Latest 2025 NHL Playoff Picture, Bracket Predictions and Postseason Details

As the 2025 NHL season draws to a close, the eyes of the hockey world turn toward the postseason and which teams will vie for a chance to list the Stanley Cup as the best team in the sport.

Some are obvious, including the Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets, while others are dark horse contenders, seeking to shock the world and compete for the game's top prize.

Who current sits atop their respective conferences, which teams are nearing the all-important playoff clinch, and who are the wildcard teams clinging to their playoff hopes?

Find out with this playoff preview, including a way-too-early Cup prediction.

Playoff Format

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Unlike other leagues in which the top seed plays the lowest seed, the NHL continues to implement a different format.

Per the league's official website:

* First Round: The division winner with the best record in each conference will be matched against the wild-card team with the lesser record. The wildcard team with the better record will play the other division winner. The teams finishing second and third in each division will meet within the bracket headed by their respective division winners.

* Second Round: First round winners within each bracket play one another to determine the four participants in the Conference Finals.

* Conference Finals: Home-ice advantage goes to the team that had the better regular-season record, regardless of the teams' final standing in their respective divisions.

Eastern Conference Bracket

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The updated bracket for the Eastern Conference is:

A1 Toronto Maple Leafs vs. WC1 Ottawa Senators

A2 Tampa Bay Lightning vs. A3 Florida Panthers

M1 Washington Capitals vs. WC2 Montreal Canadiens

M2 Carolina Hurricanes vs. M3 New Jersey Devils

Western Conference Bracket

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The updated Western Conference Bracket is:

C1 Winnipeg Jets vs. WC2 Minnesota Wild

C2 Dallas Stars vs. C3 Colorado Avalanche

P1 Las Vegas Golden Knights vs. WC1 St. Louis Blues

P2 Los Angeles Kings vs. P3 Edmonton Oilers

Stanley Cup Predictions

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On the surface, Winnipeg and Washington are the best teams in the NHL. One point separates them (106 and 105, respectively) and they are two of four teams who have clinched spots in the playoffs, with Dallas and Las Vegas being the other two.

If history dictates anything, it is that being the best and the overall No. 1 seed in one's conference guarantees a team nothing. In the 2010s, exactly one top seed hoisted the Stanley Cup (2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks) and while the league's best teams have had more success this decade, there is no sure thing in hockey.

The Caps are definitively the best team in the East but a mere two points separate Carolina, Toronto, Tampa Bay, and Florida. Any one of those teams, including the defending Stanley Cup Panthers, are capable of besting Alexander Ovechin and the Capitals in a series and advancing to compete for the top prize in the sport.

In the Western Conference, Winnipeg leads the pack with 106 points but Dallas is within two points while Vegas carries 98 points as of April 2. It is a testament to the quality of hockey being played at the top of that conference that those three teams have amassed the points they have and that there is still a disparity of that size between the No. 1 and three seeds.

Still, while the Jets and Caps should be the favorites, there are too many teams with too many stars and veteran players to discount the others, especially given Winnipeg's lack of proven playoff pedigree.

With Edmonton and star Connor McDavid looking to avenge a devastating loss in last year's Stanley Cup Finals, they Oilers cannot be discounted should they clinch, nor can the defending champion Panthers.

The Golden Knights and star Jack Eichel's 93 points can wreck any club's championship aspirations and the Maple Leafs, despite far too early exits over the last two decades, have two electric scorers in Auston Matthews and William Nylander who can light up the post and advance Toronto to the finals.

Of the top two seeds, Washington feels like the safer pick to play for the Cup but it will not be against the Jets. Instead, it will be a star-studded showdown as the Caps and McDavid's Oilers meet with the gold, and immortality, on the line.

Prediction: Oilers over Caps in seven