The New York Post’s Larry Brooks is reporting that the NHL, in a directive to teams, has tentatively set its date for the official return of hockey.
The league is targeting July 30 as the start date for the qualifying rounds and round-robin play in the two hubs cities. According to Brooks, the cities will be announced “within the next week or so.”
The NHL’s 2019-20 season has been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic since March 12.
Other details learned by Brooks include:
- Teams will be allowed to have 30 skaters and unlimited goalies on their training camp rosters
- Training camps will last two weeks
- Clubs will travel to their assigned hub city on July 23 or 24
- Teams will play one exhibition game
- IR players won’t count against the limit
- Testing will be done every other day for all people entertaining the facility
- The return-to-play negotiations will “likely” yield an extension of a reworked CBA
The report comes as the NHL had its most disastrous day regarding positive tests for COVID-19 on Friday. Auston Matthews, one of the league’s biggest stars, reportedly tested positive for coronavirus while the Tampa Bay Lightning had to close their practice facility after five players and staff contracted COVID-19. Later that night, the NHL, in a release, announced 11 players who have participated in Phase 2 tested positive since small group workouts started two Mondays ago.
The positive tests combined with the United States seeing tests rise is causing the NHLPA to reconsider coming back to play, according to The Athletic.
“Guys are not happy,” one prominent Western Conference player told the site. “This is why we better have a full player vote and not just an executive board vote. But I’m not convinced (NHLPA executive director) Don (Fehr) is going to allow that because he knows there’s so many of us on the fence. That’s why I think the league was trying to be hush-hush on these positive tests.
“In my opinion, no way we play.”
ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski added that the NHLPA is now 50/50 about coming back.
One Eastern Conference veteran tells ESPN he believes NHLPA is "50-50 on wanting to come back to play, b/c of the safety precautions, travel and logistics. Especially now with these cases rising, it seems more guys w/ families are skeptical." More here:https://t.co/eQkRwLlSfz
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 22, 2020
Meanwhile, as Vegas appears to be one of the hub cities, either Edmonton or Vancouver appears to be the other front runner.
NHL source involved in process tells me that there’s a “good chance” at least one of the hub cities for a restarted 2019-20 season will be in Canada, which many of us are suspecting at this point.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 21, 2020
My understanding is that the NHL has cut the list of Hub cities to 6 teams from the original 10. The list still includes all three Canadian cities. My sense is Vancouver and Edmonton rank ahead of Toronto. Obviously Vegas remains in the mix.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 20, 2020
It’s possible, yes. Doesn’t mean for sure it will happen, but the NHL and NHLPA have talked about that possibility. So Vegas and Van or Vegas and Edm would be possibilities. Seems to be a strong sentiment to include a Canadian hub https://t.co/UhW3lcsvai
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 20, 2020
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