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Snapshots: Ratification, Murray, Evason

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The NHL’s Board of Governors has a conference call scheduled for this evening to vote on the proposed CBA extension and return to play agreement. That vote is expected to go smoothly according to Bob McKenzie of TSN, who points out that it is “virtually unheard of” for the governors to go against something put forward by commissioner Gary Bettman. The NHLPA however, which also needs to ratify the agreement for it to come into effect, has been voting since Wednesday evening and will complete the process tonight.

Though there is plenty of positivity around the player vote, McKenzie does point out that this is likely an all-or-nothing situation when it comes to the 2019-20 season. The veteran scribe does not see a way the two sides could immediately go back to the negotiating table or find a way to finish the 2019-20 season if the players were to reject this package. A rejected proposal would also have far-reaching effects on the league, with some sources even indicating to him a substantial drop in the salary cap ceiling for next season without the CBA extension. McKenzie also mentions the dreaded “lockout” term in his explanation of the importance of this vote, something no hockey fan wants to hear at this point. News of the ratification could come as early as tonight.

  • Michael Russo of The Athletic has a few notes about the Minnesota Wild’s front office and coaching structure, including a suggestion that Mike Murray could be joining the organization soon. While Murray has only said he left the AHL to “accept a position with an NHL club” in October, Russo tweets that fans shouldn’t be surprised if that’s Minnesota given his familiarity with Wild GM Bill Guerin. Murray served as the AHL’s vice president of hockey operations.
  • While Murray’s connection seems speculative at this point, Russo goes into far more depth on interim head coach Dean Evason and his future with the organization. In his latest piece for The Athletic, Russo lists Gerard Gallant, Peter Laviolette, Tim Army, Scott Sandelin, Mike Hastings, and Tony Granato as other potential candidates, but notes that Evanson has “elevated himself” into consideration. The Wild are scheduled to face the Vancouver Canucks in their qualifying round, giving Evason even more opportunity to show what he can do behind the bench.

Snapshots: The Return Of Sports, AHL, Ducks

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Commissioner Gary Bettman will appear with 5 other sports commissioners on tonight’s ESPN special The Return Of Sports, the NHL announced. Also appearing on tonight’s program will be Roger Goodell of the NFL, Adam Silver of the NBA, Rob Manfred of MLB, Cathy Engelbert of the WNBA and Don Garber of MLS. The show should provide a hefty amount of equivocation, but there’s at least the possibility of some interesting insights mixed in, especially as the WNBA has released their return to play and MLB continues the public squabble that stands in the way of their 2020 season.

  • The American Hockey League released their own Return to Play task force today. Leading the charge will be outgoing AHL President and CEO David Andrews. He’ll serve as Chairman of the AHL 2020-221 Strategic Return to Play Task Force. A number of NHL general manages are also serving on the committee. The role of the committee, per the AHL, will be to provide strategic expertise and planning, rather than the execution of the AHL’s return to action.
  • The Anaheim Ducks will not furlough or release any employees at this time, which includes staff at the Honda Center, per Elliott Teaford of the OC Register/Southern California News Group. Those making $75K or more may face a pay cut, but it’s still encouraging to see a team do their best to keep staff employed. The Ducks had previously announced that part-time staff will be paid through the end of the month, but there’s nothing new on that front. The Ducks are done for the year after finishing in 13th in the Western Conference with 67 points. With the playoffs not yet underway, it’s impossible to know when the Ducks will hit the ice next. It’s hard to know right now exactly how next season’s schedule might be impacted by this year’s delay.

 

Snapshots: Sorokin, Phase 3, Future Schedule

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The New York Islanders have been waiting years for goaltending prospect Ilya Sorokin to come to North America, since drafting him in 2014. The KHL star seemed poised to finally cross the pond before the coronavirus put things on hold, and now may be reconsidering his options.

As KHL reporter Gillian Kemmerer translates, the president of CSKA Moscow tweeted today that Sorokin is in “early talks” with the club to return to the KHL. This doesn’t mean Sorokin isn’t coming to the Islanders (take these kinds of statements with a grain of salt), but the NHL’s decision to not allow new contracts for the 2019-20 season, combined with the fact that next season may not start until January 2021 has certainly complicated things for top KHL players. As Kemmerer notes, CSKA admits that Kirill Kaprizov does intend to come to North America.

  • Even though the NHL has released the format for a return to play, there is still a lot of work to be done before teams actually take the ice. Eric Francis of Sportsnet tweets that the talk around hockey circles last night was that the Phase 3 target start date to open training camps will be pushed to August 1st. Commissioner Gary Bettman had explained previously that camps would open no sooner than July 10th, but that may turn out to be quite an optimistic threshold.
  • James Mirtle of The Athletic (subscription required) explains that hockey fans may want to get used to this kind of a summer schedule, as there are conversations happening about keeping an altered league calendar moving forward. There have been rumblings about shifting the season in the past to avoid some of the other top sports, including the NFL.

League Still Not Allowing New Contracts For 2019-20

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When Scott Perunovich agreed to terms on two different contracts with the St. Louis Blues back in March, it led to plenty of confusion around the league. The plan was to have Perunovich sign a contract for 2019-20 if the season returned, allowing him to step right into a spot on the Blues roster for the playoffs. Several other top college and international players agreed to similar structures, hoping to burn the first year of their entry-level contracts before the 2020-21 season began.

Unfortunately, as Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription required) reported, that made the league furious given that they had put a hold on any contracts for 2019-20. Teams were still holding out hope that the league would change their minds and allow players to sign, but yesterday Gary Bettman and Bill Daly dealt another blow to those hopes.

Daly explained that the league’s position was still that new players are not allowed to sign a contract for 2019-20, even going so far as to call them “ringers.” That means players like Perunovich won’t be seeing action this summer and will have to file their contracts for the 2020-21 season instead.

CapFriendly has even tentatively added them to their database in those spots. Along with Perunovich, this includes Alexander Romanov (MTL), Ian Mitchell (CHI), Grigori Denisenko (FLA), John Leonard (SJS), and Brinson Pasichnuk (SJS) though there are countless others like New York Islanders prospect Ilya Sorokin that have been waiting on word from the league as well.

The question now is how that affects their decisions moving forward, especially for the Russian players. The 2020-21 season is not expected to start on time, with the commissioner even suggesting yesterday that it could kick off with the Winter Classic in early January 2021. That would mean a very long wait for players ineligible to join the playoff festivities this summer, and could lead to some returning to the KHL should it open sooner.

NHL Announces Details On Return To Play Format

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NHL commissioner Gary Bettman today explained how exactly the 24-team return to play format will work, a proposal that was submitted to and approved by the NHLPA executive board over the weekend.

First and foremost was the announcement that the 2019-20 regular season is officially over. There will be no more regular season games, meaning that Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl is the 2020 Art Ross winner as leading scorer.

Should the league return this summer, there will be 24-team postseason held in two hub cities. In early June, the league hopes to move to Phase 2 of small group workouts. Phase 3, which is a three-week training camp, is expected to start in early July.

The hub locations that are still in consideration are Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver. The final determination will come later.

The top four teams in each conference will play a round-robin to determine seeding for the playoffs. The other teams in each conference will be matched up in a qualifying round. Neither of these rounds are technically considered the playoffs, but are also not the regular season. The qualifying matchups are as follows:

  • 5. Pittsburgh vs. 12. Montreal
    6. Carolina vs. 11. Rangers 
    7. Islanders vs. 10. Florida
    8. Toronto vs. 9. Columbus 
  • 5. Edmonton vs. 12. Chicago
    6. Nashville vs. 11. Arizona 
    7. Vancouver vs. 10. Minnesota
    8. Calgary vs. 9. Winnipeg 

The league has not yet determined whether or not they will reseed after each round or use a bracket system throughout the playoffs.

The NHL Draft Lottery will be held in one or two phases and is quite a bit more complicated than in year’s past. It will be held on June 26th and include the seven eliminated teams—Detroit, Ottawa, San Jose (owned by Ottawa), Los Angeles, Anaheim, New Jersey and Buffalo—along with eight placeholders for the teams who will be eliminated in the qualifying round. Those 15 slots will have the same odds as previous years.

Should one of the bottom seven teams win the first, second or third pick, they will be awarded it. If those any of those picks are won by a placeholder, there will be a second lottery held after the qualifying round is over to determine which eliminated team is awarded it. Once those two lotteries are completed, the remaining 12 spots will be assigned in inverse order of their regular season points percentage.

The 2020 NHL Entry Draft will take place after the conclusion of the 2019-20 playoffs.

It is important to note that though this will be the format should the NHL resume, that is not yet a guarantee. As Devan Dubnyk of the Minnesota Wild explained recently to Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription required), there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome just to get teams into their hub cities.

Latest On NHL’s Hub City Plan

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The NHL still doesn’t have a concrete idea of when or how the season will resume, but continue to work on potential options for a restart. One of those is a “hub city” proposal, where teams would gather in one location to play games in front of empty arenas. Gary Bettman spoke this morning, and Nick Cotsonika of NHL.com relayed his most important points. Among them is the idea that the league continues to look at “eight or nine different places” that would be able to host up to a dozen teams in one location. That would need ample hotel and practice facilities, obviously ruling out some markets in North America.

On Sportsnet radio today, Chris Johnston explained that he has heard the two leading candidate cities are Las Vegas and Columbus, though there is still work to do on both fronts. Johnston does explain that the league and NHLPA are “getting closer to having the actual format essentially nailed down.”

The two-city hub idea would have each conference split to complete some play-in games before a regular playoffs and would allow the league to operate without dealing with multiple state, provincial or federal governments. Remember, as Cotsonika writes, 17 percent of the league’s players are currently outside of North America and will likely need a quarantine period following their return.

Both Johnston and Bettman focus on testing as the biggest question the league has to solve before anything can come back. The commissioner explained that the amount of tests is a “fundamental question” though he did sound optimistic about the increased capacity.

To be clear, nothing has been announced officially from the league at this point on which cities would be used as hubs. As with anything related to coronavirus contingencies, a new outbreak or wave could immediately change (or scrap) any plans.

NHL, NHLPA Making Progress On 24-Team Playoff Format

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With plenty of options available to the NHL when it comes to resuming play, progress is being made towards a possible playoff format. According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, the Return to Play Committee is leaning towards a 24-team playoff format to wrap up the 2019-20 season.

LeBrun reports, however, that there is quite a bit of work still to be done if a 24-team playoff is to become a reality, but there has been significant progress made this weekend. Talks are expected to continue over the next couple of days with the potential that a plan will officially be outlined next week as both sides are much closer on what a return to action might look like. Of course, once the Return to Play Committee does come to an agreement, it must pass through the NHL Executive Board and be approved.

On top of that, there is a Board on Governors meeting on Monday. Whether NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will have a deal ready to pass on by then is unknown unless the Return to Play Committee can come to an agreement in the next 24 hours.

The still-developing plan would not be a straight-to-the-playoffs format, however. According to LeBrun, the league will likely have some games before the playoffs would begin, likely to ease teams into playing shape after the significant break due to COVID-19. There is also the issue on whether all players will be on board to returning to action later this year as it is believed some are seriously concerned about the health and safety issues that surround a return to play.

While there are a number of 24-team format options, LeBrun writes in a separate story that there has been some opposition to a 24-team tournament, especially with teams like Chicago (32-30-8 for 72 points) and Montreal (31-31-9 for 71 points) being the last two teams to enter into the playoffs when they don’t deserve it and the concerns that a hot start after a long break could create some significant upsets in this format.

League Notes: Bettman, Draft, PWHPA

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Canceling the 2019-20 NHL season without awarding the Stanley Cup is not something commissioner Gary Bettman is “even considering” according to Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. Bettman was confident in his answers that this season would be completed at some point, even if it does appear more and more likely that any resumption of play would move directly into a playoff.

Other reports have emerged, like the one from Adrian Dater of Colorado Hockey Now, indicating that Arizona could be a hub to host playoff games at some point. That comes after the state’s governor announced that major league sports will be able to operate after Friday, May 15th. That very clearly does not mean that the NHL will be jumping back onto the ice in Arizona this weekend, but it does mean there may be a path forward for the state to host some games in the future—especially considering Bettman’s confidence that the season will resume.

  • As for the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, deputy commissioner Bill Daly had his own update. Daly told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription required) that they will likely have some news to announce next week on when the draft will be held. A June draft before the completion of the season, which at one point seemed inevitable, has lost momentum recently but is still an option for the league. Of course, the draft will be virtual and is not expected to be held in Montreal as originally planned.
  • Though not exactly a league, the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association has announced some changes in its own structure for the upcoming season. After spending a year touring the continent playing showcase tournaments, the PWHPA will now focus on five regional training hubs for their members based in Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, New Hampshire and Minnesota. There will now be try-outs for each training group (which will consist of 25 players) and they will be provided with additional resources.

IOC, IIHF Open To Making Major Olympic Concessions To NHL

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If it means the top players in the world return to Olympic participation, the International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation are open to changing their relationship with the NHL. In a new and potentially game-changing shift in the status quo, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the IOC and IIHF have decided that they would be willing to meet many of the demands previously made by the NHL in order to ensure the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, China feature NHL talent.

Friedman reports that the two global organizations met in New York earlier this week and came to the conclusion that NHL participation would be worth ceding promotional rights and contributing greater financial assistance to the league. This would include paying injury insurance costs, as well as travel costs, as well as allowing the NHL to market their stars’ participation in the Winter Games, including the use of Olympic footage and marks. This checks all the boxes for the league’s previous demands for returning to the Olympics. As for their final complaint, that the Games are disruptive to the season, that argument has been considerably weakened by the league’s bye week format, which reduces game play by 50% in the weeks on either side of the All-Star break. If the league is comfortable with that break every year, it stands to reason that a slightly longer break once every four years is not “incredibly disruptive”.

With that said, the league is unlikely to accept these new terms with the IOC and IIHF without also gaining some leverage with the NHLPA as well. The NHL maintains the Olympic participation is a concession to the players and should be part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly stated recently that even if the IOC and IIHF gave in to all of their demands – which it appears they have – the NHL would still like to tie the event to collective bargaining as part of balanced agreement with the Players’ Association for long-term labor peace. While the current CBA extends through 2022, making the argument for the Beijing Games moot, allowing NHL players to participate would still be a bargaining tool for the next agreement. Friedman reports that NHLPA is in fact encouraged by this latest development with the IOC and IIHF and does not seem opposed to making Olympic participation a bargained right for players moving forward. The NHL and NHLPA resume collective bargaining talks this Tuesday.

The IIHF had previously given the NHL a deadline of no later than the end of August 2020 to make a decision about Beijing 2022. Yet, Commissioner Gary Bettman responded that the NHL will make a decision when they are ready, not when they are told to. At the end of the day, the league has all of the leverage in talks with the international bodies. However, these concessions are a major step forward in a new agreement and the world’s top player returning to its biggest international stage. With many of their concerns now addressed, not to mention the global growth of the NHL brand in recent years, the odds are higher than they have ever been that the league will return to the Olympic Games.

Bettman Speaks On Tracking Technology, Nassau Coliseum, Olympics, And More

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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman addressed the gathered media at the NHL All-Star Game in St. Louis this evening, speaking on a variety of topics. The long-time leader of the league had plenty to say, including confirming a 2021 All-Star weekend hosted by the Florida Panthers and introducing the league’s All-Decade teams. Here are some notes on other topics that Bettman touched on:

  • Player and puck tracking will become a reality in the NHL in the not too distant future. Bettman announced that the tracking technology will be available in all 16 arenas for the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs and is likely to be operational in every NHL arena for the start of the 2020-21 season. The tracking data will allow for more accurate and polished statistics and game scoring, as well allowing for new stats and data visualizations that will further advance hockey analytics.
  • The question of which arenas will have tracking this spring will depend on how the rest of the season plays out. However, one team is already being forced to focus on where they might play should they make the playoffs. Bettman stated that a decision has not yet been made as to whether the New York Islanders will play their postseason games at the Nassau Coliseum, the preferred location of the team, or the Barclay’s center. Bettman called Nassau a “challenge” and that it is not a major league facility, which would cause problems if the Islanders made a deep playoff run. Bettman also acknowledged that a request has been made for New York to play all of their home games at Nassau Coliseum next season, but believes it is too early to make that decision.
  • One thing it is not too early for is continuing CBA talks. Bettman said that the league is expecting to go resume negotiations on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NHLPA soon, after enough progress was made back in September that both sides decided not to use their opt-out clauses. There is plenty of time before the current CBA expires in 2022, but Bettman and company are eager to build on positive talks and get a new deal in place.
  • A bargaining issue that the NHL continues to hold firm on is Olympic participation. Bettman noted today that the league’s opinion that attending the Games is “extraordinarily disruptive” has not changed. He acknowledged that the players’ association would like to return to the Olympics, but that the league is comfortable without participating in Beijing in 2022. Bettman has not completely closed the door on the idea, but does not want to spread “false hope”. He added that the league will make a decision on their own time and will not abide by any deadline provided by the IIHF.
  • Another major league change that has the support of many, but not the NHL itself, is a change to the current playoff format. Bettman revealed that there have been no talks of altering the current postseason structure, even in a season with drastic competitive balance differences between divisions. The upcoming addition of the Seattle expansion team is not expected to change the playoff format either.

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