NHL brass keep the faith about hockey’s return
League considers possibility of 24-team playoff tournament held in neutral cities
The NHL’S board of governors received a phone call from Gary Bettman and Bill Daly on Monday afternoon to tell them the picture remains cloudy at best.
The NHL’S commissioner and deputy commissioner have been providing the governors with a biweekly update on league issues and the latest information they have received from the medical experts regarding COVID -19.
Bettman and Daly both speak with the owners individually regularly, but this was an opportunity to have everybody on the same call to discuss possible next steps.
Bettman was expected to provide the 31 owners with an update on his call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday. The group on the line included Major League Baseball’s Rob Manfred and Adam Silver of the NBA.
The NHL is studying different possible scenarios for finishing the regular season and holding the playoffs, if that’s possible.
The NHL hit the pause button on March 12 because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. There was just over 10 per cent of the schedule left to be played when the governors decided it was best to shut down.
It’s still the belief in league circles that Bettman and Daly and the 31 governors, along with NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr and the players, all want to finish the season. If they don’t play, the hit to the league’s bottom line could be more than US$1 billion, which would be a tough blow all around.
At some point, you have to think the league will have to walk away from its hope of finishing the final 10 per cent of the regular season. If the teams do come back, they would go straight to a playoff-type tournament after a short training camp to get back into shape.
There’s been speculation that as many as 24 teams could be included in a playoff tournament.
The league is also studying the option of splitting those teams into four groups and holding separate tourneys in neutral sites so nobody has a competitive advantage. While Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman indicated Sunday night that Grand Forks, N.D. is one possibility being discussed by the league and the union, longtime broadcaster John Shannon said Monday that Manchester, N.H. is being considered. The talk among league insiders is that Saskatoon is on the radar screen if they decide to go this route, but let’s be realistic: this is all a long way from reality.
Front and centre right now is what the players are going to do with their final paycheque, which is due to be deposited into their bank accounts on April 15.
The NHLPA’S executive committee and the player reps were scheduled to hold a conference call on Monday to provide feedback on what they’re hearing from the members of their team as to whether or not to take the money.
A typical payroll among the roughly 700 players in the league is $125 million.
Some members of the union want the owners to withhold their paycheques, so when the two sides negotiate the escrow down the road, the players aren’t hit hard by a massive payment next year when the final results of this pause are added up. While it’s an issue the players are heavily divided on, the belief is they’ll take the money — because who knows when they’re going to get their next paycheque?
The players will be getting back $78 million, approximately three per cent of what they paid into escrow for the 2018-19 season, in mid-april.
For now, though, everybody is still holding out hope of playing.