12 cities under consideration
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: The NHL is looking at 12 NHL cities to host games, and then will narrow down to four. Don’t expect a decision soon.
Cities as of Thursday being considered: Minnesota, Edmonton, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Dallas. Don’t believe that Raleigh and Buffalo are on the list. A practice facility in Raleigh isn’t finished being built.
Cities need to have enough hotels and practice facilities.
Areas will need to be safe and get signed off by health authorities.
TSN: NHL deputy GM Bill Daly said that if they re-started the season and there were one or multiple positive tests (either players or personnel), it wouldn’t mean that they would be immediately shut down again.
“Everything depends on the facts and the entire set of circumstances,” Daly told TSN’s Ryan Rishaug. “but no, we do not believe that one positive test, even multiple positive tests wouldn’t necessarily shut the whole thing down.”
Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health recommends that any gatherings of 15 or more people should be prohibited through the end of the summer.
On holding the draft in June
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: Polled teams on if they liked the idea of a June draft. 15 said No, six said Yes, with eight mixed feelings or no comment.
A common issue is that a team could win the lottery and then the Stanley Cup. Bob McKenzie suggested fix was that teams could only move up four slots or don’t include the top 10/top contenders in the lottery. The NHL thinks that it could come up with a plan to alleviate any concerns.
I decision will need to be made soon so they can start to plan it.
TSN: Ray Ferraro on issues with holding the 2020 NHL draft in June before the season is over.
“There is the way the draft order would be. There’s the conditional draft picks. For example, Vancouver has a trade with Tampa Bay, a conditional first in the J.T. Miller trade. How would you sort that out?” Ferraro asked. “Montreal has 14 draft picks. They didn’t get 14 picks to get 14 players. They want to package those picks to a get an NHL-ready or a near NHL-ready player. You wouldn’t be able to do all of that.”
Ben Hutton with a great Secret Santa gift for Drew Doughty
Ben Hutton got Drew Doughty a signed Matthew Tkachuk stick as a Secret Santa gift. 😂 pic.twitter.com/Gy16Y4tcIT
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 24, 2020