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NHL To Adopt 24-Team Playoff

The NHL was among the leagues that had to stop play with only a few games of regular season play remaining. When they come back, they will forego the rest of the regular season and start the playoffs. This time it will consist of 24 teams instead of the regular 16.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made this announcement on Tuesday afternoon. He stated that this does not confirm that they will get to finish the playoffs, or that play will be returning soon, reiterating the fact that the NHL and the players association must still agree on health and safety issues.

“At the pause, we committed to resuming play only when appropriate and prudent,” Bettman said. “We are hopeful the return-to-play plan will allow us to complete the season and award the Stanley Cup in a manner in which the health and safety of our players, on-ice officials, team staff, and associated individuals involved are paramount. Accordingly, an essential component of the plan is a rigorous, regular schedule of testing.”

Many teams are thankful for the addition of teams, such as the Montreal Canadians, since they wouldn’t have made the playoffs in the normal format. The top four teams in each conference will be playing a separate round-robin tournament to determine their seeding.

Those on top include Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia in the East and St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas and Dallas in the West.

These games are likely to happen in several hub cities with limited personnel. No locations have been decided, but Edmonton, Alberta, Columbus, Ohio, Toronto, and Las Vegas are being discussed so far.

“It’s not easy getting everybody on board with all the different countries, the players, the teams that were in the playoffs, teams that may not be in the playoffs and getting that all agreed upon with the union,” Buffalo Sabres owner Kim Pegula told The Associated Press.

Buffalo was just one of seven teams that will be left out of the playoffs. They are joined by Detroit, New Jersey, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, and Ottawa.

But this decision looked like the easiest one of many that need to be answered. There is still a difficult job ahead to agree on terms for this playoff to occur.

Stanley Cup Odds

Sportsbooks are wasting no time on updating the odds. Several more teams will be available than usual with more games to bet on.

These are the latest odds on FanDuel following the announcement:

  • Boston Bruins +600
  • Tampa Bay Lightning +600
  • Colorado Avalanche +750
  • Vegas Golden Knights +850
  • Washington Capitals +900
  • St. Louis Blues +1000
  • Philadelphia Flyers +1100
  • Dallas Stars +1500
  • Pittsburgh Penguins +2000
  • Edmonton Oilers +2300
  • Toronto Maple Leafs +3000
  • Calgary Flames +3500
  • Vancouver Canucks +3500
  • Minnesota Wild +4000
  • Carolina Hurricanes +4200
  • Nashville Predators +4200
  • New York Islanders +4200
  • Arizona Coyotes +4500
  • New York Rangers +4800
  • Winnipeg Jets +5500
  • Columbus Blue Jackets +6500
  • Florida Panthers +6500
  • Chicago Blackhawks +10000
  • Montreal Canadiens +10000

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