I'm loving this play in format so far, I'm also a fan of how the draft lottery unfolded and believe we have an opportunity to end "tanking" and fully encourage regular season success.
How? You ask?
1. 75 game season - followed by the 5 game qualifiers
2. 1st OA will always be awarded to a team that loses thier Qualifier
3. Reg Season bottom 32-25 place finish will lottery equally for draft spots 2-9

This format creates no incentive to "Tank" in the future, creates more playoff games (revenue).

I'd like to keep the qualifier Rounds as a tournament style (1 week) and at hub cities with the final 16 returning to true home ice advantage.

Looks for thoughts and discussions

No. It puts way less importance on the regular season and it would reduce the number of trades at the deadline since everyone still has a shot at the playoffs. And there’s the issue of the top teams not playing meaningful games before jumping into a playoff series. Also the fact that it would add about 2.5 weeks on to the schedule.

I'll disagree - not sure how it puts less importance on the regular season - still beneficial to be top 4 in the conference and you certainly don't want to land in the bottom 4 of the conference - as for excitement of trade deadline who cares it's nothing more than a media talking point (offseason decisions will be much more important) - just shorten the season by 5 games the play in is 1 week and jumps straight into the 1st round so no no need to add 2.5 weeks to the season

Top teams are still playing for seeding right up to the end of the season

because a 74 point team just made the playoffs while a 100 point team is now seeded 4th in the conference... its a joke. you only feel this way because hockey was gone for 3 months. if the playoffs had started as normal this wouldnt be close to happening.

I like the play in/round robin style. It rewards showing up for the playoffs rather than the regular season performance. Boston hasn't played good so far, so they shouldn't be recognized as the top seed

so whats the point of the regular season

Same reason as now, to find out who gets in the playoffs

yeah, but why do we need extra nonsense before the playoffs? if boston played well during the season, shouldn't they get the statistical advantage over a worse team?

Not if they sucked in the round robin

So playoff seeding should be determined by 3 games instead of the 82 preceding ones. Got it.

In future seasons there wouldn't be a round robin to re seed the 8 that earned a bi week they essentially get a week or so to prepare while the other 16 or 12 teams battle it out

THERE WAS A 5 month layoff in between games!!! At this point we should have just started the 2021 season. Everyone saying the bruins shouldnt be recognized as the top seed... you guys realize they still played those round robin games like the regular season right? not 5v5 overtime sudden death... it was 3v3 and then shootouts. Which a couple games were decided by shootouts. THE ONLY reason round robin was put in was to give the teams like the bruins some "meaningful" (tune-up) games before playing the teams that just played 3-5 playoff setting games. The seeding for "home-ice" doesnt really matter a whole lot when there are no fans in the seats to cheer you on. HOWEVER teams that took it too seriously like tampa where both hedman and stamkos are injured. Bruins got through the tune-up games without injuries, i think they know whats at stake tonight.

As i said before other than injuries that creates a huge disadvantage going into the playoffs. Teams need to play meaningful games. I almost wish the bruins hadnt swept the hurricanes last year because of how long of a layoff they had between game 4 and game 1 of the stanley cup because the blues went 7. There was 10 days off and you could see the rust in game 1. They should keep the regular season as is, change playoffs back to 1-8 in conferences, where you can reseed after each round if you want or not. but get rid of this division crap and do regular playoffs. the only reason they did play-ins and round robins was because the season wasnt completed to a point where they could pick only 8 teams fairly on both sides.