NHL Announces Details of Return to Play

Two and a half months ago, the NHL paused its 2019-20 regular season while the nation, the continent and the world battled COVID-19 by social distancing and halting all large gatherings, including - obviously - large sporting events. On Tuesday afternoon, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman took to the NHL Network airwaves to announce the league and the NHL Players' Association's plan to return to play, a plan that could have NHL hockey back in our lives by midsummer.

No firm dates yet in place for the return of NHL hockey and the format still has some details to be filled in, but Bettman did unveil a framework for a 24-team postseason tournament that would culminate with the awarding of the Stanley Cup. Only 24 of the league's 31 member clubs will be returning to work; as the bottom seven teams - Buffalo, New Jersey, Ottawa and Detroit in the East and Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose in the West - are done for the season but will be part of a complicated 2020 draft lottery procedure that Bettman also revealed.

At the time of the pause, the regular season was roughly 85 percent completed and had less than a month left to run. Any hope of picking up where the season left off has vanished over the last 10-plus weeks; the regular season is over in terms of team and individual statistics and standings. The league will resume play as a 24-team group with the top dozen teams in each conference - determined by points percentage as of the pause date of March 11 - assembling in two "hub" cities where all play and practices would take place.

The top four teams in each conference - again, determined by points percentage - will have a round-robin playoff for seeding purposes. This group includes the Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference and St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas and Dallas in the Western Conference.

While the top four teams in both conferences clash to determine their seeds for the four-round Stanley Cup playoffs, the other eight teams in each conference will meet in a best-of-five "play-in" round. Those matchups have already been determined by points percentage, with the fifth-place team facing the 12th-place team in each conference, the sixth-place team playing the 11th-place team and so forth. Here are how those matchups will shake out:

Eastern Conference

5-Pittsburgh vs. 12-Montreal

6-Carolina vs. 11-New York Rangers

7-New York Islanders vs. 10-Florida

8-Toronto vs. 9-Columbus

Western Conference

5-Edmonton vs. 12-Chicago

6-Nashville vs. 12-Arizona

7-Vancouver vs. 10-Minnesota

8-Calgary vs. 9-Winnipeg

Bettman's announcement puts the league near the end of Phase 1 of its return to play plan, which consisted of self-isolation and social distancing on the part of the players and personnel. Phase 2 of the league's return starts in early June in most NHL markets, when players will be permitted to return to and use their training facilities in small groups for voluntary on- and off-ice training and workouts.

Phase 3 will consist of a formal training camp after guidance from medical and civil authorities. According to the plan, that phase won't begin "earlier than the first half of July." The guess here is that training camp would last for approximately two weeks.

If the league is able to successfully get through those phases, Phase 4 would be comprised of the Seeding Round Robins and the Qualifying Round in each Conference, followed by a four-round, Conference-based Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Seeding Round Robin will be played with regular season rules (five-minute overtime followed by shootout) while the Qualifying Round games would be played under playoff rules (sudden death overtime).

As Bettman notes, some details remain to be ironed out. Chief among them are the playoff format and length of the first two rounds. The two conference final series and the Stanley Cup Final will both be best-of-seven, and ideally the first two rounds of the playoffs would be as well. But Bettman says it's also possible that one or both of those first two rounds would shrink to best-of-five series, a determination that will be made later.

Although the league is using seeding to determine matchups for the Qualifying Round, it hasn't decided whether to use seeding or a bracket format for the Stanley Cup Playoffs themselves, once the field has been whittled from 24 to 16 teams.

The Eastern Conference clubs will assemble in one "hub" city while the Western Conference will do so in another. The identity of those two cities is not yet known, nor is it known whether each Conference must be represented by a "hub" city or whether two Eastern or two Western cities could be used. Each "hub" city would be able to offer secure hotels, arena, practice facilities and in-market transportation.

Bettman did reveal the cities currently under consideration for host city status: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver.

The host cities and some of the other remaining details are dependent on COVID-19 conditions, testing ability and government regulations.

As for the draft lottery, it's best to simply share the league's own press release. Here it is:

2020 NHL Draft Lottery

The NHL Draft Lottery will determine the order for the first 15 selections of the 2020 NHL Draft. The picks will be awarded to the seven teams that do not resume play and the eight teams that do not advance from the Qualifying Round (or the teams that acquired their first-round picks).

Phase 1

* Phase 1 of the Draft Lottery will be conducted prior to the Qualifying Round on Friday, June 26.

* Three draws: First Draw (first overall pick), Second Draw (second overall pick) and Third Draw (third overall pick).

* Clubs entered: The seven teams that do not return to play, ranked in inverse order of their points percentage at the time of the regular-season pause, and eight "place-holders" to represent the to-be-determined Qualifying Round teams that will not advance, thus maintaining previously-established odds.

* Acquired in a trade with San Jose Sharks (.450 points percentage)

\\ Buffalo Sabres ranked higher than New Jersey Devils on the basis of higher regulation/OT win percentage (Buffalo, .406 ROW%; New Jersey, .348 ROW%)

First Draw

* If the winning team of the First Draw is from the #1-7 group, that team wins the right to the first overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.

* If the winning team of the First Draw is from the #8-15 group, the right to the first overall pick will be determined in Phase 2 of the Draft Lottery.

* After the First Draw, the winning team (from either the #1-7 group or the #8-15 group) will no longer be eligible for the Second or Third Draws. All number combinations originally assigned to this team will become "Re-Draw Combinations" for the Second and Third Draws. The remaining teams' odds will increase on a proportionate basis for the Second Draw based on which team wins the First Draw.

Second Draw

* If the winning team of the Second Draw is from among the #1-7 group, that team wins the right to the second overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.

* If the winning team of the Second Draw is from the #8-15 group, the right to the second overall pick will be determined in Phase 2 of the Draft Lottery.

* After the Second Draw, the winning team (from either the #1-7 group or the #8-15 group) will no longer be eligible for the Third Draw. All number combinations originally assigned to this team will become "Re-Draw Combinations" for the Third Draw. The remaining teams' odds will increase on a proportionate basis for the Third Draw based on which team wins the Second Draw.

Third Draw

* If the winning team of the Third Draw is from among the #1-7 group above, that team wins the right to the third overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.

* If the winning team of the Third Draw is from the #8-15 group, the right to the third overall pick will be determined in Phase 2 of the Draft Lottery.

If All Three Draws Are Won by Teams in #1-7 Group . . .

* The winning teams receive the respective top three selections in the 2020 NHL Draft. The remaining four teams in the #1-7 group not selected in the three draws are assigned NHL Draft positions 4 through 7 in inverse order of their points percentage at the time of the regular-season pause. The next eight Draft positions (8 through 15) will be assigned to the eight teams that do not advance from the Qualifying Round, in inverse order of their points percentage at the time of the regular-season pause. In these circumstances, Phase 2 of the Draft Lottery would not be necessary.

If Any of the Three Draws Are Won by Teams in the #8-15 Group

* The Draws for the corresponding selections will be conducted during Phase 2 among only the eight Qualifying Round teams that failed to advance.

Phase 2

* Phase 2 of the Draft Lottery, if necessary, will be conducted between the Qualifying Round and First Round.

* Phase 2 participants: the eight teams that do not advance from the Qualifying Round (or the teams that acquired their first-round picks).

* Following each Phase 2 draw, the winning team will be assigned the corresponding Top 3 selection and, if another Phase 2 draw is necessary, that team's numbered lottery ball will be removed.

* When all Phase 1 and Phase 2 draws are completed and the Top 3 selections in the 2020 NHL Draft assigned, the remaining selections in the Top 15 will be assigned to the 12 teams that did not win a draw in inverse order of their points percentages at the time of the season's pause.

* In each Phase 2 draw, all participants will have the same odds.