The NHL has finalized more details of its return to play plan, further clarifying a 24-team format the league will use if it gets the green light to finish the 2019-20 season later this summer.

Teams can open their practice facilities Monday, with no more than six players skating at a time without coaches in Phase 2 of the league's Return To Play protocol.

All four rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs will be a best-of-seven series; only the qualifying round will be a best-of-five.

Matchups for each round of the playoffs will be based on seeding, with the highest remaining seed in each conference facing off against the lowest remaining seed and so on.

Last week, the NHL officially ended the regular season that was paused March 12 by the coronavirus pandemic and introduced a revised path to the Stanley Cup.

Organized by points percentage, the top 12 teams in each conference will participate. The top four will play in a round robin to determine first-round seeding, and the remaining eight will square off in a best-of-five qualifying round to join them in the playoffs. The Wild is included in the qualifying round and would meet the No.7 Vancouver Canucks as the 10th seed in the Western Conference.

Ties in the round robin will be broken by regular-season points percentage, and the seeding order for these teams will remain the same throughout the playoffs.

In the qualifying round, the higher seed will be the home team for Games 1, 2 and 5. The higher seed will also be the home team for those games in the first and second rounds and the conference finals in addition to Game 7.

During the Stanley Cup Final, the team with the higher regular season points percentage will be the home team for Games 1, 2, 5 and 7.

These parameters were approved by the NHL’s Board of Governors and the NHL Players’ Association. The NHL and NHLPA still have to reach an overall agreement on resuming play.

Iowa Wild forward Gerry Mayhew has been voted the American Hockey League’s most valuable player for the 2019-20 season, receiving the Les Cunningham Award.

This honor is voted on by coaches, players and members of the media in each of the league’s 31 cities.

Mayhew scored a league-high 39 goals, the most by an AHL skater since 2011-12, and he finished third in points with 61 through 49 games – helping Iowa to the best regular-season record in franchise history (37-18-4-4).

The 27-year-old had a 10-game scoring streak from Dec.12 to Jan.10; he tallied 10 game-winners, 11 multi-goal games and a natural hat trick on Feb.14. Mayhew also scored 13 goals on the power play and two shorthanded, and Iowa was 26-7-1-2 in games he registered a point.

Not only did Mayhew represent Iowa at the 2020 AHL All-Star Classic, but he was also voted a Second Team AHL All-Star at left wing. Mayhew, a native of Wyandotte, Mich., made his NHL debut during the season with the Wild and recorded two goals in 13 games. He signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Wild last year.