The 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs of the National Hockey League began on April 11, 2007. The sixteen teams that qualified, eight from each conference, played best-of-seven series for conference quarterfinals, semifinals and championships, and then the conference champions played a best-of-seven series for the Stanley Cup. The series ended on June 6, 2007, with the Anaheim Ducks defeating the Ottawa Senators in five games to win their first ever championship.

After the 2006–07 NHL season, the standard of 16 teams qualified for the playoffs. The Buffalo Sabres were the Eastern Conference regular season champions and were also the Presidents' Trophy winners with the best record at 113 points (53 wins, 22 regulation losses, 7 overtime/shootout losses). The Detroit Red Wings earned the Western Conference regular season crown with 113 points (50 wins, 19 regulation loses, 13 overtime/shootout losses).

For the first time in NHL history, neither of the two teams that played in the previous year's Stanley Cup Finals (the Carolina Hurricanes and the Edmonton Oilers) qualified for the playoffs. For the first time since 1994, all four former WHA teams; Carolina (formerly the Hartford Whalers), Colorado (formerly the Quebec Nordiques), Edmonton, and Phoenix (formerly the Winnipeg Jets) missed the playoffs in the same year. This was the only time that the Atlanta Thrashers qualified for the playoffs in their twelve years in Georgia (they became the new Winnipeg Jets in 2011).

The Stanley Cup playoffs (French: Séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley, pronounced: [seʁjez eliminatwaʁ də la kup stanli]) is an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series. Eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season records. The final round is dubbed the Stanley Cup Finals, which matches the two conference champions.

The NHL has always used a playoff tournament to determine its champion. Its playoff system has changed over the years, from the league's inception in 1919 when ownership of the Stanley Cup was shared between different leagues, to when the NHL took over the Cup in 1926, to the current setup today.

The first round of the playoffs, or Conference Quarterfinals, consists of four match-ups in each conference, based on the seedings (No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6, and No. 4 vs. No. 5). In the second round, or Conference Semifinals, the top remaining conference seed plays against the lowest remaining seed, and the other two remaining conference teams pair off (unlike the NBA, for example, where the 1–8 winner always plays the 4–5 winner, regardless of who wins). In the third round, the Conference Finals, the two remaining teams in each conference play each other, with the conference champions proceeding to the Stanley Cup Final.