NHL, NHLPA to Vote on 24-team Playoff Format

The idea of a potential 24-team playoff format has surfaced since the shutdown, and at first it wasn’t gaining much momentum from the players’ association nor the league. As time has passed, however, the idea of this 24-team format is becoming more accepted, and while it’s still facing quite a bit of scrutiny from players and fans alike, it’s becoming more and more likely that (if hockey is going to make a return at any point) it’ll come back in this format.

As per Darren Dreger of TSN, the NHL and the NHLPA are set to vote on this proposed 24-team format, in which Dreger describes as (out of the 24 teams that qualify), the top four teams in each conference would play each other, and the other 16 teams would be required to go through a play-in round formatted as a best-of-5 series, and from there the winners would move on to the traditional four round, best-of-7 playoff series. Dreger also reported that, even if the vote is approved, there are still some additional details that would need to be ironed out before an official return to play could happen.

Rumored Bracket

Fellow NHL insider Elliotte Friedman put out a mock bracket as to what the first and second round matchups could look like:

One thing to note is that this proposed NHL playoff bracket from Friedman is not confirmed as of yet. As of right now, this is simply a concept as to what these matchups could look like. That being said, some of these matchups could be very entertaining to watch on paper. As an Islanders fan, the matchup that happens to jump off the page for me is the first round series between the New York Islanders and the Florida Panthers, which also happens to be a rematch of the 2016 opening round. Another entertaining matchup to watch would be the star-studded Toronto Maple Leafs taking on the hottest team in the league before the shutdown in the Columbus Blue Jackets.

While speculating about matchups on paper is always entertaining from a fan’s perspective, the vote still needs to be approved by the NHLPA first. On the NHLPA board, 62 players (two from each team) will vote for whether or not the 24-team format would be doable to continue the 2019-20 season. Each team has a representative and an alternate representative on the board, and collectively they will decide on the fate of the season. The list of players are as follows:

ANAHEIM DUCKS

Rep: Josh Manson; Alt Rep: Adam Henrique

ARIZONA COYOTES

Rep: Derek Stepan; Alt Rep: Clayton Keller

BOSTON BRUINS

Rep: Brandon Carlo; Alt Rep: Torey Krug

BUFFALO SABRES

Rep: Jake McCabe; Alt Rep: n/a

CALGARY FLAMES

Rep: Mikael Backlund; Alt Rep: Matthew Tkachuk

CAROLINA HURRICANES

Rep: Jordan Martinook; Alt Rep: Jake Gardiner

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

Rep: Jonathan Toews; Alt Rep: n/a

COLORADO AVALANCHE

Rep: Ian Cole; Alt Rep: Gabriel Landeskog

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

Rep: David Savard; Alt Rep: Seth Jones

DALLAS STARS

Rep: Jason Dickinson; Alt Rep: Ben Bishop

DETROIT RED WINGS

Rep: Luke Glendening; Alt Rep: Justin Abdelkader

EDMONTON OILERS

Rep: Darnell Nurse; Alt Rep: n/a

FLORIDA PANTHERS

Rep: Mike Matheson; Alt Rep: Colton Sceviour

LOS ANGELES KINGS

Rep: Matt Roy; Alt Rep: n/a

MINNESOTA WILD

Rep: Devan Dubnyk; Alt Rep: Ryan Suter

MONTREAL CANADIENS

Rep: Paul Byron; Alt Rep: Brendan Gallagher

NASHVILLE PREDATORS

Rep: Yannick Weber; Alt Rep: Ryan Ellis

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

Rep: Kyle Palmieri; Alt Rep: Cory Schneider

NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Rep: Anders Lee; Alt Rep: Scott Mayfield

NEW YORK RANGERS

Rep: Jacob Trouba; Alt Rep: Ryan Strome

OTTAWA SENATORS

Rep: Brady Tkachuk; Alt Rep: Ron Hainsey

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

Rep: James van Riemsdyk; Alt Rep: n/a

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Rep: Kris Letang; Alt Rep: n/a

SAN JOSE SHARKS

Rep: Logan Couture; Alt Rep: Martin Jones

ST. LOUIS BLUES

Rep: Colton Parayko; Alt Rep: Alex Pietrangelo

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

Rep: Alex Killorn; Alt. Rep: n/a

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

Rep: Zach Hyman; Alt Rep: John Tavares

VANCOUVER CANUCKS

Rep: n/a; Alt. Rep: Bo Horvat

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS

Rep: Nate Schmidt; Alt Rep: Alex Tuch

WASHINGTON CAPITALS

Rep: Tom Wilson; Alt Rep: Lars Eller

WINNIPEG JETS

Rep: Adam Lowry; Alt Rep: Mark Scheifele

The Players’ Association and the League are set to vote on Friday, May 22nd. If all goes according to plan, NHL hockey could be back in the blink of an eye, and we could be seeing the Stanley Cup hoisted before we know it.

Follow me on Twitter at @cbentivenga14 for more of my content!

Follow us on Twitter @Hockey_OTH, and come discuss this and much more at the Overtime Heroics Forums!