Sens eagerly await word on key off-season dates
The Ottawa Senators will have to wait a little bit longer to find out what’s going to happen with the two most important dates on their calendar this summer.
While the draft lottery was originally scheduled for April 9 and the draft itself was supposed to be held June 26-27 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, the pause in the NHL season caused by the coronavirus put those plans on hold. Some 71 days later, the league still hasn’t figured out what to do in terms of rescheduling those two events, which will kick off one of the most important off-seasons in Senators’ franchise history.
The hope was the NHL’s board of governors would decide during their bi-weekly call on Monday one way or another about what would happen with the lottery and the draft, but they put off deciding whether they’ll accept commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly’s proposal to hold both events next month, before the season is completed. Both events would feature a virtual format.
Daly indicated in an email on Wednesday that the league is on the verge of making a decision, but people will have to be patient because the draft isn’t the only issue the NHL is dealing with as it tries to come up with plan for completing its 2019-20 season.
“This week or next week is probably fair,” Daly wrote when asked about a possible determination. “I can’t tell you there’s a precise timetable because there are other things involved.”
Though the NHL has never considered holding the lottery and the draft together, it would appear they’re considering inserting a couple of months between those two events instead of just a couple of weeks. During an interview on Toronto sports radio over the weekend, Senators owner Eugene Melnyk suggested the league might hold the lottery in June and the draft later in the summer.
“I just hope we can have some events in June to keep people interested,” Melnyk told the Fan 590 from his home in Barbados on Sunday. “If that’s just the draft lottery, that would be great. If that’s the draft and the draft lottery, that’s even better.”
Daly indicated every option is on the table.
Meanwhile, longtime broadcaster John Shannon has suggested a lottery next month with the draft set for August
The NHL’s Return to Play committee has been meeting regularly to discuss how the league will proceed to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Under the 24-team tournament scenario being discussed, the Senators, Detroit Red Wings, San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils, Anaheim Ducks and Buffalo Sabres wouldn’t play again this season.
Melnyk and Senators general manager Pierre Dorion had no issue with the draft and the lottery being held next month. However, there was pushback from many of their counterparts across the league about the draft being held before the regular season is finished because many felt it would put a damper on moving contracts for picks.
On a conference call last month, the governors also took issue with the proposed format of the lottery.
Several teams in the playoff picture expressed concern that, under a format proposed by the league, they wouldn’t have the slightest chance of winning the lottery.
This draft is important to the Senators because they’ve got three picks in the first round — including their own, the one they picked up from the San Jose Sharks in the Erik Karlsson deal in September 2018, and another obtained from the New York Islanders in the Jean-Gabriel Pageau trade at the deadline. In fact, they’ve got seven picks in the first two rounds and 13 overall as the team’s rebuild enters a pivotal phase.