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Gary Betmann announced the National Hockey League’s Return to Play Plan today and even though the video was just 15 minutes long, it’s a lot to digest.
The commissioner said that the 2019-20 regular season is officially over and the top 12 teams in each conference, based on points percentage, will return to play.
They’ll do so, when the time permits, in a pair of hub cities that have yet to be decided, but Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver are all on the short list.
In those hub cities, there will be a number of rules in place and a “comprehensive system of testing,” Bettman explained.
Commissioner Gary Bettman shares details on the NHL’s Return to Play Plan. https://t.co/ZH7153tpZ0
— NHL (@NHL) May 26, 2020
We’re currently in phase one of the Return to Play Plan, which means clubs have been instructed to self-isolate as much as possible and they’ve done so.
In phase two, which will begin in early June, clubs will return to their own facilities for voluntary small-group training, both on and off the ice.
Phase three, which will begin no earlier than July 1, will be a formal training camp for teams that are returning to play.
Finally, phase four would be the return to play in the two hub cities, which we now know plenty of details about as well.
Here would be the top 12 teams in each conference that would be returning to play later this summer:
| Western Conference | Eastern Conference |
| 1. St. Louis | 1. Boston Bruins |
| 2. Colorado Avalanche | 2. Tampa Bay Lightning |
| 3. Vegas Golden Knights | 3. Washington Capitals |
| 4. Dallas Stars | 4. Philadelphia Flyers |
| 5. Edmonton Oilers | 5. Pittsburgh Penguins |
| 6. Nashville Predators | 6. Carolina Hurricanes |
| 7. Vancouver Canucks | 7. New York Islanders |
| 8. Calgary Flames | 8. Toronto Maple Leafs |
| 9. Winnipeg Jets | 9. Columbus Blue Jackets |
| 10. Minnesota Wild | 10. Florida Panthers |
| 11. Arizona Coyotes | 11. New York Rangers |
| 12. Chicago Blackhawks | 12. Montreal Canadiens |
The @NHL has released a Return to Play Plan for the 2019-20 season.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 26, 2020
◾ 24 teams to compete for #StanleyCup
◾ 2 hub cities will host games
◾ Protocol for return to training
◾ Draft Lottery
Full Details: https://t.co/JGXioEC4FA pic.twitter.com/3KoUjPRsq4
The top four teams in each conference would be automatically included in the playoffs and they'd play a quick, three-game round robin against each other to determine seeding.
The bottom eight teams would all play a best-of-five play-in series, which would see the four winners in each conference claim the bottom four playoff seeds, while the four losers would enter the draft lottery.
With the regular season now officially over, we know those series would be:
- Edmonton Oilers vs Chicago Blackhawks
- Nashville Predators vs Arizona Coyotes
- Vancouver Canucks vs Minnesota Wild
- Calgary Flames vs Winnipeg Jets
- Pittsburgh Penguins vs Montreal Canadiens
- Carolina Hurricanes vs New York Rangers
- New York Islanders vs Florida Panthers
- Toronto Maple Leafs vs Columbus Blue Jackets
When the playoff matchups are decided, after these round-robin and play-in games, the first and second rounds of the playoffs would potentially be best-of-five series, but it's yet to be decided.
The Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals would both be best-of-seven series.
For the NHL draft lottery, it gets a little more confusing, but all seven teams that won't be returning to play and all eight teams that lose in the play-in series would have a chance to win the first-overall pick.
NHL Draft Lottery will be on Friday June 26. The Nos. 1, 2 and 3 picks will be up for grabs. Fifteen teams — the seven who are no longer playing plus 8 more currently identified as Teams A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H — will be in the lottery. Same lottery odds as prior years.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) May 26, 2020
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