The Board of Governors still have not released any statement following their meeting nor has commissioner Gary Bettman enforced his will on the process for a final conclusion. But some whispers have come out, from Elliotte Friedman, Larry Brooks and Chris Johnson. Nothing formal as to a conclusion but interesting chatter nonetheless.
Friedman:
31 Thoughts: Enjoy another mental diversionhttps://t.co/R0PlkXY5OV
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) May 7, 2020
The piece on broadcasting and keeping coaches and officials safe were really interesting. Below is what Friedman wrote on the draft and playoffs. As you see, no set agreement yet, but informed speculation.
3) This is a personal opinion, but with each passing day I believe more and more that, if the NHL does return sometime this summer, we are going to punt the regular season and go to a 24-team playoff. There are three reasons. First is safety. NBA Dallas owner Mark Cuban said he won’t be opening the Mavericks’ practice facility because “we can’t ensure anyone’s safety.… We don’t know if there will be the testing and/or personal protective equipment capacity to play at all, but if you drop seven teams, that eases how much is necessary. (Think of all of the gloves, masks, etc., that training staff, equipment staff and team physicians will need.)Second, timing. Phase 2, featuring an opening of training facilities for small groups, may not happen until June. Even with 2020–21 pushed back to December or January, we’re not overflowing with runway. The players rightfully made it very clear they don’t want months of quarantine without their families. If you’re not going to include them in the hotel setup, you can shorten the amount of time apart by dropping the remaining regular-season games.
Third: publicly and privately, players who are out of the post-season race have made it clear they are not thrilled about returning for meaningless games. One exec said he thinks it would be unfair if the Atlantic and Pacific divisions featured watered-down teams in any kind of a playoff race. Drawback: players on those teams won’t play a game for, what, nine months? But this is far from a perfect time.
4) Assuming the NHL does go to this format, the West teams are easy to figure with a gap between 12th-place Chicago and 13th-place Anaheim. The East has Montreal 12th with 71 points in 71 games, Buffalo and New Jersey next — 68 points in 69 games. That gives the Canadiens the edge in points percentage. Even if you wanted to make it level, Montreal lost its last two before the pause, so they’d still be at 71 points in 69 games.
I don’t know if you could do two hubs with 12 teams apiece. Sportsnet’s Mark Spector reported last week about the possibility of a playoff format featuring the top six clubs from each division going to one of four hubs.
If it does turn out the way I’ve described, my guess is you see a slight tweak. Rangers to the Atlantic makes sense to even out the East. You could do Chicago to the Pacific, unless you feel it is fair for the lowest seed to be in the same division as St. Louis, the West’s number one. In that case, you could move Minnesota (points percentage) or Winnipeg to the Pacific. (The Jets played two more games than the Wild and Nashville — both wins. Taking away four points drops Winnipeg below the other two.) Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg? Holy Smythe Division, Batman.
6) The NHL and NHLPA agree that around 45 to 55 days will be needed in the “off-season… between any playoffs and the start of 2020–21.
Going right to the playoffs may be the prevailing view. Personally, I think ending up with 74 or 76 games played per team allows for a fairer approach as to who makes the postseason, since all teams will have played the same number of games. In addition, rather than going from 0 to 60 in terms of no action to games with Cup implications, play 4-8 games are to determine who makes the playoffs, though could say the same as to the impact of those contests. However, as Friedman reported and what we saw from comments by Drew Doughty and others, teams out of post-season contention don't want to return to action.
"Even with 2020–21 pushed back to December or January, we’re not overflowing with runway." Working backwards to factor in the 45 to 55 days Friedman indicated is needed in the “off-season… between any playoffs and the start of 2020–21, you are looking at possibly completing the playoffs in October or November, though I think that's too far out. I laid out the proposed timeline in my April 27 blog but that had an earlier start and Sept. 30 completion with all regular season games played. I think if all regular season games are not played, despite the potential later than May 15 gathering, a Sept. 30 end date, regardless of number of teams in the playoffs, could be feasible.
Brooks:
The NHL retrains its focus on a tournament. https://t.co/MCRB2hEluA
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) May 7, 2020
Global pandemic-related issues such as testing — procuring enough kits, swabs, and attendant equipment and labs to enable regular testing with rapid results — remain outstanding as the NHL and NHLPA continue to meet regularly with their own constituencies and jointly with a shared objective of crowning a 2020 Stanley Cup champion.The league’s focus has shifted to the tournament plan for three basic reasons: 1) Condensing the duration of play to better guard against the potential of a second wave of the coronavirus striking and necessitating a second shutdown; 2) Avoiding having to reassemble teams with no realistic chance of making the playoffs and having them play up to a month’s worth of meaningless games; 3) Avoiding the prospect of a quarantine within a hub city/hotel for up to four months, including a three-week training camp, for teams going deep into the playoffs following a regular-season completion.
Brooks pretty much echoes what Friedman says, just in a slightly different order and verbiage. But the thought process and viewpoints are the same. The similarity likely means that the information is coming from a very reliable source or they each have received that data from the league itself.
The format of a 24-team tournament has not yet been established. But if the league goes with the top 12 teams in each conference, that would include every club at NHL .500 or better when play stopped on March 11. That structure would include the Rangers and Chicago.If the league were for some reason to go with the six top teams in each division — the NHL hasn’t had a division-based playoff system since 1992-93 — that would mean that the Sabres (.493) would replace the Rangers (.564) and the Ducks (.472) would replace the Blackhawks (.514).
A decision to go directly to a tournament would allow the league to establish a draft lottery under which the seven teams on the other side of the cut line would be eligible for the first-overall pick. Those clubs would be the Red Wings, Senators, Sharks, Kings, Ducks, Sabres and Devils.
The order of selection determined by the lottery drawing would apply whether the draft is held in June or following completion of the tournament
As both noted, a 24-team tourney looks probable. In addition, color me shocked - sarcasm dripping - that the NHL might want big market teams like Chicago and New York in over Buffalo and Anaheim, even though the latter is in the LA market. If a 24-team tourney is where we land, the question then becomes what does the playoff look like in terms of matchups and rounds.
You could allow the top four teams in each conference to earn a bye, leaving 12 teams in each conference. The remaining eight could play a best of three to advance. Depending on the length of time available for the playoffs, the second round might be best of five or seven. Even if the second round is best of five, the conference finals and Cup would best-of-seven, as usual. again this is a proposal.
Another option is to seed the teams 1-12 regardless of conference. Have play ins for the Wild Card spots, making it a best of three for those teams to advance to play the highest seeds. Then go to best of five or seven for the next round, similar to above. None of these are ideal, but timing to complete is a factor, especially if expended from 16 to 24 teams. The initial key would be how to go from 24 down to 16 and then potentially have the playoffs run as usual.
Chris Johnston:
Even though momentum seems to have slowed around the NHL's push towards a June entry draft, that possibility remains under consideration by the league. "Everything is still on the table," says Bill Daly.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) May 7, 2020
I have made my view on an early draft pretty clear. But Friedman mentioned one of the main reasons - which we have discussed - for moving the draft up and keeping it in June, the expiration of scouts' contracts. If the draft is held in June, none of the contracts that expire on June 30 would need to be extended. That is a material impact to the hockey community, especially with no clarity when action would resume this year or next and how scouting might look in the future.
The Fanatics All-In Challenge All we need is 16 people to contribute the same amount and we have a suite. I commend the NHL and all sports as well as their individual teams and players for being creative, but more important. donating all the proceeds to charity and the items up for auction.