Health and Safety First, Playoffs Next

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Tuesday how the league plans to resume play, award the storied Stanley Cup and conduct the NHL Draft Lottery, but not until first emphasizing "the health and safety of our players, coaches, essential support staff and our communities are paramount."

The "Return to Play Plan" will go straight to a 24-team Stanley Cup Playoffs, awarding births to 12 teams each in the Eastern and Western conferences. The 2019-20 NHL regular is now officially in the record books and will serve as the basis for all of its regular season awards.

Bettman's virtual announcement provided unique nomenclature for this season's playoffs. Sixteen of the 2019-20 postseason clubs will participate in the "Qualifying Round" with best-of-five series winners advancing to the conference quarterfinals. Those eight "Qualifying Round" victors will face the NHL's top eight teams (as per March 11 standings and a points-per-game percentage ranking). While the top eight teams effectively get a first-round bye, the top four teams in each conference will play a round-robin tournament to determine seedings for the quarterfinals. The commissioner told a Zoom press conference later Tuesday the round-round tourney is intended in part to provide those top teams with competitive games to get into top playoffs shape while not risking a place in the ensuing 16-team first round.

The seedings of the top four conference teams will allow for a bracket format in which the Qualifying Round pits Nos. 12 vs. 5, 11 vs. 6, 10 vs. 7 and 8 vs. 9, familiar pairings to any of us who have followed the NCAA men's and women's college basketball tournament, aka "March Madness." The Qualifying Round will be played at two common locations, one for each conference. Bettman said the 10 cities under consideration for Qualifying Round play are Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver. Bettman that the two hub cities will be determined in "two to three weeks" to allow the league to make the best "real-time" decision.

The Qualifying Round games will follow playoff overtime rules with a winning goal scored no matter how much extra time is required. The round-robin games will be played with regular-season overtime and shootout rules. If there are ties in the round-robin standings, those ties will broken by which team has the higher regular-season points percentage.

Bettman credited the league's Return to Play Committee for devising and approving the Stanley Cup Playoffs for this unprecedented postseason and that it will result in a "worthy Stanley Cup champion" that will run through the acclaimed "gauntlet" of hockey's playoffs.

The committee included five NHL players: Toronto's John Tavares, Edmonton's Connor McDavid, Ottawa's Ron Hainsey, Philadelphia's James van Riemsdyk and Winnipeg's Mark Scheifele.

Following the Qualifying Round and round-robin seedings tournament, the playoffs will continue in each hub city for each conference. The Return to Play Committee is still discussing whether the "first-round" quarterfinals will be determined by a straight bracket (for example, No. 1 plays the winner of No. 9 vs. 8) or an adjusted bracket (No. 1 plays the lowest seeded remaining team across the eight Qualifying Round winners, which could include No. 12 Chicago in the West or No. 12 Montreal in the East).

The committee is still discussing whether the first round will be best of five-or seven-game; the group is still debating the number of games for the second-round conference semi-final series and whether seeding will be a straight or adjusted bracket. Commissioner Bettman said he believes the qualifying and first two rounds of the playoffs can be completed in a little more than a month.

The season re-boot will include comprehensive testing in each hub city. Bettman estimated 25,000 to 30,000 tests will be administered but said the league's medical advisers say when those tests are performed (July and later) those sort of numbers will not have any adverse effects on tests needed by North American citizens.

Bettman said the postseason will occur "over the summer and into early fall." He explained play could start late July or August depending on health advisories and that identifying an exact date right now would only be a "guess." Each team will be permitted to travel a maximum of 50 personnel, including players, coaches and staff, to its hub city. Fans doing the math might wonder how the 2020-21 season can start on time. In the virtual press conference, Bettman reiterated he anticipates a full 82-game 2020-21 season, adding there is "no magic" to starting the season in October or even November, that the league could start play in December 2020.

Seven teams did not qualify for the playoffs and will participate in a first phase of the NHL Draft Lottery June 26: Buffalo, New Jersey, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Ottawa and Detroit. The lottery format is complex, which even Bettman noted during his virtual statement. Effectively, the seven teams not joining the unprecedented 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs will have a collective 75.5 percent chance of getting the first pick of the still-to-be scheduled NHL Draft, while the eight teams losing in the 2020 Qualifying Round will have a 24.5 percent probability to select at the No. 1 slot.