Chicago, Las Vegas among 10 hub cities being considered by NHL

10 possible hub cities considered for NHL season.

Hockey will be back soon. On Tuesday, the league and player’s association agreed on a 24-team playoff format with a play-in round to narrow down to the traditional 16 teams. The 2019-20 regular season is over, so the playoffs will start when the league plays again.

According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, play will resume in two hub cities to be determined. LeBrun has passed along the list of 10 possible hubs.

• Chicago
• Las Vegas
• Toronto
• Dallas
• St. Paul/Minneapolis
• Edmonton
• Pittsburgh
• Los Angeles
• Vancouver
• Columbus

How will the NHL playoff format work?

Here are some basics of how the playoff format would work. The top four teams in each conference will get a bye, but they might play each other to determine those seeds. Starting with the No. 5 seed it breaks down similarly to college basketball’s NCAA Tournament in terms of seed matchups (5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10, 8 vs. 9).

However obviously, commissioner Gary Bettman suggested a decision on the two hub cities has to come in three or four weeks. Geographic considerations for each conference, along with an obvious tilt to areas where it’ll be deemed safer to play as the coronavirus pandemic goes on, will definitely be prominent in those conversations.

A resumption of play in mid-June or so would line up roughly with the end of the NHL playoffs in any normal year. So hockey will naturally stretch into July this year, to help fill what is typically the summer sports void with only MLB playing games before NFL training camps open.

Overall it’s still a fluid situation, with details to be worked out. But there’s some solace to take with a sign of a return to normalcy for sports. It’s now a matter of when, not if, the NHL returns to play this season.