When do the NHL Playoffs Start?
End of Season
The last games of the 2024-2025 NHL season will be on Saturday, April 17th and the NHL Playoffs will begin a few days later. The entire playoff typically lasts about two months and is wrapped up with the Stanley Cup finals sometime in mid June. Due to each Playoff Series ending in a different number of games and on different dates, the complete dated schedule is not known until the end of each series.
The NHL Playoffs have four different rounds:
Divisional SemiFinals
Divisional Finals
Conference Finals
Stanley Cup Championship
The Bracket
Check out our How do the NHL Playoffs Work article for a complete explanation on the NHL Playoff System. We will update our NHL Playoff Bracket when the match-ups are determined.