Looking to add a little more excitement to the NHL Playoffs in 2025? We’ve got a bunch of great ways for you and your friends to compete against one another this post season. Its a great way to create some fun throughout the workplace with your coworkers or extend the enjoyment from your Fantasy Hockey league.
Here are the most common types of playoff contests and some recommendations on where to play them.
Bracket challenges
Thanks largely to March Madness, this is now the most common option for playoff contests. For those new to bracket challenges, you simply pick the winner of each series from the start through to the end of playoffs. Some tie-breaking choices often exist to differentiate perfect brackets from each other.
The beauty of these contests is that they can be entered in minutes and take very little effort to join. These often come with a jackpot style prize for creating a perfect bracket, or even having the best possible result.
ESPN Playoff Hockey Challenge: ESPN offers users the opportunity to create up to two brackets and offers 25K in prizes. You can create a group and invite your friends or join existing groups that are sponsored by common industry names.
NHL.com – Bracket Challenge: NHL.com is very similar in nature to the product that ESPN offers users, with a small difference being that users are able to join a number of leagues which have unique prizes for that specific league. You’ll find everything from cash prizes to merchandise and tickets being awarded to the contest winners. Most contests are free to enter.
The larger the contest you enter, the more unique your bracket will need to be to win. In contests that are free to enter with prizes only awarded to the top one to three finishes, look to take a contrarian strategy and pick some upsets and under dogs.
In smaller contests, especially those amongst friends/colleagues, consider that ~50% of entries might have the home town team winning the cup. ~25% of entries often choose their favorite team to win and the last ~25% choose the odds on favorite. You can get good implied odds to win the whole pot by being the only player to select the second or third ranked team to win.
Utilizing box pools
This contest type gained a lot of popularity in workplaces across North America more than 20 years ago. The premise is very simple and the entry is quick and easy. Pick a player from each grouping or “box” and collect points for the various stats that they collect throughout the playoffs. The winner of the contest is the person whose players collected the most points by the end of the Stanley Cup Final.
Dobber Hockey 2025 playoff box pool: This is a very simple contest that can be setup and entered quickly, even by the most casual of hockey fans. To enter, pick one player from each position plus a bonus team goalie. The winner is the person with the most points at the end of playoffs. Dobber offers this product for free.
Officepools – 2025 Playoffs box: Office pools has a few different options for groups to consider using, including a typical playoffs box. The product comes with a $25.00 cost that your group or commissioner will need to consider. Most leagues choose to split this cost and include it in their entry fee.
Winning a box pool contest really comes down to picking the most players from the teams reaching the finals and avoiding those who get eliminated in the first round. A common strategy is to pre-select the two to four teams that you think will make the Stanley Cup Final and to load up on players from them. You won’t be able to win by selecting one player from each team in this format.
Playoff roster challenges
This is the closest thing you can get to your regular season format of fantasy hockey. With teams getting eliminated as the playoffs progress, the premise here remains rooted in picking players from the right teams but easily allows for custom formats.
Second Season: This option is free for smaller groups and reaches a $20.00 cost for contests with more than five entries. Leagues can choose to allow or limit the amount of players chosen from each NHL team in creating their unique rosters. The roster for this format is 10 forwards and six defencemen.
Office Pool – Draft: This is your classic turn based draft where a player can only be selected by one team. It comes with a $25.00 cost, but is exactly what your Fantasy Hockey league mates could get behind.
This format isn’t as common as bracket challenges and box pools but will gain in popularity every season going forward. The fantasy community enjoys the ability to customize their choices and this gives teams the most flexibility to do so. Look to try this option with your fantasy hockey league mates in 2025.
I sincerely hope you enjoy the extra competition this year. These resources should make your path to planning an office pool or joining some large contests simple and potentially prosperous. While we don’t know who will hoist the Stanley Cup in 2025, we can have plenty of fun in predicting its champion.
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