My argument for making 24 team playoffs permanent.

[Rosy Cheeks]

There is an easy solution to make the regular season more meaningful for top seeded teams if the playoffs is expanded.

Instead of 4 of seven home games in the first playoff round they could increase the home games and as a bonus decrease the travel. For example 2 away followed by five home games or 2 home, 2 away, 3 home games.

Could have a 32 team playoff with the first round entirely in the home arena of the top seeded team.

Owners would love to invest in the team to get more playoff home games.

 

[SUX2BU]

 

[ICanMotteBelieveIt]

I think they should do lottery as to who they play. Eastern teams should be able to play western teams. Best of 3 or 5 games.

What if the best teams are from east (or west) and they knock each other out before the finals, I think it's dumb.

Let's say there's 16 teams in the playoffs.

The top 4 teams in the regular season (disregarding their conferences) gets drawn vs 4 of the bottom teams.

And the 3 (or 5) game series kills the motion of "that's a lot of traveling between the teams".


So the #1-4 seed gets drawn via lottery vs #13-16 seed. #5-8 vs #9-12.

 

[MessierII]

I think they should do lottery as to who they play. Eastern teams should be able to play western teams. Best of 3 or 5 games.

What if the best teams are from east (or west) and they knock each other out before the finals, I think it's dumb.

Let's say there's 16 teams in the playoffs.

The top 4 teams in the regular season (disregarding their conferences) gets drawn vs 4 of the bottom teams.

And the 3 (or 5) game series kills the motion of "that's a lot of traveling between the teams".


So the #1-4 seed gets drawn via lottery vs #13-16 seed. #5-8 vs #9-12.

Why?

 

[tsujimoto74]

24 is too much, but I could see a 20 team, 10 per conference. That means 1 bye for each division champ.

You make a good point that byes are actually a good reward for teams that excel. It's just that it is a special year where it means they would be rusty. Normally they'd just have a good rest.

edit: on 2nd thought my counting is off I think.

You know, I don't hate this idea. 10 teams per conference, top 2 in each conference get a bye. I'd like to see them scrap the current format and go back to best-plays-worst, though. So, in this case, it'd be 3 v 10, 4 v 9, 5 v 8, and 6 v 7.

 

[ToDavid]

I agree 16 is not enough in a 32 teams league. It does make the regular season meaningless for a bunch of teams that are too low in the standings by christmas time already.

I'm not following this argument. They're too low because of their regular season play, making it the opposite of meaningless.

 

[GaryU]

16 is good.

 

[HisNoodliness]

16 is great. I'd sooner cut it to 8 than expand to 24, but 16 is good.

 

[Commander Clueless]

No leave it at 16 teams. It’s fine.

16 teams.....per conference?

 

[KnockHobbler]

How about every team gets an official participation ribbon awarded to them at the beginning of each season? You could have a big ceremony and everything to make it special.

No team left behind.

 

[njdevils1982]

How about every team gets an official participation ribbon awarded to them at the beginning of each season? You could have a big ceremony and everything to make it special.

No team left behind.

now the question is will the preds be the only team to hang this ribbon from the rafters?

 

[SimpleJack]

All 32 teams should make it. Hell let’s add the AHL teams too. And the KHL, OHL, and even the ZHL. Make one giant universal 500 team bracket. Goes on the entire year. Championship match is decided by a blindfolded SO with no goalies.

 

[ICanMotteBelieveIt]

Why?

Why not? More variety and the best teams make it to the finals. Instead of the best western VS the best eastern team.

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

I'd like to see a 32 team playoff. My catch...top seeded teams get to choose their opponents in the first two rounds...after the regular season is concluded.

This way, most teams/fans don't really know who they will be playing until the season has ended...and it eliminates any team's urge to match fix games during the season.

Plus, teams who have players who have legitimate injuries to where a team might fall out of the playoff race during the usual Stanley Cup seasonal run now can assure themselves of a playoff spot and a chance of competing for the 'Cup with a healthy roster.

 

[WatchfulElm]

How can you even say that after last season Stanley Cup champion? I think the Blues were in last place on January 3rd or something like that.

And when is the next time we're gonna see that? In 2053? It's the exception. We cannot assume this can happen every year. Truth is many teams are already out of the playoffs with many months left to the season, which makes it unexciting for the players and the fans as well.

 

[WatchfulElm]

I'm not following this argument. They're too low because of their regular season play, making it the opposite of meaningless.

Oh sure, it makes the first 3 months of the season meaningful. But the rest of the season is meaningless for too many teams. I'm a massive hockey fan, but even me, I stop caring with many months left to the season if my team is too low in the standings. So I can't imagine how it is for casual fans.

Adding 4 more teams to the playoffs would include more teams in the competition and create a whole new race for the top 6 spots, to avoid the play-ins. More races, more teams involved, making the regular season more exciting. I don't see what's wrong with it.

We used to have 76% of the teams in the playoffs (16 out of 21). Adding 4 more teams would increase it from 50% to 62,5%. The NHL is not the MLB, where only a few elite teams gets into the postseason. The NHL tradition is to include more teams in the spring dance. Let's not change this.

 

[beowulf]

No, just no. 16 is already enough and brings the games into June during a normal season. There is no need to add more playoff teams and it would devalue the regular season a little.

 

[AveryStar4Eva]

Nope 16 is perfect especially once Seattle is added to the league. Half in, half out. If 75% of the league makes it the second half of the regular season becomes a joke

 

[SympathyForTheDevils]

I really don't like the idea of having playoffs with byes. Having some teams require less wins than others to advance rubs me the wrong way. Plus, it would mean more playoff revenue for worse playoff teams, which would create weird competitive disincentives.

Oh sure, it makes the first 3 months of the season meaningful. But the rest of the season is meaningless for too many teams. I'm a massive hockey fan, but even me, I stop caring with many months left to the season if my team is too low in the standings. So I can't imagine how it is for casual fans.

Adding 4 more teams to the playoffs would include more teams in the competition and create a whole new race for the top 6 spots, to avoid the play-ins. More races, more teams involved, making the regular season more exciting. I don't see what's wrong with it.

We used to have 76% of the teams in the playoffs (16 out of 21). Adding 4 more teams would increase it from 50% to 62,5%. The NHL is not the MLB, where only a few elite teams gets into the postseason. The NHL tradition is to include more teams in the spring dance. Let's not change this.

You stop caring because your team is mediocre, not because the regular season isn't meaningful. Not much the league can do about that.

If the NHL has any playoff "tradition", it's the current one. The league has tinkered with different playoff formats throughout its history, until settling for a 16-team format, which is simple and equitable. And people like it a lot more now than in the 80s (the 16 out of 21 format was criticized by everyone as being too easy to get in).

Why not? More variety and the best teams make it to the finals. Instead of the best western VS the best eastern team.

Sure but this also ignores the reason why there are conferences in the first place, namely travel and timezones. The NHL won't want many series where games are at 4:00/10:00 for one of the markets.

 

[Sanchise90]

I'd actually be for a 7 v 10/8 v 9 style play-in mini tourney for the lower seeds. That would also make it more valuable to be a top 6 seed and one thing the current system lacks is making seeding have value. However, just increasing the amount of playoffs teams to 24 is an absolutely stupid idea...

 

[Johnny Tomala]

Nope, playoffs should stay 16 teams. No way 24 out of 31 teams should be in the playoffs.

 

[ICanMotteBelieveIt]

I really don't like the idea of having playoffs with byes. Having some teams require less wins than others to advance rubs me the wrong way. Plus, it would mean more playoff revenue for worse playoff teams, which would create weird competitive disincentives.



You stop caring because your team is mediocre, not because the regular season isn't meaningful. Not much the league can do about that.

If the NHL has any playoff "tradition", it's the current one. The league has tinkered with different playoff formats throughout its history, until settling for a 16-team format, which is simple and equitable. And people like it a lot more now than in the 80s (the 16 out of 21 format was criticized by everyone as being too easy to get in).



Sure but this also ignores the reason why there are conferences in the first place, namely travel and timezones. The NHL won't want many series where games are at 4:00/10:00 for one of the markets.

Well it's only for a short amount of time. 82 games, yeah then there's a difference.. but this is just for a short (relatively) amount of time.

Well we Europeans stay up to like. 1 am or later (depending on the team you root for) all season long. I think you guys will manage.

 

[CraigsList]

There's maybe an argument that two teams that have similar points % need to battle it out to make the playoffs, but keeping the 24 team format just doesn't make any sense.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

Didn't Charles Wang propose something similar?

 

[Flukeshot]

I am pretty confident we will see the league move to 20 teams via an expanded wildcard play in.

I do believe in the argument that it makes the regular season less meaningful.

However the NHL wants to ensure in a 32 team league that most teams are still playing meaningful games come January or February rather than clearly being eliminated from playoff contention.

For a large percentage of league history 2/3s of the teams made the playoffs.

3 teams per Div will get a bye, then the next best 4 teams in the conference will do a best of 3 or best of 5 to determine who makes it.