The 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs will be the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 2025âÂÂ26 season. The playoffs are scheduled to begin on April 18, 2026 and will conclude with the Stanley Cup Final with the series ending no later than June 21.
This is the eleventh year in which the top three teams in each division make the playoffs, along with two wild cards in each conference (for a total of eight playoff teams from each conference).
, the following teams have qualified for the playoffs:
This is the 12th and final postseason of the league's Canadian national broadcast rights deal with Rogers Sports & Media before a new 12-season contract begins next year. Games will air across the Sportsnet networks and CBC under the Hockey Night in Canada brand. For first and second-round U.S.âÂÂU.S. games not on CBC, Sportsnet generally simulcasts the U.S. feed instead of producing their own telecast. The 2026 Stanley Cup Final will be simulcast on both CBC and Sportsnet.
Sportsnet+ will stream all games.
This is the fifth season of the league's seven-year U.S. national broadcast rights deals with the ESPN family of networks and TNT Sports. First- and second-round games are split between ESPN-produced telecasts (either on ESPN, ABC, or ESPN2) and TNT Sports-produced telecasts (either on TNT or TBS, with selected simulcasts on TruTV). Each U.S. team's regional broadcaster will also televise local coverage of first-round games, except for games on ABC.
The ESPN networks have the first choice of which conference final series to air, and TNT Sports will broadcast the other conference finals. As per the alternating rotation, ABC has coverage of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final.
The ESPN app and HBO Max will stream all ESPN-produced games and TNT Sports-produced games, respectively. Disney+ may also stream ESPN-produced telecasts.