NHL releases full details of its Return to Play plans

As of now, the 2019-20 regular season is over. That's the announcement the NHL made on Tuesday as it released its plans for the 24-team playoff to take place this summer. Here are some of the highlights:

"The 2019-20 regular season is declared concluded through games of March 11. The 189 games originally scheduled from March 12 – April 4 will not be played."

"24 teams will resume play: the top 12 in each Conference on the basis of points percentage at the pause (through games of March 11)."

The teams who will not be taking part in the playoffs are Detroit, Ottawa, San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, New Jersey and Buffalo. For these teams, the season has ended.

While the NHL has currently entered Phase 2 of its Return to Play plan, which allows players to start skating at training facilities, it appears Phase 3 it still a ways off, with the NHL saying Tuesday it will not happen earlier than the first half of July.

All 24 teams involved will be stationed by conference in two hub cities. Those cities have not yet been chosen, but they will be picked from the following locations: Chicago, IL, Columbus, OH, Dallas, TX, Edmonton, AB, Las Vegas, NV, Los Angeles, CA, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, Pittsburgh, PA, Toronto, ON, Vancouver, BC.

The following format will be used for the playoffs:

In each Conference, teams are seeded by points percentage.

Round Robin: The top 4 teams play for First Round seeding (regular-season overtime rules in effect)

Qualifying Round: The remaining 8 teams play best-of-5 series to advance to the First Round (playoff overtime rules in effect).

First Round and Second Round: Format (seeding vs. bracket) and series lengths to be determined.

Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final: Best-of-7 series.

The NHL also released details Tuesday on the 2020 entry draft. You can find them all here.

Source: NHL

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