The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Another of many interesting topics brought up.

What happens with conditional picks?

Teams make deals like "Conditional 4th turns into a 3rd if player X scores Y goals". So no more games means some teams who traded guys might get worse compensation.

Or if the condition of a pick rests on playoff performance, if theres no playoff, the same story applies here too.

Although it goes the other way too. Teams who gave up conditional picks won't have to give up as high a pick because that guy didnt play as many games for them.

[nikethebike]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Another of many interesting topics brought up.

What happens with conditional picks?

Teams make deals like "Conditional 4th turns into a 3rd if player X scores Y goals". So no more games means some teams who traded guys might get worse compensation.

Or if the condition of a pick rests on playoff performance, if theres no playoff, the same story applies here too.

Although it goes the other way too. Teams who gave up conditional picks won't have to give up as high a pick because that guy didnt play as many games for them.

Yep. A lot of decisions to make for the decision makers. Hard to tell what will happen.

[kehlis]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Just cancel the season at this point.

Sucks, the Avs are having one of their better seasons in quite some time but I don't see a way to pick this up and act like nothing happened.

Start it up again next year when we're through this.

[nikethebike]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Just cancel the season at this point.

Sucks, the Avs are having one of their better seasons in quite some time but I don't see a way to pick this up and act like nothing happened.

Start it up again next year when we're through this.

I am not even sure we will be through it. What if we will have to start getting used to just living with it? That would mean matches could be played but not infront of crowds etc...
I don't know. Why must a decision about cancellation even be made its not like anyone will go on a long vacation trip anyway right now. Or?
If it takes a year until it starts up perhaps it would be good to be able to resume this season next march?


We know nothing about the horizon of this so I'm just saying perhaps no decisions are even necessary.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Theres also talk of next season starting in December.

I heard about a year or so ago a reporter (might have been Friedman) mentioning that if anything, NHL would rather start in December than September. Playoffs in summer would be so weird for hockey, even in Canada it's hot outside and would require more work to keep the ice cold.

But a December-August season I don't know how that would work. Perfect situation is September-May, but NHL doesn't want to compete with MLB playoff pushes and NFL season starting up.



Latest report says around a dozen teams have submitted bids to host games. Canucks and Oilers are 2 of the Canadian teams among that group (not sure if there's more Canadian teams, not sure how you'd have Canada AND US cities part of it. Either all games happen in Canada or all happen in the US.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

So now it's been confirmed that Toronto is one of the cities which has been contacted about being a "hub city".

I'm guessing that means the Leafs arena, although they have multiple NHL sized rinks at their practice facility, so they could have multiple games happening at once.

[bhurst99]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Canada-US border is now closed until June 21, 2020 to all but essential travel. I don't think hockey players are going to qualify as essential travel so how do they even get to the proposed hub cities before then?

If there's a two-week quarantine on arriving players followed by a three-week training camp, they'd be looking at starting games around the end of July, according to the Hockey News.

I don't know how much interest there is in watching hockey in August. I know the league says ice creation is still possible but I have my doubts about ice quality when it gets that hot even in Canada. This could quickly become a farce.

Even the idea of the June draft appears to have evaporated.

https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/nhl-nhlpa-relations-are-best-bettman-has-seen-in-his-career

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Only 2 teams voted against a 24 team playoff. Tampa and Carolina.

Not sure of Canes reason, but Lightning said it's because they'd have to play a team who just played 3-5 competitive games beforehand while their "tune up games" will obviously be just exhibition games.

Tampa would've played Islanders or Panthers under this scenario as opposed to the Leafs in the other format.

Canes would face Rangers and winner of that plays Caps. Under current format they would've likely been 1WC seed and playing Caps in round 1.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Bettman scheduled for an announcement in a few hours from now (4:30pm ET).

Sounds like he's announcing the 24 team playoffs.

Despite that, it doesn't mean the season is coming back soon or at all.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Finally some breaking news!

Bettman announces the regular season is officially over.

However, the playoffs are still the plan.

24 team playoffs, 12 per conference, determined by point percentage (Islanders passing Jackets and Leafs, Panthers passing Rangers, Preds/Canucks passing Flames/Jets and Flames passing Jets would be all the changes based on pt% vs points).

Top 4 per conference will play each other to determine 1-4 seeding. League wants bracket style (so for example, the 8v9 matchup winner would automatically play the 1 seed). Players want seeding (so if the 8v9 winner ends up being the 8 seed, but the 10,11 and 12 seeds win their matchups, the 8 seed ends up playing the 4 seed, 10v3, 11v2, 12v1)

Each conference will have 1 hub city.

Chicago, Dallas, Edmonton, Vegas, Minnesota, Vancouver are the considerations for the west

Columbus, Pittsburgh, Toronto are considerations for the east.


I wouldn't be surprised to see Toronto out of the running for hub city. Seems like high numbers still, and they're using the arena to help feed frontline workers. And I'm not sure if they want to have both conferences in the same country, or have a split.

[bcruise]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Honestly, I'm just glad to hear about future plans finally being made. Just seems like everything's been in stasis since early March (literally everything, not just hockey)

Main thing I'm getting from this is that, unless they don't get the go-ahead to run this postseason thing within a certain amount of time, there isn't going to be much of an offseason. .

July 1 is the earliest teams can start "training camp", and there's no specific mention of target dates beyond that - it all depends on how the covid situation develops.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

I dont see how 20-21 season isn't condensed either. Start it in December?

I'd just stick to playing only conference teams for that year.

In the east:
Play your 7 divisional opponents 6 times each
Play the other 8 division teams 2 times each

That's a 58 game season. We reach the 24 game mark in regular seasons around end of November. Skip the AS break and you could have a season right on track if it starts in December.

For the west, you just need to have an extra 2 games to make up for no 16th team.

[rdnk]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

My guess is they would just delay the start of the season, get rid of some games, do more back to backs and perhaps start the playoffs a few weeks later.

Here are the rules for the draft lottery:
1. Draft lottery is on June 26th. No word yet on the actual draft date.
2. The seven teams that aren't in the playoff have the top 7 odds, again by points percentage.
3. If you are eliminated in the play in round, you become eligible for the last 8 slots in the lottery.
4. Ideally the play in round will be completed before June 26th. If not, they use placeholders for the 8 teams still active. If one of the placeholders wins a top 3 pick, there will be a second lottery to determine which eliminated team is that placeholder team. A little bit convoluted, but it should do the trick.
5. There are also six teams (Arizona, Vancouver, Carolina, Toronto, Islanders, Pittsburgh) in the play in round that have shipped off their 1st. Not to mention Ottawa has San Jose's pick from the Karlsson deal. This could add a lot of spice to the lottery.

[nikethebike]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

So the season is over and Ovechkin gets his ninth Rocket Richard trophy. A shame he missed to join Gretzky and Bossy with nine 50 goal seasons by only 2 goals... McDavid misses to have his fourth straight 100 point season by only 3 points...
Draisaitl becomes the first German to win the Art Ross. A historic season not only due to the corona crisis no doubt.

[rdnk]

Re: The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

Looks like the NHL has begun to make rulings on conditional picks. It seems that making the play-in round does not count as making the playoffs. So teams like Vancouver and Pittsburgh, if they were to lose in the play-in round, they would be able to keep their own 1st round picks.

For record keeping, it seems that the play-in games will not count as playoff games. They may be counted as regular seasons games though, which could come into play for the Vatanen and Neal trades.