NHL Announces Season Restart Plan 24 Teams Will Participate in Stanley Cup

On May 27 local time, the NHL of the North American Professional Ice Hockey League announced its plan to return to the arena. A total of 24 teams will participate in the Stanley Cup, and the seed teams will be selected in the form of eight rounds of qualifying matches for 16 teams and Round-robin tournament matches for the top four teams of the Eastern and Western leagues.

Due to concerns about the COVID-19 epidemic, NHL suspended the regular season on March 12, and the remaining 189 games will not be completed. The top 12 teams in the Eastern Western League will participate in the remaining matches, and their rankings will be determined based on the rankings as of March 11th.

I want to make it clear that the health and safety of our players, coaches, important support personnel, and community are crucial, “Commissioner Gary Bateman said in announcing his return to the field plan.” Although nothing is risk-free, ensuring health and safety has been at the core of all our plans so far and will continue to be so

The preliminary and seed rounds will be held in two central cities that are yet to be determined, with each city selecting one from the home games of the Eastern and Western leagues,NHL with dates to be determined. Candidates for these central cities include Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver.

The qualifying matches will be conducted according to the playoff overtime rules. The Round-robin tournament will use the regular season overtime and penalty rules to break the draw on the scoreboard with the regular season point percentage.