Fewer than five decades ago, the Stanley Cup was settled on a Saturday afternoon on network television — a reminder of how much the NHL and its audience have changed. As playoff races tighten this season, the league’s decision to keep a 16-team postseason is shaping which clubs coast to April and which must scrap for survival.
The NHL still sends 16 teams to the playoffs despite growing from 21 clubs in 1980 to 32 today. That static format contrasts with other major U.S. leagues that expanded their postseason fields as their memberships grew, and it helps explain why making the Cup now feels tougher than ever.
Commissioner Gary Bettman has resisted broadening the field or adding a permanent play-in, arguing the existing tournament preserves a high bar for qualification even as the league prepares for more expansion franchises. Owners, meanwhile, often favor more postseason inventory because it sells.
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Several structural and competitive shifts have intensified the fight for berths:
- Salary cap parity: The cap has compressed differences between teams, making surprise contenders more common and top-heavy dynasties rarer.
- Three-point games: The league’s extra-point outcomes distort standings and reward teams that edge out wins in regulation.
- More franchises: With 32 teams today, a constant 16-team playoff field means a lower percentage of clubs qualify than in past eras.
Put simply: with more clubs competing for the same number of spots, the margin for error is slimmer. The regular season stretches into late spring as more teams jostle within a few points of one another, and wild-card races turn on single results.
That tension can produce compelling late-season swings. This campaign has already seen dramatic turnarounds: an Eastern club erased a double-digit deficit to claim a wild card, Buffalo ended a decade-plus drought to reach the postseason conversation, and another franchise still clinging to hope rose from the bottom half of the standings in January.
At the same time, the Western Conference displays a more muddled scramble, where middling records and win patterns leave several teams within striking distance of final spots. Those inconsistencies are part of why some executives see merit in a play-in model similar to the NBA’s — a way to add meaningful games without formally increasing the official playoff bracket.
But the league’s leadership remains unconvinced. Expanding the postseason risks diluting the achievement of qualifying, they say, and could shift emphasis away from the regular season’s reward structure.
- League playoff sizes, then and now
- NHL: 16 teams (from 21 teams in 1980 to 32 now)
- NFL: 10 teams in 1980 → 14 teams today (league grew from 28 to 32)
- MLB: 4 teams in 1980 (26-team league) → 12 teams today
- NBA: 16-team bracket since 1983, now effectively 20 via the play-in
Those comparisons matter because playoff structure shapes strategy, roster construction and fan expectations. For franchises, the difference between a 16- and 20-team system can alter trade deadlines, contract valuations and how teams pace themselves over a six-month slog.
The human side became painfully visible when a former Cup contender — who led a division earlier this season — watched its hopes evaporate in the final weeks. The locker-room response was raw and immediate. Captain Anders Lee summed up the moment bluntly: “It sucks.”
There is a case for keeping the format as is: it preserves scarcity and raises the stakes of each regular-season game. There is also an argument for innovation that would give more markets playoff drama and, for some owners, extra revenue. For now, the league has chosen scarcity, and that choice is reshaping how teams build their seasons and how fans experience the race to the Cup.
