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League Notes: COVID Safety Measures, Draft Lottery, Draft Date

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As alluded to earlier, the NHL and NHLPA have revealed a joint release describing several new Coronavirus safety measures in response to the growing list of players in the COVID Protocol and game postponements. Included in the list of new strategies to mitigate the spread of the virus are a “work/home quarantine”, a ban on non-virtual team meetings and social interactions, removal of the glass behind the penalty box, KN95 face masks, and even revised seating assignments in the locker room and during travel to use previous positive-test players as “buffers”. There will also be rapid testing for all U.S. teams on game days, with a similar system in the works for Canadians clubs, genome sequencing tests, greater testing availability for household members, and a greater emphasis on COVID education. Will all of this change the current COVID calamity across the league? It certainly won’t hurt.

  • As rumored this off-season, the NHL is going to take a closer look at changing the structure of the NHL Draft Lottery. On Thursday’s edition of TSN’s “Insider Trading”, Pierre LeBrun reported that NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has revealed to him that a review of the lottery process is officially underway. He believes that a pitch will be made to the Board of Governors soon as to a proposed new format. The assumption of course is that the new structure will give increased odds of winning the lottery to the teams finishing at the bottom of standings. The talk this off-season centered around the Detroit Red Wings, who failed to win even one of the lottery draws for the 2020 NHL Draft and fell to fourth in a season in which they were historically bad and well below even the 30th-ranked team in the NHL. Many owners and GM’s felt that this shifted the status quo and placed importance on avoiding such poor teams missing out on top picks in the future, or at least offering them a better chance of landing those picks. Whether or not these lottery changes will be approved, and if so in time for the next entry draft, remain to be seen.
  • The question still remains of when the 2021 NHL Draft will actually be held. Given the lack of opportunity for a number of prospects this season, there have been considerable talks about postponing the draft. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that NHL’s general managers plan to meet soon to discuss options for the coming draft. Dreger believes there are three possible options for the draft. The first, of course, is to leave the draft as is in June. With the CHL leagues working toward a return and the American junior and collegiate levels and European leagues well underway, there will likely have been a chance for every team to see every prospect, even if only in a limited sample size. This will put teams on an even playing field, however those drafting later in the first round may wind up benefiting from the lack of complete information allowing some superior prospects to slide. The other two possibilities involve postponing the draft. The first is to schedule the draft for the winter, either December of January, to allow teams to gather more data over the remainder of this season, in summer tournaments, and early next season. The second, and to Dreger the one likely to be most supported by GM’s, is to hold the 2021 and 2022 drafts back-to-back next summer, allowing for another complete season to replace the current campaign before teams are asked to select players. All three options hold merit and there are likely still many factors to consider over the next few months before a formal decision can be made.

Snapshots: COVID, U18, O’Ree

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The NHL has sent out a memo to its teams detailing further enhanced COVID measures, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The memo includes specifically recommended masks, virtual meetings, removing the glass from the penalty box, further recommendations about remaining at home except for practices/games, and, perhaps most importantly, rapid testing on game days.

Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone spoke about the rapid testing change this morning, one that should hit close to home given his team had a player pulled mid-game recently. Tomas Nosek played two periods before his positive test results forced him out of a Golden Knights game, a situation that rapid testing can hopefully help avoid. Today, the Edmonton Oilers-Montreal Canadiens game has been pushed back an hour to give the league more time to process tests after one Edmonton player was added to the COVID protocol.

  • While the NHL continues to try and navigate their season, international events are starting to be planned for later this year. USA Hockey has announced the 2021 IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship, to be held in conjunction with the Dallas Stars in Texas. The event is scheduled for April 26-May 6 and will primarily be held in Frisco, Texas at the Comerica Center.
  • The Boston Bruins will postpone their banner raising ceremony for Willie O’Ree until next year, retiring his number 22 on January 18, 2022, instead, in the hopes that he will be able to attend the event in front of a full arena. That date will be 64 years after O’Ree made his debut as the first Black player in the NHL.

NHL Postpones Another Philadelphia Flyers Game

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The NHL has announced another postponement, this time for the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers. The game between the two teams scheduled for February 14 has been postponed because of the Flyers currently in the COVID Protocol.

The league expects the Flyers will be able to re-open their facilities for practice on Monday, February 15. The Rangers meanwhile will now have a break over the weekend after playing the Boston Bruins on Friday night. Three Flyers players are currently listed on the COVID Protocol Related Absences list: Travis Sanheim, Claude Giroux and Justin Braun.

The list of postponements continues to grow with each passing day.

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AHL Releases 2020-21 Regular Season Schedule

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Feb 9: Finally, we have a schedule for the Canadian teams—at least part of one. The AHL has released the first few games for each of the five teams that will be operating north of the border. Belleville and Laval will kick things off on Friday, Manitoba and Toronto start on Monday, and the Stockton Heat, who are operating out of Calgary this season, begin on February 21.

Jan 22: Two weeks from now, the American Hockey League will start what it is still calling the 2020-21 season. On February 5, things will kick off with several games around the minor leagues even without a handful of teams that opted-out. League president Scott Howson released this statement today, along with the schedules of the Atlantic, North, Central and Pacific Divisions:

As we prepare for a season unlike any other in our 85-year history, our priorities are first and foremost health and safety. Our main objective is to provide a safe environment for our players to continue their development towards a career in the National Hockey League.

The schedule for the Canadian Division will not be released for now as the Belleville Senators continue to work with Ontario health officials.

This will be the 85th season in the AHL’s history and is certainly one of the more unique campaigns in recent memory. The league announced new geographic-based divisions earlier this year that will reduce travel but increase rivalry. Teams across the league will also not be playing the same amount of games. For instance, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers have only 24 games on their schedule, while the San Diego Gulls will play 44 times this season.

The schedule runs through May 14, just a few days after the NHL season is set to finish.

NHL Announces Postponement, Reschedule

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12:15pm: The league has officially postponed tonight’s game between the Flyers and Capitals after a second player entered the COVID protocol. No other games have been postponed at the moment, but the league will continue to analyze test results in the coming days.

The league has also announced that the St. Louis Blues and Arizona Coyotes will move another game from later in the season, meaning they will now have seven games in a row against each other due to COVID outbreaks in other parts of the Central Division. Game #684, originally scheduled for April 15, will now be played this Friday, February 12.

10:15am: The Philadelphia Flyers are the latest NHL team facing the specter of postponement. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that the team had another positive test result late last night and will likely have their game against the Washington Capitals this evening postponed. Travis Sanheim was the only Philadelphia player on the COVID Protocol Related Absences list yesterday, but that appears likely to change.

As we’ve seen with some of the other outbreaks, positive test results can come slowly and trickle in for several days after the initial positive test. It’s not clear how many players or staff have tested positive in Philadelphia or how widespread the damage is, but it appears as though they’ll miss at least one game (and, given the way the NHL has operated previously, more than that).

Of course, just 12 days from now the Flyers were set to take on the Boston Bruins in the NHL’s marquee outdoor event. The NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe is a set of two games including Philadelphia, Boston, Colorado, and Vegas that is supposed to start a modern trend of Mystery, Alaska-type events in the North American wilderness.

We’ll have to wait and see if that event is in jeopardy, but the focus now is getting the Flyers players healthy and safe. The list of postponements continues to grow.

League Notes: Hurricanes, 2021-22 Schedule, Canadian Rivalries

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On Monday night, the Carolina Hurricanes answered a common question from many fans: what happens if you can’t fit under the salary cap? With four players injured (all unrelated to COVID), including late scratch Vincent Trocheck, but none who they were willing to lose for 24 days by shifting to Long-Term Injured Reserve, the ’Canes found themselves in a conundrum. The team had fewer than 18 healthy skaters to ice a full lineup, but also had less cap space available than even a minimum salary contract whom they could recall. As a result, Carolina took the ice against the Columbus Blue Jackets – in front of rookie goalie Alex Nedeljkovic in the second game of a back-to-back no less – with just eleven forwards and six defensemen.

By playing this game short-handed, the Hurricanes have now established that they are in an “emergency” state. Following Monday’s match-up, the team will now be eligible for an emergency roster exception in accordance with the CBA. This will allow them to go over the salary cap moving forward, if need be, to recall a player making less than $1MM AAV. This roster exception can be used until such time that they can get one of the four players healthy or opt to give themselves more flexibility by transferring one or more of the injured players to LTIR.

  • In putting together the delayed and shortened 2020-21 season, one of the main objectives of the NHL was to make sure that the 2021-22 season would not be impacted in any way. They formulated the length and scheduling of the current campaign to ensure that next season started on time and ran normally. Well, that plan seems to be somewhat on track. Sportsnet’s Nick Alberga reports that the league is anticipating a start date of Wednesday, October 13 for the 2021-22 regular season. Opening day is typically the first Wednesday in October, but the current plan is to open on the second Wednesday, extending the off-season by one week. All things considered, this is still an ideal result however as the off-season will still be shorter than usual. The postseason is expected to extend into July and free agency is scheduled to open nearly a month late on July 28. One extra week will hopefully allow for off-season transactions to be given a fair amount of latitude, especially as teams deal with the repercussions of the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft, and will not rush training camp and the preseason either.
  • One of the highlights of the makeshift 2020-21 season structure has been the all-Canadian North Division. The realigned division is only a temporary fix, but the constant battling between Canada’s seven teams, which has been accompanied frequently by high-scoring affairs, has been not only by fans but also by the teams themselves. Players, coaches, executives, and owners of the Canadian clubs are all feeling the increased excitement surrounding their games, even without fans in the building. This begs the question: how can the NHL keep this up? An all-Canadian division does not seem feasible beyond this season, but The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun posits that scheduling could be better implemented to encourage rivalries, like those seen in the North Division this year. Rivalry is the key too; LeBrun notes that the North Division is not the strongest, nor does it contain any of the teams that he sees as the top candidates to win the Stanley Cup this year. Instead, there is simply an excitement about teams from Eastern and Western Canada getting to play each other far more frequently than in a standard campaign. Perhaps the residual effect of the current temporary divisions will be a focus on more regional match-ups moving forward. There will always be an emphasis in the NHL on divisional play as well as on every team facing every other team at least once each year. However, more Canadian clashes, Bible Belt battles, and Northeast fixtures could help to use those extra games in the schedule to maintain some of newfound emphasis on regional rivalries.

NHL Makes Numerous East Division Schedule Changes

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With several teams in the East Division being hit with COVID-19 related postponements, the NHL announced a series of schedule changes.  In total, 27 games have been rescheduled but it’s worth noting that all of the games are scheduled to be completed before the end of April which means there is no impact to the scheduled end of the season.  The full list of changes is as follows:

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AHL Notes: Postponement, Stewart, Sexton

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The AHL is off and running today with an afternoon tilt between the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and Providence Bruins, but not all the games scheduled for today will go on as planned. Corey Masisak of The Athletic reports that the Binghamton Devils opener has been postponed, meaning they won’t take on the Hershey Bears later this evening.

Like the NHL, the minor league will have to scrape and claw their way through a shortened season, dealing with COVID issues and rescheduling troubles throughout. Still, it’s nice to see some prospects back on the ice today and hockey being played.

  • Colorado Eagles president and general manager Chris Stewart has announced his retirement after nearly two decades with the organization. Stewart, 59, was the Eagles’ first head coach back when they were in the Central Hockey League and helped them transition into the ECHL and then the AHL in 2018. During his tenure, the Eagles have been dominant at times, including winning two consecutive Kelly Cup championships.
  • The Belleville Senators are still working with the Canadian government to start their AHL season, but have announced some new coaches to the staff today. Ben Sexton has been added as an assistant coach, while Justin Peters joins the organization as a goaltending coach. Both Sexton and Peters have only recently retired from their playing careers and will now start their next chapter.

NHL Moves Up Games From Later In Season

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The NHL has done what many fans and media members have suggested. Two games scheduled to take place between the Arizona Coyotes and St. Louis Blues later in the season have been moved up. Originally scheduled for March 29 and 31, the two teams will now play on February 6 and 8.

This move comes with the Coyotes and Blues both facing changes in their schedule next week. Arizona was supposed to face the Minnesota Wild and the Colorado Avalanche, but both teams have been shut down due to COVID cases. The Blues too were supposed to take on the Avalanche and then Wild, meaning St. Louis and Arizona have nothing better to do than get some of their matches finished.

The schedule maker is certainly earning his salary this season. The two teams are currently playing the second of a pair, and they had another two-game series set to start next weekend, meaning the Coyotes now have six straight games on the schedule against the Blues. St. Louis technically has a game against the Wild squeezed into that stretch, though it’s unclear whether it will be played.

COVID Notes: Protocol Changes, Fletcher, AHL

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As noted this morning by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the NHL is instituting some changes to the in-arena COVID protocols. James Mirtle of The Athletic examines the changes, which include the removal of the glass behind the benches. In the memo, the league explains the change:

To allow for air flow to more easily move away from the benches where Players and Coahces are in close proximity to on another during games, Clubs/Arenas shall remove the partitions of shielding that are behind the home and visiting team benches.

In Mirtle’s piece, he explains that some team personnel are “on edge” about whether the season can be completed. Yesterday, the league had 40 players on the COVID Protocol Related Absence list and three teams–Buffalo, New Jersey, and Minnesota–with their facilities currently shutdown and games postponed due to an outbreak.  The only division safe from disruption so far has been the North, which has not yet seen a game postponed this season.

  • It’s not just players and coaches that have to deal with the reality of COVID-19. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that Philadelphia Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher tested positive for the virus last month and had to isolate in a hotel. The front office executive is now out of isolation and recovered. The league’s COVID Protocol Related Absences list is only for players and does not include staff—like Fletcher or Buffalo head coach Ralph Krueger—that have tested positive or required isolation for close contact.
  • The AHL is trying to start their season tomorrow, meaning they’ll have to deal with their own COVID struggles. That started today when two games were postponed already. Due to league protocols, the Cleveland Monsters are unable to travel to Rockford to face the IceHogs on Friday and Saturday. The Chicago Wolves will play Rockford on Saturday instead. While the league has officially listed those games as “postponed” on the schedule, it is not at all clear if they will actually be rescheduled for some point down the line.

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