Gary Bettman announces a 24-team playoff in the NHL& #39;s return to play plan. 2019/20 season declared complete, seeding is Top 12 in each conference by points percentage. Teams limited to 50 personnel to the hub cities, which haven& #39;t been decided yet.

Phase 2 starts in early June - teams can return to their home facility for voluntary training, with formal training camps being in Phase 3 - which will not start before July 1st. No dates for the start of the play-ins, round robins, etc. One hub city per conference.

NHL Playoff Hub Cities under consideration, per Gary Bettman:

West: Chicago, Dallas, Edmonton, Vegas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Vancouver

East: Columbus, Pittsburgh, Toronto

Round Robin for 1-4 seeds with regular-season OT. Play-ins are best-of-5 with playoff OT. Second round can also be Best-of-5 at NHL& #39;s discretion - Conference Finals and Finals guaranteed to be best-of-7.

NHL East Play Ins:

Penguins vs. Canadiens
Hurricanes vs. Rangers
Islanders vs. Panthers
Maple Leafs vs. Blue Jackets

NHL West Play-Ins:

Oilers vs. Blackhawks
Predators vs. Coyotes
Canucks vs. Wild
Flames vs. Jets

All Best-of-5.

Draft lottery has a pre-and-post qualifying format.

First Draw: June 26th. "Standard format", with Picks 8-15 being placeholders. If all lottery picks go to 1-7, no second draw. If a placeholder wins

Second Draw: After the Play-In, all eliminated teams get a chance. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤷‍♂️" title="Man shrugging" aria-label="Emoji: Man shrugging">

The above in this thread summarizes what Gary Bettman has unveiled in the NHL return-to-play press conference. My first personal feel here is that this is needlessly convoluted - especially the lottery part. Bettman now taking questions from Sportsnet via Tim & Sid.