The Official 2019-20 Season Talk Thread

[Majingir]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.