Today is Monday.
I know this because the calendar says that today is Monday and not once has a calendar ever lied to me.
Draft announcement week has come and gone only it contained far fewer announcements related to the draft than we were expecting. Zero, in fact. There were zero draft-related announcements.
Last week’s Board of Governors meeting didn’t go as planned for the National Hockey League and it forced them to go back to the drawing board. What they’ll come up with and what vague timelines will be included is basically anybody’s guess at this point.
Based on the latest speculation from hockey insiders, it does sound like the 24-team playoff concept is gaining some traction though. As is the case with most things related to sports, no firm dates have been attached.
So while some parts of society gradually return to normal, or a new version of it anyway, professional hockey remains in a state of limbo.
Let’s see if we can cobble together some news and notes. It is Monday after all/apparently.
-We’ll start with the league that does know what it’s doing. This morning, the American Hockey League officially announced the cancellation of the 2019/2020 season. There was a certain sense of inevitability to this announcement, as it has been rumoured for a couple weeks now that the AHL was leaning in this direction. Unlike the NHL, the AHL doesn’t have huge broadcast deals that it can capitalize on and the idea of playing in empty-seat arenas just didn’t make sense for the league. Disappointing news for the fans in Belleville obviously as that team had a very real chance at a deep Calder Cup run this season. The Belleville Senators sat atop the AHL’s North Division at the time the season was paused.
-Obviously this is unfortunate for the entire Sens organization. That Belleville team was being carried by some of Ottawa’s top prospects and the experience they would have gained from a long playoff run would have been helpful down the line. The likes of Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, Erik Brannstrom, Logan Brown, Alex Formenton, Vitaly Abramov, Christian Wolanin, Rudolfs Balcers, Filip Chlapik, Filip Gustavsson, Joey Daccord and Marcus Hogberg would have all been key to that team’s success in the post-season. Ya know what, just give ’em the damn trophy anyway. That line up was stacked.
-Back to the NHL. The last draft-related update from the league came on Friday, via Pierre LeBrun. At that point, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly would only offer the following- ” One of many matters that are being analyzed and worked on. There is no urgency to reaching a decision on this, at least currently.” Not a whole lot to go on there. What’s clear is that the league has sort of shifted from “we’re doing this Draft in June” to “we’ll do this Draft in June, if possible”.
-The thing that makes this whole decision so tricky for the league is the fact that all the other pieces have to fall into place first. They can’t hold a draft lottery until they have a playoff format and they can’t decide on a playoff format until they know what a return to play might look like. To the league’s credit, they tried to push forward with a more certain element (the Draft and Draft Lottery) but the push-back seemingly made that impossible. There are just too many teams in that middle ground that want some sort of guarantee on what will come of the 2019/2020 season before they can agree to any sort of revised lottery format.
-So while it’s complicated, it does sound like there’s still a chance they lock in the Draft during the month of June. Maybe not early-June (5th and 6th) like was originally discussed but perhaps a week or two later than that. Unlike last week, there really doesn’t seem to be any speculation that an announcement might be close but once they pick a playoff format, the rest should come together pretty quickly. Hopefully this is the week. The good news from Ottawa’s perspective is the fact that both of the lottery formats floated to this point would put them in a pretty good position.
-While some provinces, including Ontario, have started to loosen the restrictions around sports facilities, the NHL has decided to wait it out a little longer. In a memo that was circulated last week, the league let teams know they don’t plan to open facilities until early June. In the league’s view, they don’t want to have some teams back and practicing until most teams can be, or “an acceptable mass” as Bill Daly described it. it may not matter for the Senators though because unless the league goes forward with 31-team playoff concept (an actual option, apparently) then they don’t really need to return any time soon.
-Late last week, the Ottawa Senators officially announced their plans for ticket holders in the event that the rest of the regular season does get cancelled. While refunds are an options, the Senators are also providing fans with an opportunity to “enhance the value of their investment through credit towards their renewal for next season”. You can read more about the options available here.
