary, entering the Pacific side of the bracket despite belonging to the Central.
What happens after Round 1?
The first-round winners within each side of the bracket meet in Round 2. Teams are not reseeded after every round to match the highest remaining club with the lowest. The conference finals follow, and the Eastern champion meets the Western champion in the Stanley Cup Final.
After beating Dallas, Calgary therefore faced Edmonton in Round 2 in 2022. The other side paired Colorado with St. Louis. The winners advanced to the conference final. Follow their paths in the 2022 playoff bracket.
How many games does winning the Cup take?
A series ends when one team has 4 wins. It can finish 4–0, 4–1, 4–2 or 4–3, lasting between 4 and 7 games. A champion sweeping all 4 rounds plays 16 games. If every series reaches Game 7, the champion plays 28.
Colorado won the 2022 Cup with 16 wins and 4 losses in 20 games. Captain Gabriel Landeskog recorded 22 points, with 11 goals and 11 assists, across those 20 games.
In the first 2 rounds, home-ice advantage follows regular-season standing. In the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final, regular-season record determines home ice regardless of divisional placing.
Home ice normally means hosting Games 1, 2, 5 and 7, if needed. The opponent hosts Games 3, 4 and 6, following a 2–2–1–1–1 pattern.
Are there shootouts in the playoffs?
No. Tied playoff games continue with 20-minute overtime periods, played with 5 skaters per side when neither team is shorthanded. The first goal wins. If a period ends scoreless, another follows until someone scores. This follows Rule 84.5 of the NHL's 2026/27 rulebook.
Dallas and Calgary needed overtime to settle their first-round series in 2022. Calgary won Game 7 by 3–2. The series went the full 7 games, and the last one ended in overtime without a shootout.