NHL’s return-to-play plan focused on 24-team playoff

The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association are reportedly focusing on the cancellation of the remainder of the regular season and a move directly to a plan that would expand the Stanley Cup Playoffs from 16 to 24 teams, according to a report from Sportsnet.

The league and the PA continue to work through scenarios via the two sides’ “Return to Play” committee. There are no timetables for a decision. It’s widely acknowledged that all games would be played with no fans in arenas and that teams would require a training camp of around three weeks to get ready. The games are likely to be played in “hub” cities, with multiple teams playing all their games in either two or four sites selected by the league.

The league would scrap its divisional format and go to conference play for this year’s postseason, inviting the top 12 teams in each conference to the playoffs. Seven teams, including Buffalo, New Jersey, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Ottawa and Detroit would be left out and their seasons would be over.

Under the reported plan, the league would seed teams by points percentage because of uneven games played to this point in the regular season.

The top four in the East would be Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia. The top four in the West would be defending Cup champion St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas and Dallas. Those teams would get a bye through the first round and engage in a play-in tournament with each other, although the report was unclear what benefits that would produce.

The remaining eight teams in each conference would enter a best-of-five format of 5 vs. 12, 6-11, 7-10, 8-9 with winners playing a bracketed member of the top four. After the first round, all series would be best of seven.

That would leave current first-round matchups 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.