After the 2019-20 NHL regular season was declared concluded through games of March 11, it was announced that 24 teams -- the top 12 in each Conference on the basis of points percentage at the time of the pause -- would compete in Seeding Round Robins, a Qualifying Round and Conference-based Stanley Cup Playoffs in two "hub" cities. In each Conference, the top four teams will play each other once in a round-robin format, using regular-season overtime rules, to determine the top four seeds in the First Round. Regular season points percentage will be the sole tiebreaker in the round robin. The remaining eight teams in each Conference will play best-of-5 series under playoff overtime rules to advance to the First Round. The four Qualifying Round winners will join with the seeded top four teams to create an eight-team playoff in each Conference. The highest remaining seed will face the lowest remaining seed in each round. All four rounds are best-of-7.

