2024 NHL Playoff Bracket and Results: Florida's First Stanley Cup

The completed 2024 NHL playoff bracket at a glance

The Florida Panthers won the 2024 Stanley Cup, defeating the Edmonton Oilers four games to three. Florida secured its first championship with a 2-1 home victory in Game 7 on June 24. The postseason began on April 20 and completed the NHL's 2023-24 season.

This is the finished 2024 bracket, with every series winner preserved below. Sixteen teams entered, eight from each conference. Eight First Round series reduced the field to eight clubs; four Second Round series produced the conference finalists; two Conference Finals determined the Stanley Cup matchup. The Final was the fifteenth and last series.

A series result counts games won, rather than goals scored in one contest. Florida's 4-3 Final victory therefore means four game wins against Edmonton's three. Its 2-1 Game 7 victory is a separate number: the score of the deciding game. Keeping those measures apart is essential when moving between a bracket and a game-by-game results list.

2024 postseason landmark	Result
Champion	Florida Panthers, first Stanley Cup
Runner-up	Edmonton Oilers
Playoffs began	April 20, 2024
Championship decided	June 24, 2024
Final series	Florida won 4-3
Deciding game	Florida 2, Edmonton 1

The Panthers' championship retrospective records the title, but the earlier rounds explain how the finalists got there. Read from the opening matchups forward to follow each bracket lane. A team's elimination ends its path; it does not change the route available to the surviving clubs.

These results belong to a completed historical season. For present-day opponents and upcoming dates, use the current NHL team directory. The archive's purpose is to make the 2024 postseason readable without presenting old games as upcoming events.

First Round results: all eight opening matchups

The opening round produced one sweep, two seven-game series and five other series that ended before Game 7. It also eliminated the defending champion Golden Knights. The tables show the winning club first in the result column, regardless of which team had the higher regular-season position.

Eastern Conference: Florida, Boston, New York and Carolina advanced

Matchup	Series result
Florida Panthers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning	Florida won 4-1
Boston Bruins vs. Toronto Maple Leafs	Boston won 4-3
New York Rangers vs. Washington Capitals	New York won 4-0
Carolina Hurricanes vs. New York Islanders	Carolina won 4-1

Florida's first step toward the championship came against its in-state rival. The Panthers won the first three games, lost Game 4 and finished the series with a 6-1 victory. Their four-wins-to-one result was decisive, but the two opening wins were each 3-2, including an overtime Game 2. A five-game series can still contain pivotal close contests.

Boston had the longest Eastern opening series. Toronto forced a deciding game after falling behind 3-1, and Game 7 required overtime. David Pastrnak scored the winner at 1:54 of the extra period in a 2-1 Bruins victory. Boston advanced to face Florida; the Maple Leafs' two elimination-game wins had extended the series without completing the turnaround.

The Rangers needed the minimum four games to eliminate Washington. Carolina required five against the Islanders, whose lone win came in double overtime in Game 4. These results set the other Eastern second-round matchup: New York against Carolina. Neither winner was assigned a new opponent by reseeding after the round.

The Eastern results therefore created two different lead-in stories. Florida and Carolina advanced in five, the Rangers in four and Boston in seven. Series length describes the games each club had already played; it does not by itself prove how fresh, healthy or effective those clubs would be in their next matchup.

Western Conference: Dallas, Colorado, Vancouver and Edmonton advanced

Matchup	Series result
Dallas Stars vs. Vegas Golden Knights	Dallas won 4-3
Winnipeg Jets vs. Colorado Avalanche	Colorado won 4-1
Vancouver Canucks vs. Nashville Predators	Vancouver won 4-2
Edmonton Oilers vs. Los Angeles Kings	Edmonton won 4-1

Dallas recovered from losing the first two games to Vegas. Three consecutive Stars wins put the Golden Knights on the brink, but Vegas forced Game 7 with a shutout. Dallas then won the decider 2-1, with Radek Faksa scoring the winning goal early in the third period. The defending champion's exit ensured a different club would lift the Cup in 2024.

Colorado took a different route through an early setback. Winnipeg won the opener 7-6; the Avalanche answered with four straight victories. Vancouver's six-game series ended at the other end of the scoring scale, with a 1-0 clincher against Nashville. Those examples show why the series total and the style of an individual game should be read separately.

Edmonton beat Los Angeles in five. Its closing wins included a 1-0 Game 4 and a 4-3 Game 5, rather than an unbroken string of comfortable margins. The Oilers moved into a Canadian second-round matchup against Vancouver, while Dallas advanced to play Colorado.

The NHL's completed First Round results preserve the individual scores behind these eight series. For the bracket, the essential information is which club reached four wins and which lane it carried forward.

Second Round results and the routes to the conference finals

The Second Round followed the established bracket lanes. Florida met Boston, the Rangers met Carolina, Dallas met Colorado and Vancouver met Edmonton. Three series ended in six games; the Oilers and Canucks supplied the round's only Game 7. The NHL's Second Round results show the sequence behind each outcome.

Florida and the Rangers emerged from the East

Matchup	Series result
Florida Panthers vs. Boston Bruins	Florida won 4-2
New York Rangers vs. Carolina Hurricanes	New York won 4-2

Boston opened its series against Florida with a 5-1 road victory. The Panthers responded by winning Games 2, 3 and 4, putting the Bruins one defeat from elimination. Boston won Game 5 before Florida closed with a 2-1 victory in Game 6. The opening loss proved to be one game within a longer contest, rather than a reliable forecast of the winner.

New York's six-game result had a different shape. The Rangers won the first three games, including two overtime contests. Carolina then won Games 4 and 5 and led 3-1 after two periods of Game 6. At that point, forcing a deciding seventh game was a realistic possibility rather than an accomplished result.

Chris Kreider changed the finish with a natural hat trick in the third period. The Rangers won 5-3 and advanced. The distinction between New York's series lead and Carolina's Game 6 lead matters: the Rangers were still ahead in the series while needing to recover within that particular game. A condensed bracket total cannot show that tension by itself.

Dallas and Edmonton emerged from the West

Matchup	Series result
Dallas Stars vs. Colorado Avalanche	Dallas won 4-2
Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers	Edmonton won 4-3

Dallas lost the opener to Colorado in overtime, then won the next three. Colorado extended the series with a Game 5 victory, but the Stars finished it with a 2-1 double-overtime win in Game 6. Dallas had now survived seven games against Vegas and six against Colorado to reach the Western Conference Final.

Edmonton faced elimination after Vancouver won Game 5 to take a 3-2 series lead. The Oilers answered with a 5-1 victory at home and then a 3-2 road win in Game 7. They built a three-goal lead in the decider before Vancouver scored twice in the third period. The final one-goal margin does not mean the teams traded goals evenly throughout the game.

These paths left Florida and New York in the East, with Dallas and Edmonton in the West. The matching six-game outcomes for three clubs should not obscure their different sequences: protecting an early advantage, recovering from an opening loss and escaping a late-game deficit are distinct experiences even when the bracket ends with the same series score.

Conference Finals: the Panthers and Oilers won in six

Conference Final	Series result
New York Rangers vs. Florida Panthers	Florida won 4-2
Dallas Stars vs. Edmonton Oilers	Edmonton won 4-2

The two conference champions followed remarkably similar series patterns. Each won Game 1, lost Games 2 and 3, then won three straight to advance. Florida and Edmonton therefore both moved from a 2-1 series deficit to a six-game victory. Neither needed a deciding seventh game to earn its place in the Final.

Florida opened with a 3-0 shutout of the Rangers. New York answered with two overtime wins before the Panthers took Game 4 in overtime themselves. Florida then won Games 5 and 6 by one goal each, including a 2-1 clincher on June 1. The series ended with five consecutive one-goal games after the opening shutout.

That sequence is useful context for the Panthers' championship run. Their six-game victory was not six nights of one-way scoring. They recovered after losing two close games and then closed three more close ones. The final series margin describes who advanced, while the game margins show how little separated several of the individual contests.

Edmonton won its opener against Dallas in double overtime. The Stars took the next two games, but the Oilers answered with three consecutive victories. Their 2-1 Game 6 win on June 2 included power-play goals from Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman. Edmonton returned to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006; Florida reached it for a second consecutive season.

The NHL's Conference Finals results establish both routes. Florida entered the Final with a 12-5 postseason record, while Edmonton was 12-6. Both still required four more victories for the championship. Winning a conference completed three rounds of work, but it did not carry any of those wins into the Final's separate series score.

The 2024 Stanley Cup Final: every game and the deciding finish

Florida won the Final 4-3, but the path to that result was unusual: three straight Panthers victories, three straight Oilers victories and one deciding game in Florida. The official Final results preserve the seven scores. The dates and home sites below identify each game without repeating obsolete broadcast instructions.

Game and date	Home site	Result	Series after game
Game 1 — June 8	Florida	Panthers 3, Oilers 0	Florida led 1-0
Game 2 — June 10	Florida	Panthers 4, Oilers 1	Florida led 2-0
Game 3 — June 13	Edmonton	Panthers 4, Oilers 3	Florida led 3-0
Game 4 — June 15	Edmonton	Oilers 8, Panthers 1	Florida led 3-1
Game 5 — June 18	Florida	Oilers 5, Panthers 3	Florida led 3-2
Game 6 — June 21	Edmonton	Oilers 5, Panthers 1	Tied 3-3
Game 7 — June 24	Florida	Panthers 2, Oilers 1	Florida won 4-3

Florida built a 3-0 series lead

The Panthers began with a shutout and followed it with a 4-1 win, taking both opening home games. Their 4-3 road victory in Game 3 left them one win from the title. At that point, Florida could clinch in any of the remaining four games; Edmonton had to win every remaining game to become champion.

The Game 3 score also matters when comparing the opening stretch. Florida did not win all three games by the same comfortable margin. It won a one-goal game after two broader victories. Three wins had created a commanding series advantage, but the fourth still had to be earned on another night.

Edmonton won three straight to force Game 7

Edmonton's 8-1 Game 4 victory kept the series alive. The Oilers then won 5-3 in Florida and 5-1 back in Edmonton, transforming a 3-0 deficit into a 3-3 tie. McDavid produced four points in both Games 4 and 5, a central part of the Oilers' escape from consecutive elimination situations.

Across Games 4 through 6, Edmonton outscored Florida 18-5. That aggregate helps describe the strength of the response, but it did not give the Oilers a scoring advantage at the start of Game 7. The decider began at 0-0 with the series level. Goals from earlier games could not compensate for a defeat in the last one.

For the same reason, this was a comeback to force a seventh game, rather than a completed reverse sweep. Edmonton had removed Florida's margin for error. It had not yet won the Cup. The difference between tying a series and winning it became the central fact of the final night.

Florida's 2-1 Game 7 win delivered the championship

Carter Verhaeghe opened the scoring, and Mattias Janmark equalized for Edmonton in the first period. Sam Reinhart then put Florida ahead at 15:11 of the second period, with 4:49 remaining in that period. His goal became the championship winner because neither team scored again.

The official Game 7 record identifies the decisive sequence. Florida protected the one-goal lead through the third period. Its fourth series victory eliminated the last remaining opponent and completed the fifteen-series postseason.

McDavid received the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP despite Edmonton's defeat, finishing with 42 points in 25 postseason games. The individual award and team championship went to different sides. Florida's route ended with 16 wins and eight losses, including its final victory after three consecutive opportunities to clinch had passed.

How to read this historical bracket without mixing seasons

The 2024 playoffs completed the 2023-24 NHL season. A page labeled 2024-25 describes the following season, whose playoffs ended in 2025. This distinction is easy to miss in search results, especially when a bracket service uses the season's ending year in its address. Check the champion and the Final matchup before copying a table into a historical project.

Next, identify whether a number counts goals or game wins. Boston's 4-3 opening-round victory over Toronto was a seven-game series. Boston did not win the deciding game 4-3; it won that game 2-1 in overtime. Florida's 4-3 Final result and 2-1 Game 7 result follow the same distinction. Labeling the columns series result and game result avoids the most common reading error.

Follow each lane rather than reordering the surviving teams. Florida's route went through Tampa Bay, Boston and the Rangers before Edmonton. The Oilers went through Los Angeles, Vancouver and Dallas before Florida. Those sequences are the bracket's central information. A list of regular-season standings cannot reproduce them unless it also applies the correct matchup rules.

The playoff format guide explains why the lanes remained fixed. An upset changes which team advances, but it does not trigger a fresh ranking of every survivor. Similarly, wild-card and division labels describe how a team entered the bracket; they are not a running rank recalculated after every game.

If you need to interpret those entry labels, use the standings and seeding explanation. Keep that rules question separate from the finished results here. The 2024 archive answers who won each matchup, including the exact four rounds Florida needed for the championship.

For a replay search, start with the season, opponents, round and game number. Rangers-Carolina Game 6 and Florida-Edmonton Game 6 were different elimination situations; a title that says only Game 6 does not identify the event. Adding the date helps distinguish an original recap from a later retrospective or another meeting between the same clubs.

Finally, treat old broadcast listings and unplayed if-necessary dates as historical planning information. Only completed games belong in a results table. This Final required all seven dates, while several earlier series ended sooner. For another completed season, use the separate 2026 playoff archive. The year should stay visible as you move between them so that one season's champion, opponents and scores never silently replace another's.