NHL Players have voted in favour of change to the playoffs, will the league listen?

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Joshua Deeds
September 30, 2022 (8:42)

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When the NHL made the decision to alter the playoff seeding structure and implement the Divisional structure it was meant to build rivalries. Unfortunately all it has done is punished teams in strong divisions while offering an advantage to those in weak ones. Multiple NHL players have discussed the current NHL Divisional playoff structure, and very few are in favour.

Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues concedes the fact that divisional play leads to good hockey but thinks it lacks variety.

"I think the division rivalries are fun to watch and fun to play in. It always leads to good hockey, there's just no variety in the current setup" Robert Thomas of the Blues said.

If you watched all of the Western Conference playoffs last season, it led to an exciting Battle of Alberta, but it did lack fun out-of-division matchups that could be competitive.

Wild GM Bill Guerin was also heavily in favour of ditching the «divisional bracket» style playoffs: «I'd like to go back to 1 through 8. I like the wild card for qualifying for the playoffs, but then I'd like to go back to a 1 through 8," he said.

Let's not forget, the infamous 2019 sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning, where a wildcard Columbus Blue Jackets, helped give birth to the current form of the Tampa Bay Lightning, a juggernaut in the Atlantic Division. While this wasn't a game that was a product of the old playoff system, matchups like this are less likely to happen as a result.

"I did think, growing up, it was pretty cool when they had the 1 through 8 seeding. Maybe less play in the divisions. Because sometimes the divisions are stacked," Jack Hughes said. "I don't know. I just hope we make the playoffs one of these years."

In the meantime while some players are unsatisfied with the current style of the playoff system, Gary Bettman thinks otherwise:

"I think it creates great competition throughout the regular season, it makes the games most meaningful and there's nothing like our playoff tournament," he said during a wide-ranging press conference in Edmonton ahead of Game 2 between the Oilers and L.A. Kings in a first-round playoff series.

"The Stanley Cup is the hardest [championship] to win. And there's nothing in any sport like our first round."

The NHL is dedicated to making money through TV deals and the playoffs and Stanley Cup Finals are a great way of doing so, if you had a good commissioner, which we don't.