NHL Return to Play Primer
The NHL season was postponed on March 12, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the world. The pandemic is still going strong in the United States but has been tamed in other parts of North America and the world. The NHL and NHLPA ratified a Return to Play Plan for Phase 3 and 4, and training camps will open on Monday, July 13, 2020.
Training Camps and Opting Out
If a player wishes to opt-out of the Return to Play Plan then he has until Monday, July 13, 2020, to do so. The players can opt-out without any repercussions. There have been seven players to opt-out so far, whether due to personal reasons or team holding the player out.
There will be some tough choices for players who have underlying health concerns like Max Domi, who has Type 1 Diabetes. Will he decide to opt-out, or will the team deem him “unfit to play” and make him stay home?
Hub Cities and CoVid-19 Testing
If all goes well in training camps, then the teams will be set to go to their assigned hub cities at the end of July with games beginning on August 1. The Eastern Conference will be heading to Toronto, while the Western Conference games are in Edmonton. The Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final will be in Edmonton.
Each team will be allowed a maximum of 52 people per team, with 31 of them being players. The staff, players, and hotel staff will be tested daily. If there is a positive test, then the person will need to be quarantined immediately and contact tracing to be done, so others who were around him or her can get tested themselves.
Qualifying Rounds
The NHL postseason will look a bit different this season because of the postponement of the season and how each team didn’t have the same exact number of games played. The postseason will consist of 24 teams, determined by winning percentage in each Conference. There will be 16 teams competing in the qualifying rounds, with the top four seeds in each Conference getting a bye in this round. The qualifying round will be a best-of-five series and will follow playoff-style rules.
The Eastern Conference Qualifying Round matchups are:
- (12) Montreal Canadiens vs. (5) Pittsburgh Penguins,
- (11) New York Rangers vs. (6) Carolina Hurricanes,
- (10) Florida Panthers vs., (7) New York Islanders, and
- (9) Columbus Blue Jackets vs. (8) Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Western Conference Qualifying Round matchups are:
- (12) Chicago Blackhawks vs. (5) Edmonton Oilers,
- (11) Arizona Coyotes vs. (6) Nashville Predators,
- (10) Minnesota Wild vs. (7) Vancouver Canucks, and
- (9) Winnipeg Jets vs. (8) Calgary Flames.
The NHL will reseed teams after the qualifying round to make it fair for all involved in the first round of the NHL playoffs. The statistics from the qualifying round are considered 2020 postseason stats, per the NHL. All qualifying round teams are to have made the postseason and participated in a postseason series.
Round Robin Games
The perk of being in the top four of a team’s respective conference was that they got a bye in the qualifying rounds, and instead will play three round-robin games. The round-robin games will be played like regular-season games with overtime and shootouts, if necessary. A win is worth two points, and overtime or shootout loss is worth one point, and a regulation loss means zero points. The League will seed the round-robin teams according to point totals, going from highest to lowest.
The four Eastern Conference teams include the (in order they sat at the start of the NHL pause):
The four Western Conference teams include the (in order they sat at the start of the NHL pause):
Phase 2 Lottery Draft
The NHL already held Phase 1 of the Lottery Draft to determine the number one overall pick. A placeholder team, which is one that has yet to be eliminated from the postseason, holds the number one pick. The tentative date for Phase 2 of the Lottery Draft is August 10, 2020.
Each eliminated team from the qualifying round will have a 12.5% chance of winning the overall number one pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, which is tentatively set for October 9 & October 10.
