32 teams. Single elimination. Zero extra games. A season-long knockout tournament played entirely within the NHL's regular schedule.

The Gauntlet

Keep your fire burning.

The Buffalo Sabres, the Seattle Kraken and the Colorado Avalanche share the 2023-24 Gauntlet.

The West ran out of schedule in the semifinals, so the Seattle Kraken and the Colorado Avalanche share the West.

The Gauntlet: a steel hockey glove raising a torch, with every champion's name engraved on its cuff. ??? ???

The E

    The We

      Next up

      Gone dark

      1. Mar 29Sabres 5, Devils 2. Devils out.
      2. Jan 4Avalanche 5, Stars 4. Stars out.
      3. Jan 1Kraken 3, Golden Knights 0. Golden Knights out.
      4. Dec 21Sabres 9, Maple Leafs 3. Maple Leafs out.
      5. Dec 13Devils 2, Bruins 1. Bruins out.
      6. Nov 28Devils 5, Islanders 4. Islanders out.

      Virtual game. Two teams from the same conference who each played the other conference on qualification night, paired by last season's points (1 vs 6, 2 vs 5, 3 vs 4). Each plays its own game. Whoever scores more moves on. Tied? Compare goal by goal: whoever scored their first goal earlier in the game wins, then their second, and so on. Still tied? The higher seed.

      The Journey

      There is no fixed bracket. After every round the survivors are paired again, in-conference, from the games still left on the schedule.

      Qualification night

      Round of 16

      Quarterfinals

      Semifinals

      Gauntlet leaders

      Counting Gauntlet games only. In a virtual game, only the Gauntlet team's players count.

      Goals

      1. Tage Thompson BUF 7
      2. Auston Matthews TOR 4
      3. Jeff Skinner BUF 4
      4. Alex Tuch BUF 3
      5. Nathan MacKinnon COL 3
      6. Ryan Hartman MIN 3
      7. Kyle Okposo BUF 3
      8. Tyler Toffoli NJD 3
      9. Calle Jarnkrok TOR 3

      Points

      1. Tage Thompson BUF 10
      2. Alex Tuch BUF 10
      3. Jack Hughes NJD 8
      4. Auston Matthews TOR 6
      5. Jeff Skinner BUF 6
      6. Casey Mittelstadt BUF 6

      What is this?

      A proposal for an NHL in-season tournament: a single-elimination tournament that all 32 teams enter at the start of the season, played on games that are already on the regular-season schedule.

      Nothing has to be added to the calendar. The tournament picks some of those games and gives them a second prize: they still count in the standings as usual, but the loser is also knocked out of the tournament. Win and you move on to the next round. The last team left wins the Gauntlet, a trophy with every champion's name engraved on it.

      This site runs it live on the real NHL schedule, and on the last three seasons as replays. Every team is a candle on the shelves above: lose a tournament game and yours goes out.

      Why the NHL should do this

      For the league

      1. It fits the schedule the NHL already has. Every Gauntlet game is a regular-season game that was going to be played anyway, and it still counts in the standings: no extra travel, no break in the season. Qualification night is Frozen Frenzy, already the night all 32 teams play. This site has run it on the last three seasons exactly as they were scheduled.
      2. It is something new to sell. A named tournament brings sponsorship the league doesn't have today: a presenting partner for the Gauntlet, the trophy and qualification night, and a screen in all 32 arenas that fans watch all season.
      3. Players get something to play for. Put up a prize for the winning roster: cash, an annuity, a sponsor's car for every player, whatever a presenting partner wants to attach its name to. The NBA Cup pays its winners, and that is a big part of why its players take it seriously.
      4. The trophy can honour a legend. A tournament played inside the regular season is a natural place to honour one of the game's great regular-season players, the ones who piled up wins and points from October to April.
      5. It gives the long middle of the season a storyline. It opens with 16 elimination games in one night, with staggered starts made for a whip-around show. Then every week from October to spring there are knockout games to promote, preview and put on national TV, and a running story of who is still alive. A broadcaster gets a reason to pick up a midweek game it would otherwise skip.
      6. The NBA has already shown it works. The NBA added an in-season tournament, the NBA Cup, built on its regular-season games, with a trophy and a final. It has become a fixture of their season. Hockey has nothing like it.
      7. An optional final, booked before the season. The league can put the Gauntlet final on the calendar before the season starts: an 85th game on a set date for the last two teams standing, whoever they turn out to be. Sponsors, broadcasters and fans have the night circled all season.

      For the fans

      1. A game in mid-December gets a reason to matter. An 84-game season has long stretches where a game between two teams in the middle of December can lack excitement and reason: the playoffs are months away, and one result barely moves the standings. If that game is a Gauntlet game, one team's run ends that night, and both fan bases know it.
      2. Every team starts with a shot at a trophy. All 32 teams begin alive, including the ones nobody expects to make the playoffs. A rebuilding team that gets hot for a few weeks can win something real in a season it might not win anything else.
      3. A flame to follow in your own arena. Picture a slim screen hanging in every NHL arena, where a banner would go, showing that team's flame. While the team is still in, the flame burns, with its round and next Gauntlet game underneath. The night it is knocked out, the flame dies in front of the home crowd and the screen shows who put it out. One by one the arenas go dark, until one flame is left.
      4. Losing it costs your team nothing else. A team knocked out of the Gauntlet keeps its points, its place in the standings and its playoff chase. The tournament only ever adds something to cheer for.
      5. Rivals can knock each other out. Every Gauntlet game is played within a conference, which is where the big rivalries are: Rangers and Devils, Oilers and Flames, Maple Leafs and Canadiens. When a rivalry game is a Gauntlet game, one of them ends the other's run.

      Want it in the NHL? Tell 'em.

      Tell @NHL on X

      The rules

      Qualification night
      One night early in the season when all 32 teams play. Anyone facing the other conference that night gets a virtual game against a team from their own.
      Later rounds
      Every game is in-conference. Once a round ends, the next one takes the earliest games that get every remaining team through it.
      The final
      The East and West champions' next meeting. If they don't play again, both are champions.
      If the schedule runs dry
      A conference with no games left for its next round stops there, and every team still alive in it is a champion.

      Questions

      Is the NHL actually doing this?
      Not yet. The Gauntlet is a proposal from a fan, not affiliated with the NHL. This site runs it on the real schedule to show exactly how it would play out.
      How is this different from the NBA Cup?
      The NBA Cup, the NBA's in-season tournament, starts with group-stage games and finishes with a knockout round in December. The Gauntlet is single elimination from the first night and runs the whole season: lose one Gauntlet game and you are out.
      Does a Gauntlet game still count in the NHL standings?
      Yes. Every Gauntlet game is a normal regular-season game and counts in the standings like any other. The tournament only adds a second prize: the loser is also out of the Gauntlet.
      What happens to a team after it gets knocked out?
      Its season carries on as normal. It keeps playing its schedule and chasing a playoff spot; it just can't win the Gauntlet anymore.
      Who decides which games count?
      Nobody hand-picks them. When a round ends, the next one takes the earliest in-conference games on the schedule that give every team still alive exactly one game.
      Why did this only start in 2023?
      The Gauntlet starts on qualification night, a night when all 32 teams play, and the NHL first scheduled one, Frozen Frenzy, in October 2023. In 2022-23 the only such night was April 8, a week before the regular season ended, which is too late to start a tournament. The league reached 32 teams in 2021-22, and that season never had one.
      What is a virtual game?
      On qualification night every team needs an opponent from its own conference. A team whose real opponent that night is from the other conference gets a virtual game instead: it is paired with another such team, each plays its own game, and whoever scores more goes through.
      Can the Gauntlet end without one winner?
      Yes, it can, due to current scheduling constraints.
      What counts toward the scoring leaders?
      Only goals and assists in Gauntlet games. In a virtual game, only the Gauntlet team's players count, not their opponent from the other conference.