All-canadian NHL division could be compelling
Are you ready for a national hockey league division of the National Hockey League?
On the same day the Western Hockey League announced a regular season of games exclusively involving regional teams, an NHL owner has projected the league's 2020-21 schedule for Canadian teams will be restricted to only matchups between other Canadian teams.
Brace yourself for a steady diet of the seven NHL teams located on this side of the border and the five WHL teams making up divisional alignments within Alberta, B.C. and the U.S. Pacific Northwest, as well as the seven teams located in the Saskatchewan-manitoba division.
The WHL announced a return to play date of Jan. 8, immediately following the no-fans-in-thestands, back-to-the-edmontonbubble business of staging the IIHF World Junior Championship in Rogers Place from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 with training camps opening after Christmas.
As predicted and projected by Edmonton Oil Kings general manager Kirt Hill in this space, the WHL announced that the entire regular season schedule would involve teams playing the entire schedule exclusively within the boundaries of the four divisions.
The regional rival Red Deer Rebels, Lethbridge Hurricanes, Medicine Hat Tigers, Calgary Hitmen and Edmonton Oil Kings are now “cohorts.”
Expect a similar concept to be adopted by the NHL.
With a quote from Vegas owner Bill Foley, it's now open season on speculation on what the big league is going to look like when the teams return to the ice, which the Vegas owner projects to be Feb. 1.
On the ` Vegas Hockey Hotline,' Foley was asked about the prospect of facing former Golden Knights defenceman Nate Schmidt now that the player has become a Vancouver Canuck.
“Yeah, but they're going to be in the Canadian Division,” Foley replied.
At the same time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went on record as saying the Canada-u.s. border isn't going to open soon.
Trudeau said he plans to keep Canada's borders closed as long as coronavirus cases remain elevated in the U.S.
“We have committed to keeping Canadians safe and we keep extending border closures because the United States is not in a place where we would feel comfortable reopening those borders,” he said.
While regional governments make the decisions regarding social distancing, gatherings appear likely to remain restricted with far fewer fans in the stands, if any, than it would take for the NHL or even the WHL to make money.
So two things would appear obvious.
1. If the NHL is going to begin a schedule Jan. 1 — as Commissioner Gary Bettman projected when he was in Edmonton for the Stanley Cup Final — or Foley's Feb. 1, it almost certainly will have to be without many fans for at least a month or so before getting government approvals regionally to allow for many paying customers in the pews.
2. No teams, as was the case with the Toronto Blue Jays, will be playing games in Canada against U.s.-based opposition, at least for starters.
Also, the NHL has little interest in losing another US$75 million to $90 million every two months with massive three-games-a-day Hub City play as it did producing the Stanley Cup playoffs in Toronto and Edmonton. And the players are likely not in much of a rush to go back to life in a bubble.
There's also likely not much interest in duplicating the effort of Major League Baseball, flying all the teams around North America and playing a normal sort of schedule in empty stadiums.
You'd have to figure some sort of compromise between the two.
To me, that would mean a new NHL map involving a Canadian division, a division of American teams West of the Mississippi River and a North- South split more or less on the Mason Dixon Line for the rest of the teams in the Eastern U.S.
And while Bettman says he wants to play a full 82 games, logic and common sense would dictate a number more like 60.
There have been rumours of a New Year's Day outdoor opener at Lake Louise. But why play just the one? Why not two at the location? Edmonton-calgary and Toronto-montreal.
Then play a schedule heavily loaded with two-game series beginning with Leafs and Canadiens games in the West. When the Oilers are in Montreal, they play the Canadiens on back-toback nights. When the Maple Leafs travel to Calgary, they do a doubleheader.
If you get to Game 25 and nothing has changed with the coronavirus numbers, do it over again. Otherwise join up with San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Vegas, Arizona, Minnesota, St. Louis and Dallas to complete the schedule. But I think Foley has it nailed. And as a one-off, a Canadian Division might be compelling.
With the recent free agent frenzy and the player movement involved, a Canadian division would look to be exceptionally competitive. How would you predict the Canadian standings with or without “interlocking” play?
With upgrades made by Montreal and Vancouver, did Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto do what they had to do to make a four-team divisional playoff? Debating that should keep you occupied until the New Year.