The NHL became the first North American professional league to unveil a return-to-play plan Tuesday when commissioner Gary Bettman announced a 24-team playoff format.
Teams seeded Nos. 5-12 in each conference will play a best-of-five qualifying series. At the same time, the top four teams in each conference, including the Avalanche, will play each other in a round-robin format to determine playoff seeding.
“Since March 12, we have been hopeful and optimistic that, while developing all options and alternatives, we could get to this point,” Bettman said on NBCSN. “We believe we have constructed an overall plan that includes all teams that, as a practical matter, might have had a chance to qualify for the playoffs when the season was paused.