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Latest On Hub City Announcement

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While there was some hope that the NHL might make a final decision on the two hub cities for Phase 4 and the upcoming 24-team tournament by Friday, that didn’t come to pass. Others have suggested the league might make the announcement on Monday, but a TSN report suggests that the decision might take even longer.

“Every relevant consideration will be fairly evaluated before decisions are made and announced,” said Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly (via Ryan Rishaug).

Those comments came after reports came that the NHL might be considering moving past Las Vegas, previously considered a lock to be one of the two hub cities, due to rising cases of COVID-19. However, Daly made it clear that none of the five remaining city candidates have been ruled out yet. The league is still considering Las Vegas, Toronto, Chicago, Edmonton and Los Angeles. Vancouver recently took themselves out of the running due to the number of positive tests that would delay/end the return and the flow of people inside/outside the bubble.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman notes that Vegas still remains the frontrunner and believes that Toronto and Edmonton are the next two cities likely to win one of the remaining bids. The scribe also notes that it’s likely East teams will stay in the East, while West teams will stay in the West.

Time is running out for a decision, however, as Phase 3 (training camp) is expected to start on July 10.

Snapshots: Hub Announcement Not Coming Today, Draft Lottery, Blackhawks

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NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly put the kibosh on any expectation that the final announcement about the postseason’s hub locations would be revealed today, per TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. There was hope bordering on expectation that the chosen cities would be announced today, but there’s evidently much still to consider. In the meantime, let’s see what else is going on around the NHL…

  • Tonight’s draft lottery will decide who gets the top three picks in next year’s draft – assuming the winners of those picks fall in the bottom seven by record, writes The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe. Otherwise, we might be facing a second lottery once the play-in round decides the other eight teams of the lottery field. The Detroit Red Wings have the night’s best odds, but the top pick has only gone to the team with the best odds 30% of the time over the past decade. After the Red Wings, the Ottawa Senators hold each of the next best slots, one for their own pick, and one for the Sharks pick they acquired in the Erik Karlsson deal.
  • Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman hasn’t engaged with their impending free agents, a list largely comprised of arbitration-eligible restricted free agents, per The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus. Goaltender Corey Crawford is their highest-issue unrestricted free agent, as the 35-year-old netminder held sway between the pipes for two Chicago championships. Restricted free agent Drake Caggiula also presents an interesting case, writes Lazerus, as the speedster expected that his broken hand would be the end of his season. The long layoff and expanded playoff pool has presented Caggiula with an opportunity to build his case ahead of what’s expected to be a rather tepid free agency.

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.

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.

NHL Releases Memo About Potential June Draft

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The NHL released a memo Friday evening to all 31 teams stating its position on holding the NHL Entry Draft in June, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. While nothing is set in stone, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly wrote that broadcast networks are on board with the plan that is rumored to set a June 5 draft date, giving the league a month to prepare.

One major issue would be the draft lottery. Considering the remainder of the regular season hasn’t been played out or cancelled, the NHL is suggesting using points percentage as the means to determine the order of the draft. The memo also outlined that the lottery format would be adjusted for this season only. There would be only one winner of the lottery with teams only being allowed to move up a maximum of four spots.

Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston notes that would mean that the Detroit Red Wings, who have the best chance to win the lottery, would receive nothing lower than the second-overall pick, while the Ottawa Senators would pick no lower than the third and fourth overall picks (they currently have San Jose’s lottery pick as well via the Erik Karlsson trade in 2018).

That could cause some ire from general managers who are all hoping to get their hands on QMJHL winger Alexis Lafreniere with the No. 1 overall pick. Despite having a greater advantage, Friedman notes that Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman stated on a Fox News Detroit Facebook Live chat on Thursday that he’s opposed to the idea.

My thought is: Why would you do that? Why would you need to do that?” Yzerman said. “There’s a lot of things that are affected, obviously. The draft position hasn’t been established; we don’t know who’s in the playoffs, who’s out of the playoffs, in some cases … But at this time, my own opinion is, I haven’t heard a good reason why we should do it prior to the end of the season, if we do conclude the season over the course of the summer.”

The league is also suggesting that teams would get seven days to deal with conditional trades that might involve draft picks in order that both teams reach a fair agreement. Many have sited the James Neal – Milan Lucic trade, which had Calgary receiving a conditional pick based on Neal scoring 21 goals and at least 10 more than Lucic. Teams would have a chance to renegotiate those deals so both teams are happy with the outcome.

However, the league is making it clear in the memo that they want to move on with the draft despite the uncertainty of the rest of the 2019-20 season. If the league is persuaded against using this format by teams, then the league would have to push it back much later with the best-case scenario being that the Stanley Cup awarded at some point in September with the 2020-21 season beginning in December and the draft being hastily dropped in between.

The fact of the matter is that whenever we hold the 2020 Draft — in early June or ‘shoehorned’ into a short window in October or November — (it) is not going to be a typical NHL Draft,” said Daly. “It is not going to look the same; it is not going to feel the same; and it is not going to be the same. While we may know more about next year’s landscape in terms of CBA, Salary Cap, Escrow, etc., in November than we will in June, we are still not going to know everything, and there is still going to be a multitude of questions that have no answers. So, any comparison of the 2020 NHL Draft to a typical year’s Draft is not — and cannot be — an ‘apples to apples’ comparison.”

Of course teams have to consent to this proposal, but the NHL is making it clear that this is the direction they would like to go, especially with the league’s financial security at stake. The NFL had a successful draft recently that gave a lot of attention to the league (including a 37 percent increase in viewership on the first night). With the NHL on suspension for more than a month, the league could use some of that attention headed its way until the league feels it can resume the NHL season later in the summer, at the earliest.

 

NHL Willing To Delay 2020-21 Start In Order To Finish 2019-20

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The longer that the NHL remains out of action while continuing to maintain that they want to complete the 2019-20 regular season and have a full postseason, the more likely it becomes that next season will be affected. Boston Bruins president Cam Neely tells NBC Sports that not only is it possible that 2020-21 could be delayed, it’s a widely accepted outcome across the NHL in order to properly finish the current season. Neely states that both players and owners alike feel that it is important to complete the 2019-20 campaign if at all possible:

The feeling is there’s an opportunity to be able to push next season back and still get an 82-game schedule in next year. Everything is on the table to try and get the season completed.

Neely’s stress that a full season next year remains an important part of any plan to continue the current season aligns with what the NHL has already said. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has already confirmed that the NHL would not entertain shortening the 2020-21 season just to accommodate the end of the 2019-20 season. However, that doesn’t seem like it will be necessary. The league is currently exploring using “hub cities” from each of the four divisions to play a condensed schedule that can be more easily safeguarded from the threats of Coronavirus by limiting travel and controlling facilities. Such a plan could allow for the season to re-start sooner rather than later. In fact, there have been whispers that training camps could open within a month with games starting as early as June. What remains to be seen is how much time would be needed one play does resume to wrap up the regular season and play the entire postseason.

Neely’s Bruins are one club especially invested in a continuation of the season. Boston was in first place in the league standings by a fairly wide margin when the season was suspended and many of their core players are in the twilight of their careers and want another shot at the Stanley Cup, especially after missing out on the title by one game last year. In fact, the Bruins may even be in favor of jumping straight to the postseason, though Neely does not believe that the NHLPA would approve of that plan. It seems Boston will have to earn the President’s Trophy with a few more regular season wins before getting their shot a potential delayed playoffs.

NHL Could Still Hold Draft In June, Resume Season Afterward

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As the sports world prepares for the first major event in more than a month with the NFL Draft occurring virtually this Thursday through Saturday, it seems that the NHL could be using the event as a test run for their own entry draft. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun relayed word today from Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly that the league has considered a virtual format for their own draft. This could potentially allow them to keep the event in June as scheduled.

The league had initially postponed this year’s draft, as well as the NHL Combine, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the indefinite nature of the current league year left questions as to when and how the draft would occur and the impact that would have on the rookies, their NHL clubs, and their junior teams. Holding the draft in June as planned would solve a number of these issues, but obviously raises a number of other questions.

First and foremost would be how this would impact the continuation of the 2019-20 season. LeBrun was quick to note that the draft being held in June, which ordinarily follows the end of the postseason, would not preclude the league year from continuing in July or August as many hope. This of course leads to other issues, such as how the draft lottery, draft order, and conditional picks will be sorted out if there are still games to be played. Abandoning the regular season in favor of jumping directly to the playoffs later this year would simplify these matters somewhat but would not entirely answer all questions.

Additionally, a continued season would also mean that teams remain prohibited from making trades, at least in the way that deals are normally made in the off-season. The lack of draft day trades would be another stark difference from how the NHL Draft operates and could frustrate a number of teams looking to leverage picks into players.

Given the lack of hockey during what would typically be the early stages of the postseason is certainly depressing for hockey fans and makes the idea of a June draft sound appealing. However, the league will need to respond to a number of major questions with satisfying answers before they could sign off on a virtual draft before making a decision on if and how the current season will continue.

NHL Entertaining Idea Of Neutral Site Games

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Grand Forks, North Dakota got the ball rolling and now there may no stopping the movement. Of every possible way for the NHL to continue its season, the idea with the most traction appears to be neutral site locations where teams could play multiple games free of fans and the accompanying risks of the Coronavirus. North Dakota was the first location mentioned, followed by Manchester, New Hampshire, but now Deputy Commisioner Bill Daly tells ESPN that cities from around North America have contacted the league to pitch themselves as a potential host. Daly specifically names Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in addition to Grand Forks and Manchester, but the list keeps growing:

We do have people putting together the comprehensive laundry list of what we would need from facilities and evaluating some facilities on some level. But I can’t tell you we’ve even finished creating a list [of potential sites], much less narrowed it down.

The NHL’s goal if at all possible is to complete the regular season and host a complete postseason in some form or fashion. The league has also stated that they will not shorten the 2020-21 season to accommodate the completion of the 2019-20 season, but that a condensed campaign could be a possibility should play resume and extend deep into the summer. These are just some of a number of questions still facing the league, as Daly notes:

It’s kind of a combination of things, like when we can start a regular season [in 2020-21] and how much time we need for an off-season, and then what does the playoff format look like… I would say that a best-of-one is not something we would ever go to. I’ve always had the caveat that everything is on the table and nothing is out of the question. I would say there would be a strong opposition to ever creating a playoff where it was a single elimination. I think best-of-three is more possible, not preferred, but more possible.

Before the NHL gets around to a playoff though, they seem determined to complete the regular season. With 25 of the league’s 31 markets currently unable to even open team facilities nevertheless host games, the neutral location concept seems to be the most realistic route at this point, though Daly makes it clear that there is still plenty of work to be done on the idea. Yet, at this point fans will cling to just about any hope they can of a return for hockey and a neutral site continuation of the regular season followed by some form of postseason would  be very well received by all.

Snapshots: Award Voting, League FAQ, World Championship

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Over the weekend, our readership chose Quinn Hughes as the overwhelming favorite for the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie, should the season end without any more games being played. If the same question were asked of the staff at The Athletic, they’d give you a different answer.

Many of the top writers from around the hockey world got together and mock-voted on the awards (subscription required), resulting in Cale Makar edging out Hughes for the trophy. It is a shame that these two phenoms may not be able to finish out their freshmen seasons, but both will certainly have long careers. That’s not the only surprising outcome in The Athletic’s piece, which includes finalists for each award.

  • The NHL released an updated FAQ regarding the paused 2019-20 season, and one thing now included is the determination that the 2020-21 season will be played in its entirety. That’s a line deputy commissioner Bill Daly has been repeating in recent media appearances, making it clear that one of the league’s top priorities is maintaining an 82-game campaign next season.
  • Speaking of frequently asked questions, the IIHF did the same for their recently canceled 2020 World Championship. Interestingly though, they include a note that says “at this time, it cannot be determined if it will be possible for the World Championship to be postponed to a later date in 2020…” potentially leaving the door open to hold the tournament at some future point this year.

Snapshots: 2020-21 Season, Trade Conditions, 2020 Draft

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While hockey minds are hard at work trying to come up with a plan to fairly complete the 2019-20 NHL regular season and playoffs, if and when the league returns to action, those strategies cannot interfere with a full 2020-21 season. TSN’s Pierre Lebrun relays word from NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly that the league sees an 82-game season next year as imperative and will not entertain any options that call for a shortened 2020-21 season due to the interference with the 2019-20 campaign. With that said, LeBrun adds that the league will be flexible when it comes to start and end dates and schedule density next year, so long as each team plays 82 games. This could allow for the NHL to adopt an idea that has become popular amongst players during the break: a brief training camp and resumption of regular season play in July, an August and September postseason, an October off-season, and a return to action for a condensed 2020-21 season at some point in November. LeBrun notes that a cancellation of bye weeks and All-Star events next year could help to make a plan like this become reality. The NHL will look at all of their options, assuming there is a possibility that the current season can resume, to make next season run as normally as possible with 82 games being the critical criteria.

  • Should the NHL not be able to complete the 2019-20 season as scheduled, TSN’s Frank Seravalli states that one of biggest things that the NHL will need to clarify is a policy on trade and contract conditions. Those conditions are made with the implication of an 82-game schedule, as well as a full postseason. If those things become an impossibility, is there a fair way to determine whether conditions were met or not? Seravalli uses last summer’s trade between Pacific Division rivals Edmonton and Calgary as an example. In the swap of Milan Lucic for James Neal, a unique condition was added that awards the Flames a 2020 third-round pick if a) Neal scores at least 21 goals and b) Lucic scores ten or more goals fewer than Neal. As it stands, Neal has 19 goals on the season, so the first condition would not be met if the season ended today. However, since the deal was made with the assumption of 82 games, a pro-rated result would see Neal with 23 goals and Lucic with nine, which would result in Calgary landing the pick. The problem, as Seravalli describes, with either strategy is that it does not accurately make up for missed games. With a number of conditional picks and bonus clauses in play, the NHL would face the tough task of how it decides to treat conditions if the regular season and possibly the playoffs as well cannot be completed. Seravalli even mentions compensatory draft picks as a possibility to offset effected trade conditions.
  • One league event that is certain to occur, at some point and in some manner, is the 2020 NHL Draft. The draft is likely to remain in Montreal, but the June 26-27 dates look unlikely and the usual public audience and organized fanfare would be even more improbable if the event does go on as scheduled. In all likelihood, the draft will be postponed, but it will occur all the same. As such, NHL.com has released their updated March rankings of the top 31 players in the class. Although there hasn’t been much new film to study in recent weeks, with junior leagues paused, the college season cancelled, and most European leagues ending as well, the staff at NHL.com has made a notable changes since their last edition earlier this month. Finnish forward Anton Lundell has snuck into the top ten, supplanting Russian goaltender Yaroslav Askarov. Much like eventual Florida Panthers pick Spencer Knight last year, there was heavy top-ten talk about Askarov this season as well, but it has cooled somewhat of late as the depth of elite forward in the class could make it difficult to select a netminder so early.

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