Canadian cities remain in ‘hub’ city hunt

Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto among final six cities in running to host NHL playoffs

NEW YORK — The NHL has begun narrowing its possible locations to resume the season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and all three potential Canadian cities are still in the running.

The Blue Jackets were informed

Monday that Columbus will not be one of the NHL’s hub cities. Columbus was one of 10 finalists, including seven in the U.S. Las Vegas is now considered the U.S. favourite to host NHL playoff games, unless two Canadian cities are selected. Canada’s federal government said it would allow the league to quarantine internally, making Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton realistic possibilities — if not the front-runners.

Los Angeles and Chicago are the other two American cities in the running.

The NHL has said it will select two hub cities — one for the Eastern Conference playoffs and one for the Western Conference.

The NHL could decide this week on the two hub cities, according to The Athletic.

Games would be played without fans and teams only able to travel with 50 people. The NHL has already announced a 24-team format in which the top four teams in each conference have already advanced to the first round of the playoffs, and will play a round robin to determine playoff seeding.

The teams seeded No. 5-12 will play in the qualifying round, a best of five series that will finalize the postseason field. After the qualifying round, all four rounds will be best of seven, and teams will be re-seeded after each round.

Team facilities have already opened for small, players-only workouts. The NHL and the NHLPA have previously announced that training camps will begin July 10. If training camp is two weeks, followed by a week of exhibition games, that would mean games could begin in early August.