The 2020–21 NHL season was originally set to close on Saturday, May 8th 2021 with the professional hockey league then having a couple days of rest before the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs was to commence on Monday, May 11, 2021.

However this year and season is unlike any other with Covid-19 and its restrictions impacting the league as it has the entire world. The NHL playoffs have been pushed back to accommodate cancelled and postponed games. The NHL put out a statement on May 4 — after the Vancouver Canucks had a major outbreak — announcing that some divisions would start their playoffs earlier than others.

“The NHL will continue to assess the progression of the regular season before announcing definitive dates for the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs,” the statement said. “With the newly revised end date for the regular season for the North Division, it is possible that the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the East, Central and West Divisions could open a few days earlier than the North Division.”

2021 NHL Playoff Tournament Bracket

The National Hockey League’s playoffs are commonly referred to as the “Stanley Cup playoffs” and is an elimination tournament that begins with 16 teams — eight teams from each conference — competing to advance on to the next round in four best-of-seven series. The fourth and final round of these playoffs is the Stanley Cup Final, which pits the conference champions against one another for the Stanley Cup trophy.

The NHL Stanley Cup Tournament bracket will be finalized once the regular season ends in mid-May. From there, the teams will be seeded based on their win/loss records and the points they’ve accumulated during the 82 game season.

The first round’s bracket consists of the six division winners (three from each conference) and one wild card team from each conference. From there, teams advance through the bracket when they’re able to reach four wins in the second round, the conference finals, and into the championship Stanley Cup Final. We’ve provided a blank and printable NHL bracket below.

The Nashville Predators became the fourth team out of the four that will first reach the postseason out of the Central Division – there’s only one slot available. The odds are  the Montreal Canadiens, the Vancouver Canucks, or the Calgary Flames, the three remaining teams facing each other to take it.

You can download and print out the above bracket by clicking on download. Here you can view and print out the bracket in a high-resolution image, in clear and blank PDF format, or in Microsoft Word document. As with the last several seasons, the NHL playoffs will be broadcast on NBC Sports’ networks of channels including NBC, NBCSN, CBC, and USA. To download the white and light blue versions in PDF, you can print those PDF versions here: Here’s the white NHL playoff bracket here and the you can get the Stanley Cup bracket with the light blue background one here.

Stanley Cup Champions

Last season, the Tampa Bay Lightning had the best record and sat on top of the in the league record-wise. The relatively new franchise ended up on top of the playoffs too, defeating the Dallas Stars 4-2 for the Stanley Cup. With some games left to play, the Las Vegas Golden Knights currently has the league’s best record with a 39-12 finish.

Here’s is a list of the champions from the last 12 NHL Playoffs:

For those NHL cities that speak French, the Stanley Cup playoffs is called Les séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley.