NHL Playoff Picture 2022: Bracket Predictions and Teams to Watch

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Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

The battle for the Stanley Cup is almost ready to begin. The NHL playoffs are set to start May 2, and 16 teams will be hoping to make a deep run through the postseason and celebrate with the Cup more than a month later.

Although the regular season is winding down, there are still some playoff berths up for grabs. Not in the Eastern Conference, though, although the seeds aren’t yet locked in. In the Western Conference, four teams have clinched spots, while seven teams are battling it out for the other four berths.

So important games will be played before the playoffs begin. And it’s also becoming clear which teams may be this year’s top championship contenders.

Here are predictions for how the postseason seeding battles will shake out, followed by closer looks at several teams to watch when the Stanley Cup playoffs get underway.

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Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

Once again, the Colorado Avalanche have been one of the best regular-season teams. Last year, they won the Presidents’ Trophy, awarded to the team with the most points, and they will capture it again this season if they can have a better finish than the Florida Panthers.

Regardless, Colorado has already clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. And it will be hoping that it leads to playoff success, something the franchise hasn’t had much of in recent years. Although the Avs have reached the postseason in each of the previous four years, they haven’t made it past the second round.

In fact, Colorado hasn’t made it to the Western Conference Final since 2002. But this could be the year that the Avalanche finally return to that stage. They have been the top offensive team in the West, having scored 3.84 goals per game, and they have four players with 83 or more points, led by Mikko Rantanen (36 goals and 55 assists).

There’s some strong competition in the Western Conference, and Colorado will have a challenging first-round matchup if Vegas plays its way into the No. 8 seed. But the Avalanche boast a ton of talent and a roster hungry for postseason success, so they are going to be a top team to watch.

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Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a 3-1 series lead over the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of last year’s playoffs. It seemed Toronto was finally on the cusp of winning a postseason series for the first time since 2004. And then the Leafs dropped three straight games and were eliminated in the opening round for the fifth consecutive year.

But Toronto’s drought is eventually going to end, and it could happen this year.

It’s highly likely that the Maple Leafs will be either the No. 2, No. 3 or No. 4 seed in the East, so they will have home-ice advantage in the first round. That could be beneficial for a team that has gone 29-8-2 when playing in Toronto this season.

The Leafs rank second in the NHL at 3.87 goals per game, and Auston Matthews is having an MVP-caliber season, having tallied 58 goals and 44 assists in 70 games. So Toronto has the talent to make a deep postseason run—it just needs to finally win a playoff series to get the momentum rolling.

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Nick Wass/Associated Press

If the Tampa Bay Lightning have proved anything over the past few years, it’s that they are always a team to watch when the playoffs arrive. They have won back-to-back Stanley Cups, and they have reached the Eastern Conference Final five times since 2015.

So even though Tampa Bay may be the No. 5 seed (or potentially even lower) this postseason, it shouldn’t be counted out. The Lightning may not get home-ice advantage in the first round, but that doesn’t mean they are not capable of having yet another strong showing in the playoffs.

Tampa Bay spent much of the first half of the season without Nikita Kucherov, who was dealing with a lower-body injury. Now that he’s back, with the rest of the team’s key players also in action, the Bolts may be rounding into form at the perfect time.

There hasn’t been a team to win three straight Stanley Cups since the New York Islanders captured four in a row from 1980-83. Perhaps the Lightning will change that this postseason.