2020 Playoff Format Breaks Draft Order

DrunkenTeddy · 11-24-2025, 01:16 PM

Looks like using the 2020 playoff format causes weird issues with the draft order. For some reason the teams that lose the play-in round end up ahead of the teams that missed the playoffs entirely.

Here are the standings from an example season:

Here you can see the teams that were knocked out during the play-in round:

Here is the draft order (ignoring the first round due to draft lottery changing it):

As you can see Calgary, NYR, and CHI are the first 3 in the draft order, all 3 were eliminated in the play-in round. The first 3 in the draft order should have been SJS, CBJ, and ANA in this case.

DrunkenTeddy · 11-24-2025, 01:23 PM

Sorry just to add to this, Detroit and NYI also won the draft lottery, I suspect they had higher odds than they should have.

JeffR · 11-25-2025, 08:30 AM

Yeah, the play-in seems to be doing something odd to the lottery. I suspect when we made lottery changes a couple of years ago we did something that couldn't handle the Covid year playoffs. We'll get that fixed.

DrunkenTeddy · 12-17-2025, 09:20 AM

I didn't see a fix for this in the update, did it get fixed?

renojedi · 12-28-2025, 10:11 PM

Was this fixed? Want to use it for a 36 team NHL set up but not if it breaks the draft lottery.

Sebastian Palkowski · 01-09-2026, 09:04 AM

Sorry for the late answer. I think this was fixed in the last update.

11-24-2025, 01:16 PM	#1
DrunkenTeddy Major Leagues Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Langley, BC Posts: 378	2020 Playoff Format Breaks Draft Order Looks like using the 2020 playoff format causes weird issues with the draft order. For some reason the teams that lose the play-in round end up ahead of the teams that missed the playoffs entirely. Here are the standings from an example season: Here you can see the teams that were knocked out during the play-in round: Here is the draft order (ignoring the first round due to draft lottery changing it): As you can see Calgary, NYR, and CHI are the first 3 in the draft order, all 3 were eliminated in the play-in round. The first 3 in the draft order should have been SJS, CBJ, and ANA in this case.

01-09-2026, 09:04 AM	#6
Sebastian Palkowski Developer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Hamburg, Germany Posts: 5,593	Sorry for the late answer. I think this was fixed in the last update. __________________ Buy Franchise Hockey Manager

11-24-2025, 01:23 PM	#2
DrunkenTeddy Major Leagues Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Langley, BC Posts: 378	Sorry just to add to this, Detroit and NYI also won the draft lottery, I suspect they had higher odds than they should have.

11-25-2025, 08:30 AM	#3
JeffR FHM Producer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Kelowna, BC Posts: 17,434	Yeah, the play-in seems to be doing something odd to the lottery. I suspect when we made lottery changes a couple of years ago we did something that couldn't handle the Covid year playoffs. We'll get that fixed.

12-17-2025, 09:20 AM	#4
DrunkenTeddy Major Leagues Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Langley, BC Posts: 378	I didn't see a fix for this in the update, did it get fixed?

12-28-2025, 10:11 PM	#5
renojedi All Star Reserve Join Date: May 2003 Location: Richmond, Virginia Posts: 501	Was this fixed? Want to use it for a 36 team NHL set up but not if it breaks the draft lottery.