The NHL now has a start date for training camp. But there's still a long way to go.
On Thursday, the league and the Players' Association confirmed the July 10th date that had previously been called the "earliest" that teams could reconvene.
But the announcement comes with two major warnings:
First: medical and safety conditions will have to allow for a safe restart.
Second: players need to approve the plan.
On the health and safety front, there are some interesting thoughts from medical professionals in this piece from John Matisz over at The Score. More questions than answers and lots to think about, but the NHL does get good marks for the thoroughness of is approach to the Phase 2 protocols that are currently in place for voluntary training at some team facilities.
As far as the players go — Patrick Kane said on Thursday he hasn't talked to anybody who has flat-out said that they *won't* play this summer, and sounded excited about the Blackhawks' chances to take out Edmonton in a best-of-five series and potentially resurrect their season.
But he also made it clear that players have a lot of questions that will need satisfactory answers before they sign off on anything.
“We have be pretty cautious about that,” Kane said during Thursday's Blackhawks media availability on Zoom,
per The Athletic. “I know that the NHL is putting out dates and whatnot, but I think as players, nothing has been agreed to yet. And I think there’s a long way to go before we reach a certain agreement where we would want to come back and play and feel safe enough — feel like it’s the right deal for us to come back. Obviously, we’re in the process of doing that, and it’s an ongoing process.”
The health and safety is one part of the equation. The other is the money.
“There’s more than just being cautious and safe,” Kane said. “There are a lot of different things with negotiations that we don’t need to dive into. I just know the players just want a fair deal, that’s the biggest thing. … The NHL is putting out these dates, and as players, we’re kind of taking a step back and saying, ‘Why are these dates being put out when we haven’t really agreed to anything yet?’ We just want to be cautious as players, put that message out. We want a fair shake at it.”
According to
Pierre LeBrun from
The Athletic and TSN, the NHL and the Players' Association are also trying to nail down a four or five-year extension to the Collective Bargaining Agreement while they work out the rest of the details of the Return To Play plan — something that will provide both sides with additional certainty, as it will likely take years to recover from the economic damage that the coronavirus has wreaked on all pro sports.
Larry Brooks of the
New York Post does a good job of explaining the money part of the equation in this story:
"If the tournament is in fact played, the PA will owe approximately an additional 14 percent of escrow for 2020-21 (if not, it will be closer to 21 percent). Under the current CBA, the players would be responsible for making that up entirely next season, with revenue projections currently impossible. That means the players could easily face escrow deductions of 40 percent or more.
The parties are attempting to negotiate an agreement that would cap escrow deductions and allow the players to pay the league back over an extended period of time."
There are two key takeaways here:
1) A CBA extension could smooth out some of that escrow burden on the players over a longer period. That would also presumably come with the promise of keeping the salary cap flat over the same period of time — right now, an artificially high number based on what 2019-20 revenues will turn out to be, but hopefully eventually an artificially low number until things normalize.
2) Based on Brooks' numbers, the net economic benefit for players if they come back to play this summer is seven percent of their salary, which they'd preserve instead of ultimately having to give it back through the escrow calculations to balance the 50/50 revenue split between players and owners.
Is recouping a third of what has been lost to the pandemic enough to motivate players to get back on the ice? And will the league and the Players' Association find a way to structure the future impact of these losses in a way that players accept?
The good news is that the negotiating parties seem to understand that both players' and owners' best interests will be served through working together. Unlike baseball, the NHL and the Players' Association have done a fantastic job of keeping their dirty laundry out of the public eye so far, and are working toward resolution.
"The sides are headed in that direction, but there is still work to be done," wrote Brooks.
Here at home, I got very excited on Wednesday when Premier John Horgan announced that the provincial government and the health authorities had put together a hub city proposal, in conjunction with Canucks Sports and Entertainment, and that they were prepared to present it to the federal government and the NHL.
The key idea is that teams would be able to 'quarantine together,' which would allow them to live and practice within their own bubbles and not be paralyzed by the mandatory 14-day quarantine for foreign travellers.
With B.C. still keeping infection rates low, even as they're rising in many other jurisdictions, Vancouver looks to me like it would be a very appealing hub city if that quarantine issue was resolved. But my hopes were dampened a bit on Thursday, when Dr. Bonnie Henry provided more details of what her proposal allows.
I'm pretty sure that "No families" won't fly with he players.
But wait — on Friday morning, Premier Horgan is saying that families *will* be allowed:
Now, I'm not sure what this all means for hub city possibilities. But I think, based on that July 10 start date, we should get more clarity within the next two weeks.
One final note on July 10 — the babies!
As we discussed
a couple of weeks ago, Bo Horvat's first child is due July 19. Antoine Roussel and Jordie Benn also have babies due around the same time. It'll be interesting so see what decisions are made around these types of family situations...
I'll close today with a music recommendation — haven't done one of these for awhile.
Norah Jones has just released a new album, "Pick Me Up Off The Floor." I've been listening to it as I've been writing — I can't listen to anything too boisterous when I'm trying to think. As you'd expect from her, it's a soothing oasis of sound.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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