What a 24 Team Playoff Format Would Mean for the Carolina Hurricanes

There are rumors swirling around the league of a 24 team playoff format when the NHL resumes play. What would that mean for the Carolina Hurricanes?

The National Hockey League in a hiatus as the Coronavirus crisis hits al factors of life around the team. There are many questions about what the league would look like when life returns to normal and the teams are back and playing. There are many options on the table. One of them involves 24 team making the playoffs. Where does that leave the Hurricanes?

A 24 team playoff format can take many forms. But no matter how you break it down, several teams are going to get some time off before having to face an opponent. The most popular way to have a 24 team playoff format is to simply add one more round to the playoffs involving the bottom 16 playoff teams.

Where would the Carolina Hurricanes fall in these rankings? Well it depends on many factors. Mostly the divisional, wildcard, and conference factors.

Let’s break it down into the three most likely scenarios. Each of these will naturally keep the conference separation. It is the best way to keep it fair based on games played against opponents. It also ensures that 12 teams from each conference make the playoffs. These three scenarios are full conference, Divisional, and Wildcard.

Where would the cut off be? This would be a tough question to answer but Moneypuck.com may have the answer. Moneypuck has exactly seven teams with zero percent chance at making the playoffs traditionally. They are the Devils, the Sabres, the Senators, the Red Wings,  the Ducks, the Kings, and the Sharks. Those, in my opinion, would be the teams to eliminated from playoff contention.

This would make the playoff cutoff at around 70 points or exactly 0.500 point percentage. This also leaves exactly 12 teams from each conference making the playoffs. Pretty clean numbers that would make this a very convenient course of action. On to the scenarios.