On Tuesday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed the league will resume this season with a 24-team playoff.
The playoffs will feature the top 12 teams in each conference by points percentage, marking the end of the 2019-2020 regular season. Both the Eastern and Western Conference will be "assigned to a Hub City with secure hotels, arena, practice facilities and in-market transportation". The list of potential Hub Cities includes Pittsburgh but not Philadelphia.
For the Philadelphia Flyers, the playoff structure is incredibly favorable. The Flyers currently are fourth in the Eastern Conference standings with a .645 winning percentage. Under the new playoff rules, the top four teams will play a round-robin tournament to determine First Round seeding.
Meanwhile, the remaining eight teams in the conference will play a best-of-five series to advance to the First Round, with playoff opponents determined by seeding or a bracket. The First and Second Round matchups will either be a best of five or best of seven game series as well.
This is good news for Flyers fans, as the team is guaranteed a spot in the Conference playoffs after the round-robin tournament. They will take on the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightening, and Washington Capitals to determine the top seed in the playoffs.
While teams have been notified they may return to home facilities for voluntary, small-group training in June, Bettman estimates that formal training camp will begin in the first half of July. He also anticipates the season will go till early fall.
This comes on the heels of NJ Governor Phil Murphy allowing professional sports teams to train and return to competition in the state. Both the Flyers and the Sixers have training facilities in New Jersey.