The NHL and NHLPA have been talking throughout the weekend and will continue to make progress towards an announcement that will see the league returning, jumping to a 24 team playoff...This information was first reported by Pierre Lebrun, who adds that there is still work to do, but the sides will meet for the next few days as well..
I am hearing the same, with a player telling me he is "really excited" to discuss formats for the system because "I think the fans, and the players, are ready for a show!"
There is still debate as to how this will work. The top two teams may get a bye, or there may be a round-robin tournament of sorts to determine the top four and placement..
One team source I spoke to said of the round-robin. "It's kind of silly because there is no home ice, so as long as you make the top four you could see teams playing to try and set up matchups."
Also, if the top two teams do get a bye they could be at a disadvantage when it comes to the fact that the teams they will be playing in the second round will have more games to get into playing form..
One of the discussions that is ongoing is "shouldn't all six teams just play a round-robin to get to four teams? The argument against this "that means the regular season was pointless." which is countered by, "No it isn't. Only 24 teams are competing in this."
Either way, an announcement, which as I have said will include the draft plans, is only a few days away...in my next blogs I will be discussing how all this plays into the trade environment which will follow the tournament....and in some case we could see trades even during the tournament involving teams whose seasons have ended..
more to come