2020 NHL Draft: Impact of a potential 24 team postseason

Having 24 teams in the playoffs is something that’s never been done before. What does it mean for the 2020 NHL Draft that may happen before then?

Even if the NHL season has been put on ice, the league is making strides towards putting together a comeback plan. For a while, it’s been expected that instead of playing out the regular season, the league would instead opt for an expanded playoff. There are also rumors the NHL wants to have the 2020 NHL Draft in June, no matter what.

Rumors went from 24 teams to all 31 teams making the post season quest for the Stanley Cup. Even though it’s not set it stone, the league looks to be leaning towards the 24 team idea.

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Even if the 24 team playoffs make sense as a way to compensate for lost regular season games, some have leaned toward completing the regular season for television revenue and assorted other reason. Rest assured there is a method to the Gary Bettman’s madness here. Larry Brooks of the New York Post listed the three reasons attracting the NHL towards the 24 team format.

"Condensing the duration of play to better guard against the potential of a second wave of the coronavirus striking and necessitating a second shutdownAvoiding having to reassemble teams with no realistic chance of making the playoffs and having them play up to a month’s worth of meaningless gamesAvoiding the prospect of a quarantine within a hub city/hotel for up to four months, including a three-week training camp, for teams going deep into the playoffs following a regular-season completion."

At this point anyway the NHL wants to play this thing out hockey fans will accept. Now it brings up questions about the draft lottery. Usually all 14 non-playoff teams are put into the draft lottery to assign picks. If 24 teams make the playoffs, that lottery will only have seven participants.

And who those participants are remains to be seen. How will the 24 teams be decided? Will it be the top 12 in each conference? Top 24 in the NHL overall, regardless of conference? Or will the NHL pick four teams from each of the six divisions to even pout the 24? Those questions are the difference between teams with a .500 team record fighting for a playoff spot being included or other teams who have the luck of less competitive divisions and conferences.

Not to mention the questions about the draft itself, namely when and where it will take place. After a successful showing at the virtual 2020 NFL Draft, the NHL was pushing for a June virtual draft which would take place before the season resumed. If that’s their plan the NHL should solidify their 24 team plan to specify the seven specific teams fighting for the services of Alexis Lafreniere.

In his piece for Sportsnet, Chris Johnson brought up an interesting conflict with the NHL’s virtual draft idea. If they want the draft to happen before the regular season ends, what about teams who would trade current roster players for draft picks?

Would those type of transactions be frozen? Would they be allowed to happen and those transactions reflected in participation for the 24 team playoff? Obviously trading a player for the transaction to take effect after the season concludes for next season is out of the question.

The NHL’s 24 team playoff seems to answer one question and bring up ten others. If this plan is adopted remains to be seen. If so the NHL is going to have its work cut out for them. Maybe decide on what they’re actually doing with the draft first.