The NHL Announced A Plan For A 24-Team Postseason In Hub Cities

The NHL became the first major U.S. team sports league to announce a formal plan for its return to play on Tuesday when commissioner Gary Bettman went on the NHL Network. Bettman announced the regular season was officially over, and the league would restart in two hub cities — one for the East and one for the West — that will be formally announced on a later date.

In those hub cities, the top 12 teams in each conference will play in a modified playoff format, and each team will have a traveling party of 50 personnel.

According to the Associated Press, the playoff format will see the top four teams in each conference play a round-robin tournament to determine seeding, while the rest of the teams will play best-of-five series for the right to play against those top four teams.

The top four teams in each conference ranked by points percentage — Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia in the East and St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas and Dallas in the West — will play separate round-robin tournaments to determine seeding.

The remaining 16 teams will be seeded by conference, setting up best-of-five series in the East of No. 5 Pittsburgh vs. No. 12 Montreal, No. 6 Carolina vs. No. 11 New York Rangers, No. 7 New York Islanders vs. No. 10 Florida and No. 8 Toronto vs. No. 9 Columbus. In the West, it would be No. 5 Edmonton vs. No. 12 Chicago, No. 6 Nashville vs. No. 11 Arizona, No. 7 Vancouver vs. No. 10 Minnesota and No. 8 Calgary vs. No. 9 Winnipeg.

The AP also notes that Edmonton, Columbus, Toronto, and Las Vegas are potential hub cities for the fan-less return to action. As Bettman noted, there are still no firm dates in place for a return, as they will follow guidelines and the latest updates, but there is at least a blueprint in place for how they will approach a return to action, which will surely be looked over by other leagues that are trying to make similar plans and decisions.