Six cities remain in the hunt as potential hub locations for when the NHL returns to play. As things stand right now, Vegas and either Vancouver or Edmonton are the frontrunners, per The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun. Toronto, Chicago, and Los Angeles remain outside contenders – but they are still very much in the hunt. Of course, Vegas, Vancouver, and Edmonton are all in the Western Conference, meaning one of the Golden Knights, Canucks, or Oilers would play their games at home – should LeBrun’s hunch prove correct. The NHL isn’t overly concerned, per LeBrun, because without fans present, the games would still qualify as technically neutrally located, even though whichever team does stay home would enjoy a certain amount of comfort in their home building. Finding the best, safest fit to house 12 teams at a time is the priority for now, over maintaining a perfect degree of parity. Let’s check in on the other tidbits of news that have eeked out over the last few hours concerning the NHL’s return to play…
- Phase 2 takes another step forward tomorrow, allowing for up to 12 skaters to share the ice at a time during workouts, tweets Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston. Only six skaters had been allowed at a time up until now. A successful expansion could prove a crucial development given the recent rash of COVID-19 cases popping up across the sports landscape.
- We also now know – thanks to NHL deputy commissioner Billy Daly – that each of the 24 participating teams will play one or two exhibition games prior to the round-robin and play-in phases of the NHL postseason, per Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer. That’s not a ton of ice time to ready the troops, but with such a small window of viability, it makes sense to limit player exposure prior to any games of consequence.
- In a more logistical matter, the NHL and Players’ Association have agreed to extend contracts and visas for players whose contracts were going to expire on June 30th, tweets CapFriendly. That’s not to indicate a more comprehensive agreement between the two sides, as will be required before the NHL officially returns to play. The matter of expiring contracts appears to have been agreed upon as a solitary issue.
- Teams will have 30 players available for July 10 training camps, with playoff rosters trimmed to 28, per Ben Kuzma of Postmedia Sports. For camp and the playoffs, teams will be granted an unlimited number of goalies. Being as only 6 members of each team have been allowed to share the ice at a time through today, the scope of the NHL’s undertaking will clearly require heavy-lifting from logistics and operations departments.
Should have a third site close to Edmonton and Calgary and have the top seeds play there. Let it get pared down after that first round and then have all the teams in two locations.
Or fold up shop.
Was there ever a determination on conditional draft picks that were part of trades? For example Neal and Lucic had conditions as part of that trade. I think Neal was close to a threshold for scoring.
The play-in games count towards conditions as the losers end up going to the lottery, if neal can net 2 goals with lucic scoring 3 or less then calgary gets the pick
The only other conditional pick that has player involvement is the canes-devils pick which would require the canes not to lose in 4 or less games to gain a 4th round pick or to beat the rangers and then have vatanen play in 70% of the games that follow which would upgrade the pick to a 3rd rounder.
The other picks all depend on team performance and getting past the play-ins or further
Edmonton and Columbus should be the hub cities. They are smaller, more out-of-the-way cities. Larger cities like Toronto, Chicago and L.A. have too many people and too much traffic coming in and out. If they really believe this whole corona virus nonsense then they should prove it by avoiding larger cities.
They need a huge number of hotel rooms to house 12 teams, plus team staff, media, broadcasters, etc.
It will be Vegas and either Toronto, LA or Vancouver.
I agree I believe it’s LA or Vancouver but part of the appeal of Edmonton is the ice conditions. known for arguably the best ice conditions, when you are playing games every day in all likelihood at the arena, the ice crew and conditions will be vital.
Baji, Columbus has more than double the cases per day right now than Toronto with a smaller population.
Baji,
Don’t forget that Columbus will have a large influx of college students coming in when Ohio State begins classes, so it’s hardly isolated.
Weird how little love for Vancouver is here…the province is averaging 10 Covid cases a day.
Compare that to Nevada (300) and Ontario (200)
Oh, and BC has had these numbers for a month. Several days a week are single digits. If you want to keep your players safe…there isn’t a better spot in North America right now
untrue. could play in Nunavut. outdoor games anyone?