The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
INSIDE THE Q
When will they play again?
Everyone who follows the QMJHL wants to know what the league look like now that we've started a new year.
I wish I had a comprehensive answer but we're just not there yet.
At this point, the only two things we know for sure is players are expected to be back with their teams by Sunday for a two-week quarantine and the 12 franchises in Quebec will go forward with a series of bubbles, starting the third week of January.
Those protected environments will allow the Quebecbased franchises to churn out some results in a compressed time frame to make the standings and season seem somewhat more realistic.
Some teams have only played single digit games so far, with the Sherbrooke Phoenix on the low end with just five, so they really need to power forward as efficiently as possible.
The picture in the Maritimes is much different. From what I've come to understand, the bubble concept won't work here because it's just too expensive.
Let's remember that the Quebec government handed out millions of bailout dollars to the teams there so they could move forward with a season that did not include fans in the rink. That financial assistance makes it feasible to create the bubbles.
But that is not an option here where the six Atlantic Canadian teams are on their own financially since the three provincial governments allowed limited crowds in the first half of the season. That revenue isn't enough to balance the books as well as normal years but the teams were making it work with some modifications to their travel commitments and other expenses.
So looking ahead to the second half, the only possible course seems to be to hope the case numbers keep dropping so the Maritime teams can return to what they were doing in the fall. That means travel between the provinces for games with small crowds and strict protocols inside the rink.
At last check, there were six known cases in P.E.I.,
22 in Nova Scotia and 28 in New Brunswick. At the risk of jinxing it, those numbers are reason for optimism and there is still more runway to improve them even more.
The earliest the league hopes to hold games in those three provinces is Jan. 22 so people around the Q have their fingers crossed for even better days ahead. If that happens, the next step is for the government to give them the green light to resume play.
Because of that ongoing uncertainty, many general managers are biding their time before making any meaningful trades. The last time I spoke with Mooseheads general manager Cam Russell, he was waiting for word on whether his two European players — Senna Peeters and Attilio Biasca — were going to be cleared to report to Nova Scotia following the world juniors in Edmonton.
Russell also wanted to be sure Justin Barron got back safely from the tournament and Americans Zack Jones and Stephen Davis made it over the border without any glitches. None of that was supposed to be a problem, but if the pandemic has taught us anything it's that you can't really count on anything. Rules and restrictions can change in the blink of an eye.
Which is all to say Russell won't decide on any trades until he is literally able to put eyes on all of his players on Nova Scotia soil. Fortunately for him and the rest of the GMS around the league, the trade deadline has been extended until Jan. 25 to accommodate all of those variables.
That isn't to say some teams have applied the same philosophy. The Gatineau Olympiques and Rimouski Oceanic, for example, completed a blockbuster earlier this week so players wouldn't have to quarantine in more than one city.
Similarly, the Cape Breton Eagles sent captain Shawn Element to his hometown team in Victoriaville to finish out his junior career and the Shawinigan Cataractes made a conditional deal with the Moncton Wildcats to acquire Gabriel Fortier, who could jump to the AHL now that operations in that league will resume Feb. 4.
The timing and reasoning of trades are happening for all kinds of different reasons. But most of all, making deals isn't nearly as simple this year as loading up for a run or rebuilding for the future. There are countless additonal moving parts in play this time around.