Vancouver is out as NHL hub city

VANCOUVER — The Canucks say Vancouver is officially out of the running to act as a hub city as the NHL considers where to hold its playoffs.

Canucks Sports and Entertainment, the company that operates the hockey franchise, thanked B.C. health officials for their support during the bid to host the NHL’s summer Stanley Cup tournament.

The team says it will now look forward to welcoming its players back for a training camp at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

“From the beginning our goal was to help the NHL get hockey back on the ice if we could,” said chief operating officer Trent Carroll in a statement. “Although Vancouver won’t be a hub city, we are still excited to see hockey start up again.”

Premier John Horgan said public health guidelines are paramount during the pandemic.

“I’m disappointed the NHL playoffs won’t be coming to Vancouver, but we will not bend the rules on public health guidelines and risk the progress we’ve made,” he said in a statement.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry echoed those sentiments at a news conference before the Canucks made their announcement.

“I’ve not had direct conversations with the NHL,” she said. “What we provided was our advice and basically the fact that we would take the health of our players and the health of our province as the primary concern in terms of having the NHL play in Vancouver.”

The NHL is picking two cities for teams to resume hockey. The league announced this week that Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Chicago, were all in the running as hub cities.