NHL outlines plans for 2020 draft

The National Hockey League announced its plans for the 2020 draft Tuesday and they are not all that easy to follow. That said, we'll do our best to break them down here. The most detailed outline comes from TSN's Bob McKenzie on Twitter, who explains it like this:

"[The] NHL Draft Lottery will be on Friday, June 26th. The number 1, 2 and 3 picks will be up for grabs. Fifteen teams — the seven who are no longer playing plus 8 more currently identified as Teams A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H — will be in the lottery. Same lottery odds as prior years."

By the way, the seven teams that are out of the NHL's 24-team playoff format are Detroit, Ottawa, San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, New Jersey and Buffalo. Moving on:

"Teams A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H will be the eight losing teams from the best-of-five play-in or qualifying round but assigning actual teams to the letters will come in a Phase 2 lottery, to be conducted after the qualifying round but before the playoffs."

"If the winner of the No. 1 pick draw comes from the bottom 7 seven teams (DET, OTT, SJ (belongs to OTT), LA, ANA, NJ, BUF), that team is awarded No. 1. If the winner of the No. 1 pick draw comes from the other 8 teams, the No. 1 pick will be awarded in the Phase 2 lottery."

"If the winner of the No. 2 pick draw comes from the bottom 7 seven teams (DET, OTT, SJ (belongs to OTT), LA, ANA, NJ, BUF), that team is awarded No. 2. If the winner of the No. 2 pick draw comes from the other 8 teams, the No. 2 pick will be awarded in the Phase 2 lottery."

"If the winner of the No. 3 pick draw comes from the bottom 7 seven teams (DET, OTT, SJ (belongs to OTT), LA, ANA, NJ, BUF), that team is awarded No. 3. If the winner of the No. 3 pick draw comes from the other 8 teams, the No. 3 pick will be awarded in the Phase 2 lottery."

"Once the top three picks have been awarded in Phase 1 or Phase 2, the remaining 12 spots will be assigned to the teams that didn't win a draw and based on inverse order of their regular season points percentage at the time of the pause."

"If all three of the top picks are awarded to the known bottom 7 teams, there is no need for a Phase 2 lottery. If any of the top three picks are won by an 8 to 15 alpha-designated team, the Phase 2 lottery is required."

Clear as mud? We thought so. By the way, TSN's Darren Dreger is already reporting that some teams aren't happy with this format. It essentially gives eight teams a shot at the Stanley Cup or a chance at the first, second or third overall pick.

Source: Twitter

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