The Regular Season Ends Now, The Playoffs Begin Immediately As Is
Again, the point percentage thing makes this quite complicated. We feel like either they must have play-in games for the playoffs with the teams on the outside, or they have to go by point percentage. To make it easier, let’s say the league decided to go with point percentage and just leave it at that. That would give the Devils their third 1st-round pick of 2020.
This also lets the postseason play itself out. It would give other teams time to make long-term decisions on their personnel, and would give the Devils an opportunity to scout while everyone else is out there fighting for the Stanley Cup.
This one probably changes the impacts to the Devils the least. The Devils would still go into the offseason at around the same time. They’d still have the same amount of needs, and the draft picks would look like we hoped at the NHL Trade Deadline.
The Devils would watch as the rest of the league fights for what they one day want. It’s obviously bittersweet for many of us, but at least we’d have hockey back.
Again, the impacts on the Devils here are minimal. This is about as normal as it can get for the Devils, besides starting the season back up, like, tomorrow.