Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Gary Bettman

Montreal To Host 2022 NHL Draft

at CDT | by 9 Comments

The 2022 NHL Draft will be held in Montreal at the Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens. The event will be held over two days, starting on July 7. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman released a statement:

We are proud to announce that, once again, we are conducting our Draft in front of the great fans of the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal, the site of the first NHL Draft in 1963, is a wonderful place to bring the NHL family together and to focus on the future of our game as our Clubs call the names of top prospects from around the world. We also thank Geoff Molson and the entire Canadiens organization for their cooperation and support while we needed to conduct the Draft remotely the past two years.

The Canadiens had been set to host the 2020 draft before the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to be held virtually. The expectation since has always been that the league would return to Montreal as soon as it could, and now that is official.

The most interesting part about this announcement is that NHL free agency will not open on July 1, as it did prior to the COVID-shifted calendars. Agent Allan Walsh of Octagon Hockey tweets that the frenzy will be pushed back to mid-July, meaning once again it will be a condensed offseason. This is likely in part due to the extended season, as this year’s schedule is made up of 200 days thanks to an Olympic break in February.

It also means as PuckPedia points out, that the majority of players with signing bonuses will have them paid before the draft and free agency. That could drastically affect teams’ plans and player movement heading into the draft, as huge chunks of salary will have already been paid out.

Hamilton To Host 2022 NHL Heritage Classic

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Jim Balsillie finally gets his wish, the NHL is headed to Hamilton. No, a franchise isn’t relocating, but the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres will take part in the 2022 Heritage Classic at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario on March 13 of next year. The field is home to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman released this statement.

We are excited to announce that we will be presenting another Tim Hortons Heritage Classic this season. When the Toronto Maple Leafs meet the Buffalo Sabres at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, we again will honor Canada’s preeminent role in the history of our game while renewing a great and longstanding NHL rivalry. In addition, by inviting the first U.S.-based team to a Heritage Classic, we will celebrate the greater Golden Horseshoe region as the home of so many fans of both the Leafs and Sabres.

The event had previously been held in NHL cities, but in 2019, the league branched out and held the Heritage Classic in Regina, Saskatchewan, where it was a huge success. This will be a similarly neutral-feeling location with the Sabres as the first U.S.-based team taking part. It will be Toronto’s fourth regular season outdoor game and first since the 2018 Stadium Series. The Sabres have been involved in two previous outdoor games, including the 2018 Winter Classic.

Tim Hortons Field is a multi-purpose stadium that hosts the Tiger-Cats and Forge FC of the Canadian Premier League, and will be the venue for the 2021 Grey Cup in December. It has a normal capacity of close to 24,000 but that can be expanded to nearly 40,000 for special events, according to Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News, who reported last month that this game was in the works.

League Notes: Realignment, Canceled Events, ESPN

at CDT | by 28 Comments

Though the NHL approved the plan all the way back in December 2018, not long after accepting Seattle’s expansion bid, it has been a long time since realignment plans have been reiterated. In fact, since the last update on the league’s post-expansion structure, there was a complete overhaul of the league’s conferences and divisions for the 2020-21 season. However, everything will return to normal next year with the unchanged Atlantic and Metropolitan Divisions making up the Eastern Conference and finally an equal 16 teams in the Western Conference with the Central and Pacific Divisions. Commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed today that the plan remains for the only team to move to be the Arizona Coyotes. Although Phoenix is more closely located to four Pacific cities than any Central cities, it is also closer to those Central cities than any other Pacific city, including newcomer Seattle. The Coyotes may be the odd man out, but a change of scenery can’t hurt for a team that has struggled to make the playoffs out of the Pacific for the better part of a decade.

  • When the NHL announced a number of events for the 2021-22 season earlier today, there were a couple of curious absences. The league revealed a Stadium Series game in Nashville and that All-Star Weekend will belong to Vegas, thereby skipping over the hosts for those canceled 2020-21 events. The Carolina Hurricanes were set to host an outdoor game this year, but now have no such event planned. However, Bettman did specifically mention that Raleigh will get it’s Stadium Series (or perhaps Winter Classic) game in the near future. There is not as much clarity for the Florida Panthers. The 2021 All-Star Game was supposed to take place in Sunrise, but now it will be on the other side of the country and there has been no explanation by the league as to why nor as to future plans for the Panthers to host. George Richards of Florida Hockey Now surmises that the potential for the All-Star Game to lead into the Olympic break, if the NHL attends, made a move west, where flights to China would be far shorter than from Florida, a sensible move. However, he also notes that Florida team president Matt Caldwell was certain the All-Star game would belong to the Panthers, so there is some confusion. In all likelihood, Florida will play host to the All-Star game in the near future, just as Carolina will host an outdoor game, but until there is an official announcement that is only speculation.
  • Another surprise reveal this evening is that NBC’s contract with the NHL will officially come to an end following the Stanley Cup Final. The network was expected to host the NHL Entry Draft, if not also the NHL Expansion Draft, later this month. However, ESPN has now been announced as the host of both. TSN’s Bob McKenzie, an NBC contributor, notes that this has less to do with the new television rights agreement and more to do with unfortunate timing. McKenzie believes that NBC informed the NHL well before the new TV deal that they would be unable to host the Entry Draft due to conflicts with the Summer Olympics. As a result, ESPN will begin its NHL coverage with two major events in the span of just three days – the Expansion Draft on Wednesday, July 21 and the first round of the Entry Draft on Friday, July 23. Although, McKenzie believes they will use the Sportsnet feed for the latter, if not both. With Mark Messier and most recently Chris Chelios joining ESPN, the network will have more than enough talent to start producing their own material sooner rather than later.

NHL Announces Multiple Events For 2021-22

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

During NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s state of the league address today, ahead of game one of the Stanley Cup Finals, the league officially announced several events for the 2021-22 season.

First is the 2022 Winter Classic, which will feature the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild at Target Field, Minneapolis. The event will be held on January 1, 2022, a year after it was originally scheduled. The Wild were set to hold the 2021 Winter Classic, but it was eventually canceled due to the COVID restrictions present all season long. This is the second outdoor game for both organizations.

The 2022 Stadium Series is headed to Nashville, where the Predators will welcome the Tampa Bay Lightning at Nissan Stadium. This will be the second outdoor game for the Predators, who took part in the 2020 Winter Classic against the Dallas Stars. For the Lightning, this will be the first outdoor game in the franchise history. The Carolina Hurricanes, who were supposed to hold the Stadium Series game in 2021, will not be involved next season but Bettman confirmed that the league will schedule an event in Raleigh at some point in the near future.

Perhaps most notable however is the 2022 All-Star Weekend, which is officially scheduled to take place in Las Vegas next year. The Vegas Golden Knights will host the league’s best players, though the actual dates have not been able to be announced yet. That’s because the league’s schedule isn’t confirmed yet and could still include an Olympic break, though deputy commissioner Bill Daly did explain today that “time is running short” on those negotiations. Bettman explained that if at all possible, they want to fulfill their promise to the players that they would go, but that there are serious concerns at this point over whether this is even “the most ideal Olympics to go to.”

Though not included in the official announcement, the 2022 NHL Entry Draft is expected to be held in Montreal, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The 2020 draft was originally scheduled to be held in Montreal but was eventually moved to a virtual setting. At the time, the league suggested that they would go back to the city as soon as possible, which now seems like it will be in 2022.

Nazem Kadri’s Eight-Game Suspension Upheld

at CDT | by 6 Comments

For the second time, the eight-game suspension of Nazem Kadri has been upheld. This time by neutral arbitrator Shyam Das, the final appeal Kadri can make after the suspension was already upheld by commissioner Gary Bettman. The decision was first reported by Darren Dreger of TSN.

Kadri has already served six of the eight games, meaning he will be eligible to return for the Colorado Avalanche in game seven of their current series, should it go that far.

In the decision, Das explains that the “key factor” in Department of Player Safety head George Parros’ decision to issue and Bettman’s decision to uphold an eight-game suspension was Kadri’s history of supplementary discipline.

It is true that in this case, unlike his two most recent suspensions in the 2018 and 2019 playoffs, respectively, Kadri did not act in an emotional, hotheaded or retaliatory manner, but in this instance, unlike those two prior ones, there was an injury — a significant one — to the opposing player. Parros testified that the DPS believed that Kadri’s history showed the message was not getting through, and that the discipline needed to go up from the most recent five-playoff game suspension issued to Kadri — without doubling that suspension as had been done in some other cases — in order to send a strong message. The Commissioner came to the same conclusion as the DPS, after also taking into account the comparisons with other players that the NHLPA presented to him.

Das had previously reduced the lengthy suspensions for Tom Wilson and Austin Watson, but Kadri was not so lucky. His appeal has been denied and he will serve the full eight games before being eligible to return to action.

NHL Upholds Nazem Kadri’s Eight-Game Suspension

at CDT | by 8 Comments

June 2: Greg Wyshynski of ESPN reports that Kadri’s hearing with the neutral arbitrator is set for Friday.

May 31: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has upheld the eight-game suspension that the Department of Player Safety assessed to Colorado Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri. Kadri had appealed the decision looking for a reduction, but Bettman concluded that the discipline handed out was warranted.

In the decision, Bettman notes that the NHLPA attempted to compare Kadri’s disciplinary history to that of Tom Wilson, Radko Gudas, Brad Marchand, and Zac Rinaldo, arguing that recent decisions regarding those players “illustrate the concept that if a Player plays clean for a given amount of time,” he should not be considered a player who repeatedly violates the league rules. The commissioner did not agree with this assertion, even directly examining the records of each player and comparing them to Kadri. While the NHLPA asserted that a four-game suspension would have been the correct discipline, Bettman disagreed.

The Avalanche forward can now appeal to a neutral arbitrator, though that process only examines the methodology used by the league to determine the length of the suspension and does not make a ruling on the actual incident itself. Adrian Dater of Colorado Hockey now reports that Kadri will indeed pursue this route as Wilson did in 2018. In that case, the 20-game suspension that Wilson received was reduced to 14 by the neutral arbitrator Shyam Das, the same one that Kadri will have hear his case.

Kadri has already served three games of the suspension, all Colorado wins.

New York Rangers Issued $250,000 Fine

at CDT | by 29 Comments

The New York Rangers have received a $250,000 fine from the NHL for their public comments on Tuesday, following the decision from the Department of Player Safety to not suspend Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson. The team called for the dismissal of DoPS head George Parros and will now pay a fine 50 times greater than the one they issued to Wilson in the first place.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman released this statement:

Public comments of the nature issued by the Rangers that were personal in nature and demeaning of a League executive will not be tolerated. While we don’t expect our Clubs to agree with every decision rendered by the Department of Player Safety, the extent to which the Rangers expressed their disagreement was unacceptable. It is terribly unfair to question George Parros’ professionalism and dedication to his role and the Department of Player Safety.

The Rangers have been a whirlwind of chaos since Wilson punched Pavel Buchnevich and threw Artemi Panarin to the ground on Monday night. They followed the statement by firing president John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton, though senior advisor Glenn Sather told reporters again today that the two incidents had nothing to do with each other. Last night, the Rangers tried to take matters into their own hands by responding physically in a rematch with the Capitals, taking more than 80 minutes in penalties. Buchnevich also is expected to receive a suspension after high-sticking Capitals forward Anthony Mantha.

The league has issued fines like this in the past. During the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs the San Jose Sharks were fined $100,000 for GM Doug Wilson’s comments on the suspension given to Raffi Torres. In that case, it was a manager defending the actions of one of his players, but the two situations are still very similar when it comes to the punishment handed down by the league.

At the very least, this indicates that the league is standing behind Parros and his department leadership (though that should come as no surprise).

NHL Reaches Seven-Year Agreement With Turner Sports

at CDT | by 39 Comments

Earlier this year, the NHL announced a long-term agreement with Disney and ESPN for the “A” package of their multimedia broadcast rights. The other portion of the rights, deemed the “B” package, was still involved in a bidding process that included the incumbent broadcaster NBC, Fox Sports, and CBS. Seemingly at the last minute, Turner Sports entered the fray and have signed a seven-year agreement with the NHL that will begin in the 2021-22 season. The agreement brings the Stanley Cup Playoffs to TNT and TBS for the first time, while also including up to 72 regular season games and the Winter Classic each season.

TNT will have live coverage of three Stanley Cup Finals over the seven years and half of the playoffs each season. The agreement also includes streaming and digital rights for HBO Max. League commissioner Gary Bettman released a statement on the deal:

Turner Sports is known for its outstanding sports coverage, quality and innovation and we are thrilled that this new partnership will provide our fans with the content they love on the platforms and devices of their choice. TNT is a proven and acclaimed destination for sports fans and we will also benefit from the deep connection Bleacher Report has with young digital-savvy fans. Having WarnerMedia join the NHL family as co-rightsholders for the next seven years gives us incredible reach, positions us well for the future as the media landscape continues to evolve, and will fuel continued growth for the NHL and our Clubs.

This means that the NHL is leaving NBC entirely starting next season. The new pair of agreements are expected to nearly triple the broadcast revenue for the NHL, giving it a good start on climbing its way out of the hole dug by the COVID-19 pandemic. That doesn’t mean the cap will rise right away, it is still expected to stay flat for a few more seasons, but it does help plot a path to financial stability for the league and eventually, an increased cap ceiling.

The Stanley Cup Final will be on ABC in 2022, 2024, 2026, and 2028, while Turner will have the rights for 2023, 2025, and 2027.

St. Louis Blues Legend Bob Plager Passes Away At 78

at CDT | by 5 Comments

Longtime St. Louis Blues defenseman Bob Plager passed away on Wednesday at the age of 78 due to injuries sustained in a car accident. Plager played 14 seasons in the NHL, from 1964 to 1978, including 11 years with the Blues after beginning his career with the New York Rangers. Though undersized for a defenseman at that time, especially one that focused primarily on the defensive aspects of the game, Plager was no pushover. His reputation on the ice was built on his physicality and smart defensive play, which made him a difficult match-up. Plager channeled his passionate and intelligent playing ability into a career beyond his playing days, serving as a scout, coach, and top executive. Plager’s reputation off the ice was one of kindness and humor.

Plager will always be remembered more for his connection to the Blues and to the city of St. Louis than for any one thing he did on or off the ice with the team. A member of the inaugural St. Louis Blues of 1967, Plager was the longest-serving member of that original roster. When he retired from playing, he jumped immediately into serving the club in other ways. Quite literally, too; Plager went from playing with the Blues and their CHL affiliate, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, to coaching the Golden Eagles all over the course of one season. He then spent the next six years as a scout for St. Louis, three years as Assistant General Manager, and five years as Director of Player Development. He also had stints as head coach of the Blues and their IHL affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen, mixed in as well. Plager retired from hockey in 2000, having spent a combined 33 years in the service of the Blues. However, he very much remained involved with the team as an iconic alumnus.

The response to Plager’s passing has come from all corners of the hockey world. Tom Timmerman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch collected comments from names such as former Blues coach Scotty Bowman, Blues owner Tom Stillman, a fellow Blues honoree in Bernie Federko, and current Blues GM Doug Armstrong in a detailed story on the life of a legend. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman also released a statement on Plager’s passing. Even Ben Bishop, goaltender for the rival Dallas Stars but also a St. Louis native, shared his memories of a man that meant so much to he and others who grew up in the city.

All of us at PHR send our condolences to the family and friends of Bob Plager and the hockey community of St. Louis.

North Division Notes: 2021-22, Quarantine Protocol, Sabourin

at CDT | by 8 Comments

Although the North Division was only intended to be a temporary alignment in 2020-21, the all-Canadian grouping has been popular north of the border. As a result, there are a number of teams hoping that the division might stay together for a while longer. Commissioner Gary Bettman was adamant earlier this week that the league will return to its normal divisional alignment next season, albeit with a small shift due to expansion. Yet, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reports that several Canadian teams are hoping to get at least another year of national competition. Ironically, this only seems likely if there continue to be restrictions at the Canada-U.S. border through the summer and into next season; the same restrictions that are making trade acquisitions difficult for Canadian teams and could prevent the North Division winner from playing at home in the semifinal and potentially the Stanley Cup Final series. However, the teams in favor of the North Division remaining intact feel that the impact could be more important than any ill effects this season. Johnston notes that these teams can feel the excitement within the country of the reignited Canadian rivalries and want to see that expand with fans being allowed back into games, further boosting the focus on the league. However, there is a way for this to be accomplished without the North Division continuing. Discussions earlier this season centered around the value of continuing to push the regional, non-divisional rivalries that have sprouted this season simply by changing the way scheduling is handled, rather than through realignment. Furthering the emphasis on regional play through extra contents between geographically linked teams would not only continue to fuel the rivalries created or rediscovered this season, but is also a way to save money on travel as teams continue to deal with losses this season. Perhaps this is the way to go that will make both the NHL and their Canadian contingent happy.

  • As noted, there is more downside than upside for the NHL and Canadian clubs to continued border issues. The most pressing of these problems with the trade deadline approaching is the required 14-day quarantine for anyone crossing into Canada, a major holdup in player acquisitions. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reached out to Health Canada and found that, despite a report earlier this year, there has been no formal request made by the NHL to amend the quarantine rules for trade acquisitions. However, Friedman did not sound optimistic that any such proposal would be accepted anyway. Specifically, players have wondered whether they could avoid the quarantine period if an acquired player has been vaccinated, but Health Canada stated that they do not know enough about the impact of vaccination on transmission to allow such a change. Friedman notes that lobbying efforts continue from the league to strike some sort of agreement with the Canadian government to ease quarantine restrictions, but the likelihood seems low. With the deadline now a month away and nothing formal yet in the works, Canadian contenders will likely have to account for a two-week absence of any new players acquired from their American counterparts.
  • It didn’t take long for Toronto Maple Leafs forward Scott Sabourin to make his mark on this season, and not in a good way. After signing with the Leafs in Feburary, Sabourin was assigned to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies to get back into game shape and made his season debut against the Laval Rocket on Friday. On Saturday, the Leafs recalled him to their taxi squad, adding a physical, gritty veteran to their group of potential substitutes. Later in the day, the AHL announced that when Sabourin returns to the AHL, he will be suspended for one game; Toronto opted to send him down on Sunday to serve that ban. Sabourin crashed the Laval net late in Friday’s game and started an altercation with multiple opponents and the league deemed this was worthy of a suspension. With a one-game suspension, not to mention 17 penalty minutes, after just one game this year, Sabourin seems to be returning to the aggressive reputation that he has built in his AHL career rather than building on the progress he made as a more composed player with the Ottawa Senators last year.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top