Some owners may be better off financially to not play the season
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk said that NHL commission Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly are doing all that they can to get the 2020-21 NHL season going.
There are a lot of financial concerns for teams, especially ones that rent their arenas.
“You’ve got 31 different interests. Many are aligned and many aren’t aligned. You throw the government and medicines in on top of that, you almost need an algorithm to figure out what actually will work here,” said Melnyk. “If (some teams) open the door up there’s a big cheque that has to be written to whoever owns the stadium.
“It’s almost to them and others who sit there and say: ‘Hey, I’m better off not playing. I’m better off financially not playing.’ Guys like me, we own the stadium and the team, and we don’t have the obstacles some others do. There’s so many moving parts. It’s very complex … Everybody wants the same thing, everybody wants to play. They wish they could turn the clock back to January and get on with it.”
AHL could go with an all-Canadian division
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: There is the possibility of an all-Canadian division in the AHL as well because of the Canada-US border restrictions. Already in Canada are the Belleville Senators, Toronto Marlies, Laval Rocket and Manitoba Moose.
The Vancouver Canucks (Utica), Calgary Flames (Stockton) and Edmonton Oilers (Bakersfield) are able to move their teams to Canada but haven’t done so yet because of the cost to do so.
German league looking at a mid-December start
Corey Pronman: The German DEL are expected to announce soon that their season will start in mid-December.
Lundqvist will be back with the Rangers one day
Anthony Scultore of Forever Blue Shirts: Henrik Lundqvist in an interview with the Goteborgs-Posten said that he will one day return to the New York Rangers organization.
“This is a new chapter (Washington), and I look forward to the test,” Lundqvist said to Johan while driving to a practice rink in NJ. “But I’ll be a part of the Rangers for the rest of my life, in one way or another. Both I and the Rangers have been clear about that. That’s how it will be.”
The role he’ll play has been determined yet, but he’ll be back.
“I don’t know if the role will be small or if there will be something more.” Lundqvist added. “It is further ahead. It’s all about timing. It’s just not now.”