Making the Case for a Pick-Your-Opponent Stanley Cup Playoffs and Changing the Current Format

Sidney Crosby is not a fan of the NHL's current playoff format.

"I like 1-to-8 just because I think the regular season is as difficult as it is, teams should be rewarded," The Pittsburgh Penguins superstars told reporters in Florida over the weekend. "That's probably the best way to be rewarded, even though there isn't a ton of difference. I like that version a little bit better."

Nathan Mackinnon took it a step further as the Colorado Avalanche star specifically cited how silly it was that the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning are destined to meet in the first round again. As it stands right now the two teams have the fourth and fifth-best points percentages in the entire league.

"I don't know what kind of advantage that is to have that great of a regular season. Same thing with Minny (Minnesota Wild) and St. Louis Blues (In 2022).”

How Did We Get Here?

If there's a reason why it's hard to find players who have a positive sentiment over the NHL's current playoff format, it's because it's easy to forget that it was born out of unusual circumstances.

Just before the 2013-14 season began, the NHL revamped its divisions and playoff system. The NHL had been using a conference-based 1-8 playoff system since 1994. In 1999, the NHL shifted from four divisions to six as it prepared for a staggered expansion to 30 teams.

In 2011, a realignment was going to be necessary when the Atlanta Thrashers were sold and relocated to Winnipeg at the start of the 2011-12 season. An expiring collective bargaining agreement put the realignment of the Winnipeg Jets (who were still playing in Atlanta's old Southeast Division in the Eastern Conference) on hold.

Winnipeg was going to move to the Western Conference, that much was clear. The NHL had two eastern timezone teams playing in the Western Conference (Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets). Moving one of those teams to the Eastern Conference would have been a simple proposition, but whichever of Detroit or Columbus not selected would have been upset over the matter. Both teams desperately wanted to be in a conference with opponents in a matching timezone.

So the NHL decided to move both Detroit and Columbus to the east and go with 16 teams in the Eastern Conference and 14 teams in the Western Conference. With the inequality of the conferences came a change to a division format as the league wanted some predictability of knowing what the second-round matchups were going to look like. In the past, second-round matchups would be re-seeded. 

But now things are equal. The addition of the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken have evened up the divisions and conferences but the format is not. The addition of those teams has resulted in fewer divisional games. 

Under a 30-team league, teams within their division would play each other a minimum of four time with some going as many as five if their division consisted of just seven teams.

Under a 32-team league, that's down to four games in each division with some as little as three contests

Let's also not forget how the Atlantic Division came to be. 

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers are nowhere geographically close to the remaining six teams in the north. But the move came to attract more ticket sales from snowbirds who would see the Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, and others come down to the rink. And with fewer division games, this seems to be more of an inconvenience than it is a necessity. 

Conference-Based Playoffs Had Issues, Too

So a 1-8 return makes a lot of sense. But only if done correctly.

When the NHL had six divisions, they automatically awarded divisional winners a top seed, regardless of the number of points they accumulated in the season.

In 2002, the Maple Leafs finished with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference with 100 points, just one back of the Boston Bruins who had the best record at 101 points. Despite their record, Toronto ended up with the No. 4 seed and narrowly defeated the No. 5 New York Islanders in a deciding seventh game in the first round of the playoffs.

In 2004, the Maple Leafs finished with 45 wins and 103 points, while the Philadelphia Flyers had 40 wins and 101 points. When the two teams met in the second round of the playoffs, the Flyers had home-ice advantage due to winning their division. They went on to defeat the Maple Leafs 4-2 in the best-of-seven series.

If the NHL were to go back to 1-8, the divisional seeding must be abolished. But what if there was a better way? A way that could, as the players say, properly reward teams that finish higher in the regular season?

What if you just let the teams that finish at the top of the table pick their path?

Pick-Your-Own Opponent

There hasn't been much of an advantage to finishing with the best record in the NHL lately. 

The Presidents' Trophy, awarded to the team that finishes with the best regular-season record, has been seen as a bit of a curse.

The Chicago Blackhawks are the last team to have won both the Presidents’ Trophy and the Stanley Cup 2013 and the Detroit Red Wings are the last team to do in after a full 82-game season (2013 season limited to 48 games due to labor stoppage).

Note: In 2021, the NHL realigned and went with an only-divisional format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this was fair as all games were within the division

Since the NHL reverted to a divisional format, the Presidents’ Trophy Winner has reached the conference final just one time. In many of these instances, the Presidents’ Trophy teams were not meeting an optimal second-round opponent by way of points.

If the 2022-23 season were to end today under its current format. The Boston Bruins would win the Presidents’ Trophy and have the prospect of taking on the fourth or fifth best team overall in the second-round. While there is a lot of talk about how silly Toronto/Tampa in the first round is, Boston having to play one of those teams in the second round would also be unfair.

If you are the best team in the NHL, shouldn’t you have the easiest path to the Cup? Why not let the team that finishes first decide who they play against in the first round? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate prize that makes a real difference between finishing first and second?

Whether you want to keep it via conferences or go a straight 1-16, the best teams should get to pick their path to the Stanley Cup. 

Pick-Your-Opponent - The Case For

Once qualified teams are established for the playoffs, the NHL can hold a ‘Selection Day’. A made-for-TV event where teams select their opponents for the playoffs. 

So the team with the best record in the NHL can then step up and make a decision on their first round opponent and it could be for any reason they choose. Maybe their team doesn’t want to travel a lot in the early going so they select a team that’s closer to them with an identical record of the worst team. Maybe the worst team went on a 10-game winning streak to get in and they are very dangerous. The best team in the NHL can now avoid them. Maybe a team in the middle of the standing just lost six of their best players and has not fared well? You can pick that opponent with the aim of trying to get the series done early. It really is up to the best team.

After team No. 1 selects, those teams are removed from the pool and the next best team picks until their are no clubs remaining. 

After the first round is complete, you do the process again until the finals/conference finals depending on if you go 1-8 or 1-16 for this desired format.

There are so many benefits to this format. The new fan interest alone in watching teams pick opponents and the rivalries that will be created by being picked as a lesser-than will fuel storylines. There is no doubt that this would be a lot of fun.

Pick Your Opponent - The case against

With this format, I acknowledge there will be a lack of predictability in the schedule for TV networks when it comes to scheduled. This is already a problem as you see most games don’t even have a time announced until it is certain that the game is even necessary. There is also a problem that good teams can lose home ice advantage if the best team decides, for some reason, to pick the next best team available. My argument to that would be for that team to feel the pressure to not put themselves in that situation. i.e. play better.

Travel could also pose a problem for some teams based on this format. And while that may have been a problem years ago, with every team having private charters, this really shouldn’t be much of an issue.

Whatever the NHL does, this current format just simply isn’t it. It was born out of obscurity and it should be abolished. It has had unintended consequences everywhere when addressing short-term issues and it’s time the NHL looked at doing something more fun that properly rewards the best teams in the regular season.