Should the playoff format be changed with a play-in round added?

The  play-in round was supposed to be a one year deal for teams like the New York Rangers, but it could lead to some permanent changes

The speculation has already started.  The NHL should look to adopt an expanded playoff format with a version of the “play-in” round that was staged this postseason.  Increasing the number of playoff-eligible teams will certainly help a team like the New York Rangers who play in the ultra competitive Metropolitan Division.

One concept would be that the top three teams in each Division would automatically make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the next three teams in the standings qualifying as wild card teams that would participate in a best-of-five round to move on in the Playoffs.

That format would mean that 24 of the 32 teams (after the Seattle expansion) would be eligible for the postseason, compared to the 20 teams that make it now.

While purists would complain that the playoff pool would be diluted with mediocre teams, remember that when the NHL was  a six team league, the top four teams made the playoffs.  That led to sub .500 teams making the playoff every year and made the NHL the butt of many jokes.

Professional sports leagues are moving towards a more inclusive postseason.  Before the pandemic, there were reports that Major League Baseball was seriously considering expanding their playoff pool from ten to 14 teams.  The baseball proposal included the top team in each league getting  a bye in the wild card round, the next two teams and the top wild card team playing all of the games in a three-game wild card series at home.  In a radical concept, the two division winners would get to pick the wild card team that they would play, with the selection televised live.

You can be sure that Gary Bettman and the NHL Board of Governors were monitoring the baseball situation closely.  They have to be pleased by the upsets in the Qualifying round by teams from hockey markets like Chicago and Montreal over smaller television markets like Edmonton and Pittsburgh.

What they cannot be pleased about are the television ratings for hockey.  They lagged behind the ratings for the NBA and were far behind the baseball ratings.  The return to play didn’t bring a plethora of viewers to hockey, one reason being that hockey resumed at the same time as the NBA and MLB.

Ironically, if the NHL did let the top six teams in each division qualify, this season the Rangers would have fallen short, despite having a much better record than Montreal or Buffalo who would have qualified.  If wild card eligibility was based on  regular season records, the qualifying teams would have been the same as in the Qualifier this season.

Any change in the playoff format would need approval from the NHL Players Association, but you can be sure that the league will be taking a long look at all options.