Huge issue to resolve amongst teams before play can resume!

The NHL is focused on a 24-team playoff format where round-robin games would be held at geographically based hub sites. This would allow players to get back into competition as well as to determine seeding before entering an expanded playoff format.

However, Darren Dreger explained on last night’s Insider Trading on TSN that there remains a huge issue of fairness in order for all teams to accept the new format as teams at the bottom that just get in may be able to pull off an upset in a short series. 

“Well it’s an important issue, no doubt about that. The NHL knows this. So does the NHL Players’ Association. Perhaps (it’s) more contentious if you’re an NHL general manager and you’re a general manager on a better club. You wouldn’t want equal footing across the 24-team format. So part of what has been a daunting task with the return-to-play committee, the PA and the NHL is trying to determine appropriate value from where a club was sitting in regular season play and then transferring that into the field of 24. If you look at what some of the NHL matchups might look like, Montreal, a non-playoff team by regular season standards, faces the Pittsburgh Penguins, a pretty good team in the Eastern Conference. Should they be at an equal position starting at the play-in of the 24-team format? Or Edmonton, or Chicago for that matter. I’ll tell ya there’s been a ton of discussion on this. As I said, an important issue. And before they sign off on a return-to-play scenario, this is going to have to be resolved.”

While the league and the players’ association would love to have a resolution in the next week or so, and hopefully this will be resolved in time to get the ball rolling. Or the puck, we should say!