Georgiev still back in Finland
Colin Stephenson: Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev signed a new deal with the New York Rangers this offseason. Because of that, he requires a new work visa. He is still back in Finland awaiting the visa. Depending on how long the process takes, he could miss the start of training camp.
The Executive Board has a call today, the Board of Governors don’t
Pierre LeBrun: At this time the NHL doesn’t have a call scheduled for the Board of Governors.
The NHLPA does have a call scheduled for tonight with their Executive Board to give an update on where everything stands.
Pierre LeBrun: At this time, it is not expected that the NHLPA Executive Board will vote on anything.
For that to happen the NHL and NHLPA would need to complete their document with transition rules for the season and they aren’t finished with that yet.
There is also the issue with the Canadian teams.
Canadian teams may have to play south of the border?
TSN: The NHL has been talking with the provincial health authorities in Canada about Return to Play protocols and they’ve run into issues that could lead to Canadian teams playing in the U.S. according to Frank Seravalli:
“They’ve run into some difficulties. These protocols have been changing by the hour and daily. So, moving forward, the NHL’s preference continues to be to open the season in all 31 buildings including all seven Canadian arenas. But what if that can’t happen? Well, they’d have to resort to some other alternatives. One could be playing the season in a hub city, or the other less desirable option would be to move all seven Canadian clubs south of the border for the 2020-21 season. Now, the NHL remains optimistic at this point that they can sort all of this out, but we’ll see where this goes because this is a significant development.”
Pierre LeBrun adds that it’s not a bad idea for the NHL to make this public as it may put a bit of public pressure on the provinces to figure it out.
“But it also puts a little public pressure on the Canadian provincial governments as well, so let’s see how the next 24 to 48 hours play out. In the meantime, if the worst does come to pass and the Canadian teams have to play south, it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, that a league source confirms the all-Canadian division would probably be no longer and that the NHL would have to look again at more realignment for the 31 teams. But again, let’s hope that the seven Canadian teams are playing at home.”