NHL CONSIDERING EVERY SCENARIO FOR RESUMING PLAY
More questions than answers as league sorts out issues, writes Bruce Garrioch.
OTTAWA The NHL’S 31 general managers got to see where the league’s head office stands on Monday afternoon.
A day after sitting down with the league’s owners and board of governors, commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly held a conference call with the GMS. There are all sorts of issues to iron out with the league’s calendar on pause because of the threat of the novel coronavirus around the world.
The NHL is looking at every possible scenario to resume play, but even league officials aren’t sure if that’s going to happen. While the league has discussed the possibility of holding the playoffs into September or early October, then starting next season in November, there’s no way to tell how things will play out with the COVID-19 pandemic and when life will return to normal.
The league hasn’t officially asked teams to set aside dates in July, August and September, but down the road, that request may be made.
Bettman and Daly would like the league to complete its season and award the Stanley Cup if at all possible. Naturally, part of the reason for doing so is the economics involved, because if the NHL loses its playoff revenue, that would be a major hit financially. The format of those playoffs has yet to be decided and won’t be until the league has a better idea when — and if — it can resume playing.
The league remains hopeful it will be able to reopen its rinks to small groups of players once the period of self-quarantine ends on April 3. That date has been pushed back from the original instructions of March 27 because NHL teams want their employees and staff to stay home.
Of course, if local public health authorities and politicians are still telling people not to leave their homes after the early
April date, then the NHL won’t be opening the rinks anytime soon. The league will revisit when it might be safe to hold a short training camp to prepare to resume playing at the end of month.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States indicated 10 days ago that no gatherings of more than 50 people should be held for at least 60 days. The NHL remains hopeful that, at the 45-day mark, they’ll be able to open camps, but the reality is it could be a lot longer before that happens and it’s deemed that it’s safe enough for everybody involved for the league to resume activities.
No decision has yet been made on the fate of the scouting combine, set for June 1-6 at the Keybank Center and LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo. The league is scheduled to invite 100 of the top prospects eligible for the NHL draft, set for June 26-27 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, but isn’t prepared to make a determination on either event at this point.
Teams will still want the chance to test prospects before the draft, but in the current environment, there’s no way that could happen, so that’s another issue that will have to be settled.
The draft could always be done via video conference call or a scaled-down version of the event, similar to the Sidney Crosby draft in 2005, which was held in a ballroom at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. It’s a big event on the NHL calendar that gets a lot of attention, but it may be some time yet before any decision is made on the draft.
Of course, many teams are wondering what’s going to happen with the draft lottery, which was originally set for April 9 at the NHL Network studios in Secaucus, N.J., but will now have to be rescheduled. If the regular season isn’t completed and the league goes straight to a playoff tournament with more teams involved, then will non-contenders at the bottom such as the Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators and Los Angeles Kings maintain their odds?
Again, that’s a good question, but one the league likely can’t answer until it determines which format it will use once it resumes play. The NHL had a little more than three weeks left on its regular-season schedule when it hit the pause button, so the priority remains finishing what’s left of it before determining what comes next.
The season delay has already started to affect the league financially. The Montreal Canadiens announced Tuesday they were temporarily laying off 60 per cent of their staff at the NHL and AHL levels. The Habs said they had established a $6-million assistance fund for the employees to help top up their employment insurance claims so they can receive about 80 per cent of their salaries.
Reports indicate GM Marc Bergevin and coach Claude Julien have both taken 20 per cent pay cuts.
“Now more than ever, it’s important to support our community and demonstrate our solidarity to one another. We’re working extremely hard to limit the impact this situation will have on our employees,” Canadiens owner Geoff Molson said.