Bettman confirmed the 24-team return to play format: the twelve best teams of each conference (ranked by point percentage) would continue their season. The regular season is officially over, thus awards can now be considered. New Jersey, Buffalo, Anaheim, Kings, San Jose, Ottawa, and Detroit are thus officially done with their season.
As already reported by Sportsnet and The Athletic, the bottom eight teams of each conference (5th to 12th place) will battle it out in a best-of-five "play-in" series under playoff rules and the top four teams will play a three-game round-robin but under regular-season overtime rules (those games potentially have an impact for the playoff seeding).
It is not yet clear, whether the first-round matchups of the playoffs will be determined by seeding or by a bracket. It has also not yet been determined whether the first two rounds of the playoffs will be best-of-five or best-of-seven series. However, the Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals will definitely be best-of-seven series.
Bettman did not provide any dates. Clear is that the formal training camps are not expected to start before the first half of July. Also, the playoffs will be conducted in two hub cities, one for the East and one for the West. This needs to be decided in three to four weeks. Ten cities are considered for that: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Minnesota Pittsburgh, Toronto, Vancouver, and Vegas.
The first phase of the draft lottery will be held on June 26: this will only be for the seven teams who have not qualified for the playoffs. The procedure is described as follows: "The eight potential losing teams from the Qualifying Round will be represented in the First Phase of the draft lottery as unassigned picks.
The first drawing of the First Phase will set the team selecting No. 1 in the draft, the second drawing will set the team selecting No. 2, and the third drawing will set the team selecting No. 3.
If a team not in the bottom seven wins any of the first three drawings, a Second Phase will be conducted among the eight teams eliminated in the Qualifying Round. That would take place between the end of the Qualifying Round and the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs."
