The NHL format debate finally has the argument that matters and everything could change next season
Photo credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Pierre LeBrun told Melnick in the Afternoon what everyone already suspected. Owners, coaches, players - they all want 1-8 back.
That part isn't new. Frustration with the divisional bracket has been simmering since the NHL adopted it ahead of 2013-14, and every April produces fresh ammunition.
Re NHL playoff format: "I hear from owners and managers and coaches and players, that they would rather go back to 1-8; people in every corner of the league are tired of this format."
- Pierre LeBrun
- Pierre LeBrun
What changed this spring is the ammunition now sits inside the Stanley Cup Final itself.
Vegas won the Pacific Division with 95 points, a record that ranked 13th overall in the league.
Colorado won the Presidents' Trophy with 121 points, the best regular season any team has put together in years, and ran into those Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final.
Vegas swept them in four games.
The format's credibility problem just became a revenue problem
Now Vegas is playing Carolina for the Stanley Cup while the best regular-season team in hockey watches from home.
That stopped being an argument about fairness the moment it became an argument about product.
The NHL's television partners pay for meaningful regular seasons. When a 95-point division winner can ride a weak-bracket path to eliminate the league's dominant team, it raises a real question about what 82 games are actually buying anyone.
Ownership groups have tolerated the divisional structure because it was supposed to fuel rivalries and regional television ratings.
But the 2026 playoffs handed them a counterargument they cannot dismiss - a Final where one participant finished 26 points behind the team it eliminated one round earlier.
Agreement means nothing without a vote
LeBrun's reporting confirms the consensus exists across every level of the sport. The Board of Governors and the NHLPA still need to formally agree, and the league has historically moved at glacial speed on structural changes.
The difference now is the format isn't just frustrating participants. It's actively undermining the championship's legitimacy, and that's the kind of problem that gets solved - because the people writing the television checks notice it first.
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