2026 Stanley Cup playoffs: Lessons learned, what comes next

The 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs started almost a month in the past. Six groups stay within the event, and 10 groups have been solid into the abyss.

There are classes to be realized from this intense, outstanding postseason, about groups and gamers and what we anticipate from the NHL. Here are six laborious classes from the Stanley Cup playoffs:

Lesson: We underestimated the affect of the condensed schedule

Dallas Stars basic supervisor Jim Nill has labored in NHL entrance workplaces since 1991. He has not often skilled a season this exhausting.

“In all my years in hockey, this was probably one of the most demanding regular seasons I’ve ever gone through,” he mentioned. “That’s the whole league. It’s not only us but the whole league with the scheduling travel and the injuries.”

The NHL’s return to the Winter Olympics meant compressing the 2025-26 schedule to compensate for the multiweek break in February. That was coming off a compressed schedule in the beginning of final season to compensate for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

“We have to have a compressed schedule,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman informed the New York Post. “We have to take into account that NHL teams send various amounts of players to the Olympics. Teams like Tampa and the Panthers send 10 players each, and we’ve got some teams sending one or two players. Teams are going to come back in a different place in terms of how they are than when we left. The fact of the matter is some teams are going to have a good chunk of their roster a little more tired and banged up.”

According to NHL Injury Viz, which tracks roster absences, there have been 8,160 man video games misplaced to damage this season within the NHL. At the excessive finish was Florida with 540 video games, which included the 82 video games Aleksander Barkov missed and Matthew Tkachuk being restricted to 31 video games. The Panthers missed the playoffs. Then once more, so did the Detroit Red Wings, who had an absurdly low 86 video games misplaced to damage, the fewest within the league.

There was additionally an damage value for gamers going to the Olympics. After Boston’s Charlie McAvoy and Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk have been injured at 4 Nations, the Winter Games resulted within the Los Angeles Kings dropping Kevin Fiala for the remainder of the season and the Stars’ Mikko Rantanen tearing an MCL, which could assist clarify why he had only one even-strength level in six video games this postseason. The Kings and the Stars have been one-and-done within the playoffs.

For many groups this season, the query was when the true crunch of the condensed schedule was going to hit.

“When did it happen to you? Early? Some teams got crushed by the schedule in the middle of the season. Other teams got clobbered by it when they were pushing for the playoffs,” one NHL basic supervisor mentioned.

Case in level: the Columbus Blue Jackets. They rolled into the Olympic break because the NHL’s hottest workforce, going 10-1-0 after Rick Bowness was employed to exchange coach Dean Evason. They have been 4 factors out of a playoff spot.

The Jackets would find yourself lacking the playoffs because of a late-season spiral that noticed them go 2-8-1 of their final 11 video games. Bowness infamously torched his gamers after a loss of their season finale: “These guys, they don’t care. Losing is not important enough to them. It doesn’t bother them.”

Another idea: Maybe they have been simply exhausted as a result of they obtained crushed on the unsuitable time.

Columbus performed 17 video games in March, essentially the most of any NHL workforce in a single month this season. That included three back-to-back video games and just one break of multiple calendar day.

“It was a grueling schedule,” Columbus GM Don Waddell mentioned. “We barely could practice in March because we were playing so many games.”

From March 26 via the top of the season, they gained twice.

Bowness questioned the mentality of his gamers towards the top of the season. Frankly, that is essentially the most underreported side of the condensed schedule.

“Some players had really big struggles with mental health or anxiety just because they could never get a breath,” an NHL basic supervisor mentioned.

One veteran NHL participant informed ESPN the condensed schedule impacted how gamers recovered from adversity.

“If you have a bad game, and then you have another bad game right away, you’re playing so many games in a short period of time that it snowballs,” he mentioned. “The coach is on you because he’s feeling the pressure on him. There were so many more meetings and not as many days off. There weren’t as many opportunities to get away from the game.

“I’m certain for lots of the younger guys that have not been round a very long time and have not been used to that, it was simply completely different.”

Next season, the NHL will expand the regular season to 84 games, but without a prolonged break for an international competition.

“The yr it was what it’s,” Waddell said. “Now we transfer on.”

Lesson: Mikko Rantanen begat two juggernauts

Speaking of Rantanen, the aftershocks from last season’s two trades involving the star winger are still being felt a year later. And not just because the three teams he played for in 2024-25 — the Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes and Stars — have been the highest three groups of this common season.

The Avalanche traded Rantanen to the Hurricanes in “a troublesome enterprise resolution,” according to general manager Chris MacFarland at the time.

After a subsequent trade, Rantanen ended up signing a deal with Dallas that carried a $12 million annual salary cap hit. Colorado quietly hoped that Martin Necas, acquired from Carolina, could provide a decent percentage of the offense Rantanen had given them at a fraction of the cost ($6.5 million average annual value). They also acquired Jack Drury in the deal, a player they liked for their bottom six.

Colorado used a second-round pick acquired in that trade to get center Charlie Coyle from the Boston Bruins. They used Coyle as an enticement to get Miles Wood offloaded from their cap, sending the pair to the Blue Jackets before the 2025 draft.

The cap space the Rantanen trade and related moves created helped MacFarland trade for center Brock Nelson last season, signing him to a team-friendly ($7.5 million AAV) extension. It allowed the GM to continue to tinker, adding defenseman Brett Kulak, heart Nicolas Roy and — most importantly — Nazem Kadri in a much-anticipated reunion.

The Avalanche have the best center depth in the NHL, in direct contrast with the Minnesota Wild, whose lineup is a doughnut. The four centers behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon — Roy has played the wing, while Drury has centered their fourth line — came from Rantanen-related moves. Necas has nine points in eight playoff games, after 38 goals and 100 points in the regular season. Necas signed an eight-year extension at $11.5 million against the cap that starts next season.

Then there are the Hurricanes. They acquired Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks, who picked up a part of Rantanen’s wage. They picked up heart Logan Stankoven from the Stars after they flipped Rantanen there. Those two have partnered with winger Jackson Blake to form the best line still in the Stanley Cup playoffs, earning 68% of the expected goals when on ice together. Hall in particular looks like a coup: The rejuvenated winger leads the team in scoring with 12 points in eight playoff games.

Carolina used a 2026 conditional first-round pick from Dallas to help acquire defenseman K’Andre Miller from the New York Rangers. Miller has six points in eight playoff games, skating to a plus-9 while being second on the team in average ice time in the playoffs (23:44 per game).

Meanwhile, after not signing Rantanen to an extension, the Hurricanes reallocated the money. Miller got a new contract with a $7.5 million AAV, and the Hurricanes won the competition for free agent winger Nikolaj Ehlers, signing him to a deal with an $8.5 million AAV. Ehlers has four points in seven playoff games, the offensive force on a very solid checking line.

The Avalanche (+150) and Hurricanes (+155) are the heavy favorites to win the Stanley Cup, via DraftKings Sportsbook odds. How they both leveraged losing Rantanen from their rosters is a big reason.

Lesson: It’s a tough year for playoff format change supporters

The NHL adopted the wild-card playoff format in 2014, and that’s about as long as I’ve argued against its existence.

I think the NHL tried to fix something that wasn’t broken about the previous 1-through-8 conference playoff format, which the league implemented from 1993-94 until the wild card was adopted. It’s a format that acknowledged regular-season success in ways the wild-card format does not.

If the 1-through-8 format were applied to this season’s standings — with the two division winners getting the top two seeds — then the Dallas Stars would have drawn the Utah Mammoth in Round 1, while the Minnesota Wild would have faced the Edmonton Oilers … rather than the No. 3 (Dallas) and No. 7 (Minnesota) teams in the entire NHL meeting in the first round.

The 1-through-8 format supplied a wide range of playoff matchups fairly than the static ones you get with an emphasis on divisional play. And by that, I imply there was a nonzero probability the Oilers and Kings would have met within the first spherical for a fifth straight time this postseason.

“I did think, growing up, it was pretty cool when they had the 1-through-8 seeding,” Devils star Jack Hughes informed me just a few years in the past, and he is proper. “Maybe less play in the divisions. Because sometimes the divisions are stacked.”

I do know goofing on the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ lack of playoff success within the Auston Matthews period is a cherished pastime, however the reality is that six of their 9 playoff eliminations have been by the hands of the Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning due to the wild-card bracketing.

So, I just like the 1-through-8 greater than the wild card. Like Hughes, most of the gamers I’ve spoken with concerning the postseason event desire the 1-through-8 format, too. But none of that issues as a result of there’s one man who’s fairly keen on the best way issues are. A fairly vital man.

“Some people have that thought; I personally don’t,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman mentioned on “The Pat McAfee Show” final week. “What we have has worked really well in terms of the series that develop, how the playoffs play out, the races to get into the playoffs. With the wild card, our regular season goes down to the wire for virtually all of our clubs.”

Bettman additionally argues that the wild-card format means extra aggressive sequence, which is what one would anticipate when you might have the third- and seventh-best groups within the NHL assembly within the first spherical.

“Six or eight first-round series went at least six games. That’s extraordinary,” Bettman mentioned. “From our standpoint, it’s working well. I don’t see the need for a change.”

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Gary Bettman: Current NHL playoff format works properly

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman joins “The Pat McAfee Show” to debate the present format of the NHL postseason.

Here’s the factor: It did work properly.

The first spherical delivered one storied rivalry (Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Philadelphia Flyers), one hopeful rivalry (Vegas Golden Knights vs. Utah), one must-see matchup (Dallas vs. Minnesota), 4 upsets based mostly on seeding, and a Game 7. The hockey was uniformly unimaginable, together with inside the sweeps by Colorado and Carolina.

Even because the self-appointed No. 1 wild-card format hater, I’ve to confess when it really works. This is completely the unsuitable postseason to attempt to push my change agenda. It’s like making an attempt to advertise wine spritzers at Oktoberfest.

That established … can I curiosity you in some playoff enlargement, on condition that we’re quickly to have 34 groups within the NHL, that means greater than half of them will not make the postseason? And that each different main and faculty sport appears to have expanded its playoffs whereas the NHL steadfastly refuses?

I’ve lengthy endorsed play-in video games: No. 7 vs. No. 10, No. 8 vs. No. 9. Just a single recreation. Like 4 Game 7s to kick off the postseason earlier than the winners are seeded within the conventional 16-team event. Don’t just like the common season boiling down to 1 recreation for what are at present playoff groups? Here’s my recommendation: Finish sixth.

For the standings-curious: This season’s play-in video games in a convention format would have been the Penguins vs. the Red Wings and the Flyers vs. the Capitals within the East, with the Ducks vs. the Predators and the Blues vs. the Kings within the West. Winners take all.

I feel NHL playoff enlargement is inevitable, given the traits in different sports activities and the cash being left on the desk. But in all probability not till Bettman is not commissioner — and good luck making an attempt to pin him down on when that will occur.

Lesson: Mitch Marner is on a revenge tour

It’s so typical of the Maple Leafs that they miss the playoffs for the primary time in 10 seasons and nonetheless handle to be the primary character of the postseason.

Hiring Mats Sundin and John Chayka to steer their hockey operations. Firing coach Craig Berube. Having the very actual chance that Auston Matthews might not return to Toronto next season. Winning the draft lottery after heading in with the fifth-best possibilities.

And, after all, the Toronto market coming to grips with the truth that Marner was main the playoffs in scoring (14 factors in 10 video games) with as many targets (six) as he had in his final three postseasons mixed with the Maple Leafs. Which was solely predictable.

With the Leafs, Marner’s points-per-game common within the playoffs (0.90) was a far cry from that within the common season (1.13). He performed an excessive amount of on the periphery at a time when targets are scored within the trenches. He regarded overmatched by opponents and by the second. He turned a pariah, the lightning rod of culpability for Toronto’s lack of playoff success within the seek for its first Stanley Cup since 1967.

With unrestricted free company looming, Marner and the Leafs parted methods final summer time, when the Golden Knights acquired the winger and signed him to a brand new eight-year contract that carries a $12 million AAV. Vegas just isn’t Toronto when it comes to media and fan scrutiny. (I imply, what is?) So he escaped the Ontarian strain cooker, exhaled for as soon as and have become the Golden Knights’ playoff pacesetter after sputtering alongside throughout 70 postseason appearances for the Leafs.

Marner critics did not even get to see him plagued by famous taskmaster John Tortorella when he took over the Golden Knights with eight video games remaining within the common season! The memes have been in all places, predicting a fragile star being damaged by the league’s most intense coach.

On the opposite, Torts loves “Mitchie,” as he has referred to him to the media, and has pushed again in opposition to the narratives shaped about him in Toronto.

“I think he’s a hell of a hockey player. I think he’s very confident in what he brings,” Tortorella mentioned after Marner’s pure hat trick in Game 3 in opposition to the Ducks. “People give him s— all the time about playoffs and this and that. I don’t think it bothers him a lick. He just plays.”

When requested concerning the narratives the next day, Tortorella mentioned: “You guys don’t see the stuff he does. People here, people in Toronto, all the people that talk about this guy, they don’t see any of the things he brings to a game even if he doesn’t score a goal. I’ve known that coaching against him. So, that narrative is a bunch of bulls—. Mitch doesn’t care. Mitch is a pro. He’s one of the top players in this league, and he plays for us.”

Mitch Marner, thriving within the playoffs underneath coach John Tortorella. We’d say that is essentially the most surreal Maple Leafs-related factor to occur previously month, however then Toronto simply employed John Chayka to exchange Brad Treliving.

Lesson: Winning within the playoffs is a harsh schooling

Why have the Stanley Cup playoffs been so thrilling? I feel a part of it’s the boundless enthusiasm of first-time members.

The Buffalo Sabres ended a 14-season playoff drought. The Anaheim Ducks reentered the postseason for the primary time since 2018, whereas the Philadelphia Flyers made it for the primary time since 2020. The Pittsburgh Penguins have been a playoff workforce for the primary time since 2022 and had a roster of newbies behind the franchise standard-bearers corresponding to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

The Utah Mammoth made the playoffs for the primary time of their existence — and since The Franchise That Shall Not Be Named When Discussing The Mammoth (aka the Coyotes) hadn’t made the playoffs since 2020, that is a complete bunch of first-time playoff voyagers on that roster.

If there was one overriding theme to the beginning of this yr’s playoffs, it was inexperienced groups and gamers determining learn how to win within the postseason. It’s a harsh schooling, as a result of the Stanley Cup playoffs are functionally a distinct sport from what’s performed within the earlier 82 video games.

“I just think it’s a different style of game,” mentioned Trevor Zegras, who performed 349 video games within the NHL earlier than making the playoffs with the Flyers this season. “Every series is a little different. The Pittsburgh series was a little more physical, more battles and a little bit more hatred, whereas the Carolina series was maybe a little faster, make more plays under pressure.”

Zegras realized quite a bit about strain over the previous couple of weeks. “I just think the pressure of the games was something that you can’t really prepare for. How you’re going to feel when the puck drops for that playoff game,” he mentioned.

You may depend on one hand the variety of Flyers with earlier playoff expertise. You may virtually do the identical with the Sabres, which is why they bumped into conditions like Game 3 in opposition to the Canadiens. The lead slipped away. Bell Centre was popping. Tage Thompson mentioned his workforce “got a little too emotional,” together with a parade to the penalty field that prolonged into Game 4.

That’s why the approaches for Utah and Anaheim have been intriguing. The Ducks balanced out their unimaginable era of younger expertise by gathering gamers like Alex Killorn, who gained a number of Cups with the Lightning; John Carlson, a Cup winner with Washington; and former New York Rangers Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider, each with their very own gravitas.

The Mammoth had a number of Cup winners in Mikhail Sergachev (Lightning) and Ian Cole (Pittsburgh), in addition to Nate Schmidt, who gained a Cup final season with the Panthers. GM Bill Armstrong informed me that was by design to assist his inexperienced gamers handle their feelings within the playoffs.

“We had some really good leaders that kind of stepped up and just said, ‘Hey, you’re going to feel like you’re on top of the world, you’re going to win the Stanley Cup, and the next night you’re going to feel terrible. The world’s fallen out,'” he informed ESPN. “You’ve got to stay even-keeled in this process. And that’s a huge thing not to get too up and down.”

It was exhilarating to look at these groups be taught in actual time. Watching the Ducks determine that possessing the puck means you do not have to determine your defensive zone deficiencies. Watching Buffalo reply the bell when it appeared as if its sequence have been getting ready to catastrophe. Watching the Flyers not freak out when Sid and the Penguins began to erase a 3-0 sequence deficit.

“It was such a good learning experience for myself and a lot of the other young guys that have never played a playoff game,” Zegras mentioned. “We know what to expect now.”

Lesson: In the top, followers ought to select pleasure

Philadelphia supplied two of my favourite environments throughout the Flyers’ run within the Eastern Conference.

The first was Game 3 in opposition to Pittsburgh, which was some of the raucous and chaotic crowds in latest reminiscence. The Flyers hadn’t performed a house playoff recreation since 2018. They have been taking over their archrivals from Pittsburgh. The crowd was singing derogatory chants aimed toward Sidney Crosby an hour earlier than Crosby hit the ice after which all through the sport.

Gritty, within the mascot’s first playoff look, threw a life-size stuffed penguin from the second degree to the followers under, who crowd-surfed it whereas taking breaks to punch it within the face till an usher wrestled it away. It was pure, uncut Philly.

welcome to philly pic.twitter.com/cNADNFO9GU

— Gritty (@GrittyNHL) April 22, 2026

But so was what occurred on the finish of Game 4 in opposition to the Hurricanes, as Carolina accomplished the sweep. The recreation led to time beyond regulation. Almost instantly, these passionate Philly followers — whose ardour, admittedly, can manifest in a wide range of methods — stood up and began loudly chanting “Let’s go Flyers!” to numb their gamers’ ache and acknowledge their accomplishment. It was some of the touching issues I can recall on the finish of a sequence.

It even obtained to Rod Brind’Amour, who performed 9 years with the Flyers. As he shook Philly coach Rick Tocchet’s hand, he pointed to the roof of the sector and informed Tocchet to “take a minute” and soak within the love the followers have been giving him and the workforce.

Listen in as Rod Brind’Amour goes via the handshake line after the @Canes closed out their Second Round #StanleyCup Playoffs sequence in opposition to the @NHLFlyers! pic.twitter.com/LwqKtd4WCh

— NHL (@NHL) May 12, 2026

Look, not each elimination goes to be sunshine and rainbows, and never each fanbase goes to deal with the top of a sequence like a curtain name of a Broadway present. But … what in the event that they did?

These are the 16 groups that earned the fitting to maintain taking part in after the common season. Win a spherical, and their workforce remains to be taking part in whereas three-quarters of the league just isn’t. What’s to not cheer, no less than within the second, as the fact of dashed expectations units in.

I did not have “Philadelphia fans as beacons of positivity in the face of defeat” on my bingo card, however right here we’re.