NHL headed for short season, fans or not
No more than 56 games expected
The odd equation of this upcoming NHL season: The more games that are played, the more money team owners will lose.
Don’t expect a season much longer than 56 games. And don’t expect players to earn much more than 54 per cent of their total salaries, with increased escrow, already agreed to discounts, and likely more back- andforth negotiations before play is set to resume sometime in January.
Without fans in the stands — and there is no indication of when that will open up — the NHL is juggling so many balls and time constraints right now that it’s impossible to determine what exactly the league will look like come the new year.
There is talk of hub cities. There is talk of an all- Canadian division being played, which is all but a certainty. But just as each market, both in Canada and the United States are dealing with increased COVID-19 numbers, consider this: On the day the NHL shut down in March, following the NBA, there were 42 positive tests in Ontario.
On Saturday, the number was 978.
Historically, NHL teams have budgeted to break even during the regular season and make their money at playoff time, when they don’t pay the players. This coming season could be almost the opposite. They’ll pay players during the season with no ticket revenue coming in.
Wealthy as they may be, that’s a bitter pill for owners to swallow in the midst of a global pandemic.
This is pretty simple, isn’t it? The Toronto Raptors have to sign free agent guard Fred Vanvleet. Sometimes you have to overpay because how else do you replace what Vanvleet brings? ... Has any sport been more damaged by analytics than baseball? The adjustments in other pro sports have been mostly subtle but not necessarily damaging. In baseball, they’re playing a new game, under new constraints, and you can’t tell me it’s a better game ... The beginning of the end for Max Domi with the Montreal Canadiens started when he took time to thoughtfully determine whether he would participate in Return To Play because of his diabetes. Domi made a wise choice in taking his time. The Habs, I’m told, were not so impressed ... This is unusual: Todd Richards, assistant coach of the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, has left the team to become assistant coach of the Nashville Predators, who have never won a Cup.
Not sure I understand the timing of the Miami Dolphins shift at quarterback from veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick to hotshot rookie Tua Tagovailoa. His first start comes next Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams: Hello kid, meet Aaron Donald. Why not wait a week? ... Not at all surprised to see Gary Roberts wind up in a fitness-related role with the Seattle Kraken. Roberts played parts of three seasons with Ron Francis, the expansion Seattle GM, two in Carolina and one in Toronto ... In his book, Burke’s Law, Brian
Burke attacks four veteran journalists and I happen to be one of them. That’s fair game. You take shots, you expect to get them back. The irony of this: the other writers Burke singles out, Larry Brooks in New York, Tony Gallagher in Vancouver, and Al Strachan, then in Toronto, have all been recognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame.
This is either a great thing or a terrible thing about the Toronto Maple Leafs: Right now, the Leafs think the game better than they play it.
A Toronto front office already heavily manned with Hall of Famer Brendan Shanahan as president, boy genius Kyle Dubas as general manager, lawyer Laurence Gilman as assistant GM and numbers expert Brandon Pridham, has added Eric Joyce to the executive suite with the mysterious title of director of hockey strategy.
And that doesn’t mean getting pucks in deep and establishing a forecheck with feet moving.
You probably don’t know Joyce. He was assistant GM of the Florida Panthers and best known there for being party to that messy taxi cab gutting of coach Gerard Gallant.
Joyce has a resume, though, and then some. You don’t find many hockey people who start at West Point, get a master’s degree from Harvard, consult for a year in Abu Dhabi, work for the Pentagon specializing in counterterrorism and then wind up scouting in the AHL.
The Leafs won’t tell you exactly what Joyce’s title means and what his job description is — they never released his hiring.
“He’s going to do a little bit of everything,” I was told. “He’s an impressive guy.”
Some thought Joyce was headed for the GM’S job in Florida, especially because he has a close relationship with owner Vinny Viola. When Bill Zito took over the Panthers, Joyce was pushed out. And the Leafs pounced — for what, we don’t exactly know.