NHL play can’t resume unless players feel safe
The NHL and the Players’ Association have their work cut out for them if they’re going to save the season and award the Stanley Cup.
Plans are being put in place. There are regular discussions between both sides as they try to alleviate concerns, but even with all kinds of different ideas about resuming play in empty arenas and holding playoff games this summer in four neutral sites, the only way it becomes reality is if the threat of the novel coronavirus subsides.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, deputy commissioner Bill Daly and the league’s board of governors will hold their bi-weekly conference call on Monday. It’s expected they’ll discuss the options for a return to play when it’s deemed safe for everybody involved to get back to their arenas in small groups.
Yes, the players want to play, but the No. 1 concern is the safety factor, because we’ve seen how quickly COVID-19 can spread throughout a team after six members of the Ottawa Senators tested positive. Four players on the Colorado Avalanche also caught the virus. Both teams made their way through California when it was a hot spot before March 12, when the NHL decided to put the season on pause.
If the league is going to return, the players have to be on board.
“The individual player’s health and safety has to be first and foremost,” a high-profile agent said on Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “There’s concern about certain states and provinces that could still be under stay-at-home orders, and you’re asking players to leave their families in the midst of all that and go somewhere and basically be quarantined away from society and their families for up to four months?”
Publicly, some NHL players have expressed concerns about heading to a neutral site. Since the NHL’s best-case scenario is to keep the players in a bubble, that means teams that go deep into the post-season could be separated from their families for as long as four months.
Phillip Danault of the Montreal Canadiens said many players around the league have reservations about returning under this kind of scenario.
“It really makes no sense, in my head, to distance myself for two months from my kid,” Danault told Montreal reporters during a conference call on Tuesday. “And I imagine it makes even less sense for those who would go far in the playoffs, who are on playoff teams right now. If a team goes to the Stanley Cup final, it could be three to four months.
“It’s inhumane to do that, as far as I’m concerned. But the league has to make a decision and I imagine the players will have to vote on it — and I’m not sure they’ll be in favour of being away from family for two to three months.”
Getting back to work would allow the league’s 31 teams to mitigate losses, and the players understand that. Right now, the belief is the NHL would lose $1.1 billion in revenue if it doesn’t play. That figure would be closer to $650 million if the year can be salvaged.
Meanwhile, the players’ union could be facing a massive escrow next season as teams attempt to make up for the losses.
So there’s no question, money is a motivation here for both sides. You can bet NBC executives, who have just lost a large part of their summer programming with the postponement of the Olympics, are pushing Bettman for a return.
The anonymous agent said a large group of his players want to play as long as its safe, but nobody can be sure that’s going to happen.
“My heart says I hope so. My head says I don’t see it happening,” said the agent. bgarrioch@postmedia.com
Twitter: @sungarrioch