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1) According to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, the planned July 10 start of Phase 3 of the return-to-play plan is still in effect despite Friday's news that three Tampa Bay Lightning players and two Tampa staff members tested positive for Covid-19. The team's training facility is temporarily closed.
The city of Tampa and Hillsborough County -- along with the state of Florida as a whole -- has emerged as a coronavirus hotspot. Twenty-three miles away, in Clearwater, the Philadelphia Phillies closed their training facility after learning that five players and three staff members have Covid-19. The Toronto Blue Jays training facility in nearby Dunedin is also closed after one player exhibited suspected coronavirus symptoms.
TSN reporter Bob McKenzie wrote on Friday that the Lightning hope to reopen their facility and resume training shortly presuming that no other positive Covid-19 tests emerge.
In the meantime, Toronto Sun reporter Steve Simmonds cited sources on Friday that informed him that Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews also tested positive for Covid-19. Matthews has been training in Arizona; another emerging hot-spot state. He is now reportedly back in self-quarantine.
There have also been unconfirmed reports that a couple of Arizona Coyotes players training with Matthews had positive tests. On June 17, the Coyotes organization confirmed that a single staff member had come down with coronavirus but said the person was asymptomatic and self-quarantined at home. The team at the time said all other staff members and players in Arizona or Phase 2 had tested negative.
On Friday evening, the Nation Hockey League announced that there had been 11 positive Covid-19 tests of players leaguewide (of approximately 200 administered to date) since the official start of Phase 2 on June 8. The league declined to identify which players and teams have been affected. The statement said that all 11 players have self-quarantined.
There is, of course, a second Florida NHL team: the Sunrise-based Florida Panthers. Additionally, the state of Texas has seen the Covid curve bending the wrong way since the state's own early phased-in reopening (among the earliest in the United States, and now on the brink of reaching its final phase). The Dallas Stars, who train in Frisco, have not officially had any players test positive to this point but it is a potential concern given the statewide trend.
While professional athletes are typically in the population's lowest-risk group of Covid-19 patients in terms of likelihood of severe complications or death, the bigger risk is one of the virus spreading and of the need for quarantines that could affect the viability of Phases 3 and 4 of the return-to-play plan.
Separately on Friday, the Canadian government approved the NHL/NHLPA's return-to-play format, paving the way for one -- or possibly even two -- Canadian cities to be selected as "hub cities" for the 4th and final phase of the return-to-play plan. Cases in Canada have been lower per capita than in the United States, and some areas have barely been affected thus far.
2) Flyers goaltenders Carter Hart and Brian Elliott are still training close to home during Phase 2 of the return-to-play plan. However, the first goalie in the organization to choose to train in Delaware Valley has arrived at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Lehigh Valley Phantoms goaltender Alex Lyon, who will almost certainly serve as the third available goalie for the Flyers when rosters expand, is now working out at the team's training facility in South Jersey.
3) Today in Flyers History: June 20, 1992
Drafted by the Quebec Nordiques with the first overall pick of the 1991 NHL Draft, Eric Lindros declined to play for the team. A fierce bidding war ensued to acquire his rights, with numerous NHL teams offering massive returns to the Nordiques for the rights to the highly touted teenager. For the next year, the Nordiques declined all offers, as the prices escalated higher and higher.
Finally, as the NHL convened for the 1992 NHL Draft in Montreal, one of the biggest and most controversial blockbuster trades in NHL history was culminated -- twice.
Quebec sent Lindros' rights to Philadelphia in exchange for NHL roster center Mike Ricci, goaltender Ron Hextall, defensemen Steve Duchesne and Kerry Huffman, Swedish prospect Peter Forsberg (the Flyers' 1991 first-round pick), $15 million (USD) in cash, the earlier of the Flyers' two first-round picks in the 1992 NHL Draft and the Flyers first-round picks in the 1993 (Jocelyn Thibault) and 1994 drafts (Nolan Baumgartner).
After verbally agreeing and shaking hands with the Flyers on the deal, the Nordiques turned around and decided instead to trade Lindros' rights to the Rangers. Although not revealed publicly at the time, the New York trade offer included forward Alexei Kovalev, goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck and future star forwards Doug Weight and Tony Amonte along with similar cash compensation and draft pick assets.
With the disputed trade held up by the NHL, the Flyers selected Ryan Sittler with the seventh overall pick of the Draft. The Flyers had not anticipated making the pick, which was part of the package of assets they'd agreed to trade to the Nordiques. The NHL instructed Philadelphia to make the selection, since the pick still officially belonged to the Flyers while the double-dealing trades that Quebec perpetrated had yet to be sorted out as to which one was enforceable.
On June 30, 1992, following lengthy and emotionally charged arbitration hearings in Toronto, arbitrator Larry Bertuzzi ruled that the Flyers had made an enforceable trade first and the Rangers deal was nullified. To complete the trade with Philadelphia, the Nordiques accepted enforcer prospect Chris Simon (whom the Flyers had drafted in the second round of the 1990 Draft) and an additional draft choice in lieu of the pick already used by the Flyers on Sittler.
4) June 20 Flyers Alum birthday: Dave Snuggerud (1966)
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