In a televised special on Tuesday afternoon, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced that the return-to-play plan and 2019-20 regular season are both officially complete. Bettman also stated that the 24-team NHL playoff format is now official, with the Vegas Golden Knights — as the Pacific Division champions — earning one of four “round robin seeding tournament” heading into the first-ever playoff tournament as a solution to the pandemic lockdown.
While the decision gives the league a boost of positive news for fans and players alike, it comes with a grain of salt. Even with everything approved though, Bettman made it clear that the decision does not mean games are guaranteed to come back. The league suspended its season March 12.
The NHL 24-team playoff format is also set with the top four teams in each conference playing a round-robin style tournament to determine their seeds for the remainder of the postseason. The bottom-eight teams in each conference (No. 5 vs. No. 12, No. 6 vs. No. 11, No. 7 vs. No. 10, No. 8 vs. No. 9) will play best-of-five play-in series. Bettman also confirmed that the Return to Play Committee is still debating whether to use bracketing or re-seeding for the 16-team playoff after the play-in rounds.
The races in the Western Conference have been tight all season. What Qualifying Round series catches your eye?
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 26, 2020
The move secures the Vegas Golden Knight’s second Pacific Division title in their three years of existence and the VGK’s always-entertaining Twitter account wasted no time in reminding the hockey world who the champ is, and — in a little trash talking — which rival teams didn’t even make the playoffs once they were expanded (***cough, cough, shark, king, cough).
AYYY PACIFIC DIVISION CHAMPS! #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/zPyhMSlEoo
— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 26, 2020
As Vegas moves into Phase Two on June 4, it was listed as one of the 10 possible hub cities for the NHL playoff to resume play. The other cities listed were Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Pittsburgh, and Toronto. Bettman said that the NHL needs to decide on its two hub cities within the next three or four weeks.
There are currently 10 cities under consideration to be one of the two Return to Play hub cities. pic.twitter.com/Nv3hZFnLFb
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 26, 2020
Bettman concluded the televised special by stating NHL training camps will resume no earlier than July 1, which would suggest that the 24-team NHL playoff would start in late July or early August. The next step is working out working relationships with the players and preparing operational protocol for the next step in restarting the 2019-2020.
