Las Vegas To Be Named NHL ‘Hub City’

The city of Las Vegas has lost out on millions of dollars due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the city is starting to recover. Now it looks like a major professional sports league is set to choose Las Vegas as a destination for games.

The National Hockey League has been searching for a pair of cities to be their “hub” locations, and sources have indicated that Las Vegas has been chosen. MGM Resorts International has not reopened a number of their businesses, and it is because they are keeping them open for NHL use.

The league has been looking at close to a dozen different cities, and Las Vegas has checked off all of the boxes that the league is looking for. Las Vegas has plenty of hotels and resorts to house the players, and there are enough hockey rinks available to host practices and games.

The Vegas Golden Knights are the newest team in the league, but hockey has proved to be extremely popular and successful in the city. The Golden Knights play at the T-Mobile Arena, which is owned by MGM Resorts International.

It is still unclear when the league will make the official announcement, and it is expected within the next 10 days. The league will be choosing one site to host teams from the Eastern Conference, and another site to host teams from the Western Conference.

Formal training camps are set to resume on July 10, with the league hoping to start games at the beginning of August. This would give players and team personnel plenty of time to travel to these hub cities, which will include Las Vegas.

If Las Vegas is chosen, the league could send the Eastern Conference teams to the city so that the Golden Knights do not have a home-ice advantage. There are a few locations in Canada that could be chosen as a hub city, but the league is still trying to determine the country’s rules and regulations when it comes to COVID-19.

What Will NHL Playoffs Look Like?

The Stanley Cup Playoffs traditionally feature 16 teams with the top eight teams from each conference joining the field. The league will be expanding the playoff field in 2020 by inviting 24 teams to compete.

There will be 12 teams from each conference eligible to participate in the postseason, but the bottom eight teams in each conference will be forced to compete in a play-in round. The top four teams in each conference will compete in a round-robin style tournament to determine the seeds for the playoffs.

The play-in round will be a best-of-three series, with the winners advancing to the traditional field of 16. The rest of the rounds will be played in a best-of-seven format, which is the traditional format. NHL executives are still working on the playoff schedule, but the league is expected to play games every other day.

FanDuel Sportsbook Stanley Cup Betting Odds

FanDuel Sportsbook is currently offering future bets on the 2020 Stanley Cup now that the league has made an official announcement. The Stanley Cup betting odds are listed below, but these could change several times before games begin.