General Hockey Talk - Injuries, signings, factoids + other news from around the league

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:There's for sure going to be pushback but I think the draft still happens in June.

Pure speculation but ,y guess is the draft announcement is going to be tied to a playoff announcement so they are going to wait until the return-to-play committee agrees to a format. I think this happens after the long weekend, with players being told to travel to certain destinations for a two-week quarantine. By early June, the US will have eased a lot of restrictions and it would give some teams time to train.  

My guess is we see the draft by end June and the playoffs start early July with AHL players being eligible to compete. I also think all the hubs will be in the US since Trump is advocating for the return of sports while Trudeau doesn't seem to want to ease restrictions any time soon despite Canadian uptake numbers being low *again* today and primarily contained to Montreal. But that's a conversation for another day

I don't know that they would announce it at the same time but it would make sense to have the rest of the playoffs and format announced. I feel the GM's message these days is much more one of resolute to a June draft whether they like it or not.

You would want to issue a meaningful media release which to me means draft and playoff structure. The return-to-work committee met yesterday instead of their scheduled meeting today. I think they're trying to prep an announcement for this Friday before the long weekend- again only speculating - with a return to play after Independence Day.

24 team playoffs, 7 team lottery with original format (only 1 winner). Everybody wins IMO.

I also think Vancouver and Toronto (ugh) will be primary candidates for hubs in Canada. Ottawa would make a ton of sense too but I doubt they've been proposed as a potential city. Toronto would be nice because they have the facilities, accommodations and media but controlling moron fans may be an issue. Vancouver makes a ton of sense given their low transmission rates and post Olympic accommodations.

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:There's for sure going to be pushback but I think the draft still happens in June.

Pure speculation but ,y guess is the draft announcement is going to be tied to a playoff announcement so they are going to wait until the return-to-play committee agrees to a format. I think this happens after the long weekend, with players being told to travel to certain destinations for a two-week quarantine. By early June, the US will have eased a lot of restrictions and it would give some teams time to train.  

My guess is we see the draft by end June and the playoffs start early July with AHL players being eligible to compete. I also think all the hubs will be in the US since Trump is advocating for the return of sports while Trudeau doesn't seem to want to ease restrictions any time soon despite Canadian uptake numbers being low *again* today and primarily contained to Montreal. But that's a conversation for another day

I don't know that they would announce it at the same time but it would make sense to have the rest of the playoffs and format announced. I feel the GM's message these days is much more one of resolute to a June draft whether they like it or not.

You would want to issue a meaningful media release which to me means draft and playoff structure. The return-to-work committee met yesterday instead of their scheduled meeting today. I think they're trying to prep an announcement for this Friday before the long weekend- again only speculating - with a return to play after Independence Day.

24 team playoffs, 7 team lottery with original format (only 1 winner). Everybody wins IMO.

I also think Vancouver and Toronto (ugh) will be primary candidates for hubs in Canada. Ottawa would make a ton of sense too but I doubt they've been proposed as a potential city. Toronto would be nice because they have the facilities, accommodations and media but controlling moron fans may be an issue. Vancouver makes a ton of sense given their low transmission rates and post Olympic accommodations.

I thought they were going for more "low key" locations than Toronto/Vancouver, but what do I know.

Relatively speaking BC has had the most success managing the virus, and Toronto given their population, is doing an excellent job too.

The last I read Canada has around 32,000 active cases. 82% of them are in Quebec. Ontario has been averaging less than 350 new cases per day over the last little bit, while Quebec is 700+. BC has less than 1,300 active case, Ontario about 3,600.

tim1_2 wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:There's for sure going to be pushback but I think the draft still happens in June.

Pure speculation but ,y guess is the draft announcement is going to be tied to a playoff announcement so they are going to wait until the return-to-play committee agrees to a format. I think this happens after the long weekend, with players being told to travel to certain destinations for a two-week quarantine. By early June, the US will have eased a lot of restrictions and it would give some teams time to train.  

My guess is we see the draft by end June and the playoffs start early July with AHL players being eligible to compete. I also think all the hubs will be in the US since Trump is advocating for the return of sports while Trudeau doesn't seem to want to ease restrictions any time soon despite Canadian uptake numbers being low *again* today and primarily contained to Montreal. But that's a conversation for another day

yeah... great...

Quebec continues to be the worst at pretty much everything.

hey now! i'm sure quebec does something better...
Nightlife in montreal has to be the best in Canada. not that that really matters right now...

'sup gangtas. how's everyone holding up?

I don't get why the NHL doesn't just hold a draft lottery to re-ignite fan engagement. Would buy them more time to come up with draft proposal...of course I'm also thinking selfishly here, but seems like a foregone conclusion that bottom 7-10 teams won't be invited back to complete the season...

They haven't figured out the draft format (because they haven't settled on the playoffs format).

SensHulk wrote:'sup gangtas. how's everyone holding up?

I don't get why the NHL doesn't just hold a draft lottery to re-ignite fan engagement. Would buy them more time to come up with draft proposal...of course I'm also thinking selfishly here, but seems like a foregone conclusion that bottom 7-10 teams won't be invited back to complete the season...

You’re right. I think those are points they could easily agree on. Baby steps.
Spoon feed us “some” excitement.

Would settle things for us sens fans.

SensHulk wrote:'sup gangtas. how's everyone holding up?

I don't get why the NHL doesn't just hold a draft lottery to re-ignite fan engagement. Would buy them more time to come up with draft proposal...of course I'm also thinking selfishly here, but seems like a foregone conclusion that bottom 7-10 teams won't be invited back to complete the season...

Nah, they have to figure out everything. Can't hold a draft lottery without knowing the playoff format and/or if there will be a rest of the season.

The point is the playoff format isn't that far off. The NHL is likely not coming back with 31 teams. Already they were floating the idea of going back to old rules for the lottery with potentially all 31 teams involved, don't see why they still couldn't do that, even with season resuming. They should be focusing their efforts and settling draft lottery format and not about 'when' to hold the draft, as we've been hearing.  This would actually allow a lot more flexibility in case the draft date does get moved up (teams can start draft planning right away, side deals, etc.)

As a first step they should just settle on what teams would return (if anything, max will be 24 teams). It feels like a giant waste of time trying to convince the BOG of holding a June draft, it ain't gonna happen...but if it were, the draft lottery would have needed to be done weeks in advance. We've dilly-dallied what feels like a whole month on this crap

SensHulk wrote:The point is the playoff format isn't that far off. The NHL is likely not coming back with 31 teams. Already they were floating the idea of going back to old rules for the lottery with potentially all 31 teams involved, don't see why they still couldn't do that, even with season resuming. They should be focusing their efforts and settling draft lottery format and not about 'when' to hold the draft, as we've been hearing.  This would actually allow a lot more flexibility in case the draft date does get moved up (teams can start draft planning right away, side deals, etc.)

As a first step they should just settle on what teams would return (if anything, max will be 24 teams). It feels like a giant waste of time trying to convince the BOG of holding a June draft, it ain't gonna happen...but if it were, the draft lottery would have needed to be done weeks in advance.  We've dilly-dallied what feels like a whole month on this crap

again, all very good points.

Flo The Action wrote:

SensHulk wrote:The point is the playoff format isn't that far off. The NHL is likely not coming back with 31 teams. Already they were floating the idea of going back to old rules for the lottery with potentially all 31 teams involved, don't see why they still couldn't do that, even with season resuming. They should be focusing their efforts and settling draft lottery format and not about 'when' to hold the draft, as we've been hearing.  This would actually allow a lot more flexibility in case the draft date does get moved up (teams can start draft planning right away, side deals, etc.)

As a first step they should just settle on what teams would return (if anything, max will be 24 teams). It feels like a giant waste of time trying to convince the BOG of holding a June draft, it ain't gonna happen...but if it were, the draft lottery would have needed to be done weeks in advance.  We've dilly-dallied what feels like a whole month on this crap

again, all very good points.

Thanks Flo. Good to talk to you again. Missed this place

Ales Hemsky officially retired today. is this a joke? where's he been?



https://www.tsn.ca/former-edmonton-oiler-ales-hemsky-offically-retires-1.1476473

SensHulk wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:

SensHulk wrote:The point is the playoff format isn't that far off. The NHL is likely not coming back with 31 teams. Already they were floating the idea of going back to old rules for the lottery with potentially all 31 teams involved, don't see why they still couldn't do that, even with season resuming. They should be focusing their efforts and settling draft lottery format and not about 'when' to hold the draft, as we've been hearing.  This would actually allow a lot more flexibility in case the draft date does get moved up (teams can start draft planning right away, side deals, etc.)

As a first step they should just settle on what teams would return (if anything, max will be 24 teams). It feels like a giant waste of time trying to convince the BOG of holding a June draft, it ain't gonna happen...but if it were, the draft lottery would have needed to be done weeks in advance.  We've dilly-dallied what feels like a whole month on this crap

again, all very good points.

Thanks Flo. Good to talk to you again. Missed this place

yes, nice to see some familiar faces.

SensHulk wrote:The point is the playoff format isn't that far off. The NHL is likely not coming back with 31 teams. Already they were floating the idea of going back to old rules for the lottery with potentially all 31 teams involved, don't see why they still couldn't do that, even with season resuming. They should be focusing their efforts and settling draft lottery format and not about 'when' to hold the draft, as we've been hearing.  This would actually allow a lot more flexibility in case the draft date does get moved up (teams can start draft planning right away, side deals, etc.)

As a first step they should just settle on what teams would return (if anything, max will be 24 teams). It feels like a giant waste of time trying to convince the BOG of holding a June draft, it ain't gonna happen...but if it were, the draft lottery would have needed to be done weeks in advance.  We've dilly-dallied what feels like a whole month on this crap

I'd love for some of this stuff to get settled too, but the NHL still doesn't know what the rest of the season/playoff formats will look like, and they don't want teams that have a shot at winning the Cup to also have a shot at the 1st overall pick. They're going to have everything settled on before we hear about draft lottery rules or anything else.

Welcome back, by the way.

They’ve almost agreed on a 24 team layoff format and it will probably be announced early this week. Good news for the Sens lottery picks. Bad news for chances of the regular season resuming and fantasy hockey pools being concluded.

Heard the same thing. 24 team playoff. Play-in games to determine seedings. 4 best of 7 seedings. Participants based on point percentage not current standings. Hubs are down to Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto , Vegas, Dallas and St. Paul. My guess is there will be only 4 hubs - one per division.

Not sure when the announcement would be either but next week makes sense if the league still wants to do a draft on June

Here is a good free article.

https://www.thefourthperiod.com/pagnotta/nhl-inching-closer-to-its-return-to-play

Sounds like August or September draft.