We've got a few more bodies accounted for at Rogers Arena on Monday morning, as the Vancouver Canucks continue to gather in preparation for official training camp:
There's Jake Virtanen and Micheal Ferland, with Brandon Sutter skating in the background.
Thomas Drance of The Athletic also reported that Tyler Myers left Kelowna last Thursday, so he should be making an appearance soon.
They're still not quite across the finish line, but it was reported on Sunday night that the NHL and the NHLPA have come to terms on the details of their Phase 3 and Phase 4 return-to-play plan, and have shared that document with teams and players.
The CBA extension is not quite complete as of Monday morning, but they're hoping it will be completed soon.
Here's my rundown of the key issues attached to both parts of the agreement:
The package will be voted on as a whole. It will first need to be approved by the NHLPA Executive Board (one player per team), by a simple majority (50 percent plus one). Then, the NHL's Board of Governors will need to approve it by a two-thirds majority. Finally, there will be a vote by all players, which will also need 50 percent plus one to pass.
All teams participate in both player votes, including the seven teams that are not in the return-to-play plan.
I think bundling these two votes together is a smart strategy on both sides. All along, the players have been asking for clarity on what it will mean for them to come back this summer and how it will affect their financial future. The short-term scene is obviously terrible for free agents, with the flat salary cap for the foreseeable future, but agreeing to cap escrow at 20 percent next season, then see it fall in subsequent years, is about as good as players can hope for.
They've also been offered some sweeteners to make them amenable to the plan. This year's playoff bonus pool will be doubled from $16 million to $32 million, then raised to $20 million next season — so there is a real financial incentive to participate, and do well (the father a team goes, the bigger their share of the pie).
Also, the Olympics are back in the mix, for Beijing, China in 2022 and Milan, Italy in 2026. That's subject to reaching an agreement with the IOC — and who knows what the world will look like by then in terms of travel restrictions and such. But it's something that the players wanted, and that the NHL was willing to give at this point in order to grease the wheels for an agreement to happen.
The hope is that the full agreement can be completed in time to be ratified by the end of this week — the full player vote is expected to take two to three days. If that can be completed by Friday — and passes — then Phase 3 training camps will begin next Monday, July 13th, with an eye toward having teams travel to their hub cities of Edmonton and Toronto about two weeks later, then start play around August 1.
All players will have the option to opt out of the tournament without penalty, but will have a limited timeframe to do so.
If you want to go deeper into the details of bubble life,
Frank Seravalli of TSN lays out a good amount of it here. On Friday,
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet laid out what we know so far about the CBA terms.
Both those writers, as well as Chris Johnston from Sportsnet and, of course, TSN's venerable Bob McKenzie, also put out numerous details in their Twitter threads on Sunday night. That includes details like how testing will be handled, what happens in the case of positive tests, and the amenities that players will have access to while they're in their bubble.
There's also some medical information — that it may be determined that the risk is too high for some players with underlying conditions to take part, and that a player who tests positive and has Covid-19 symptoms during the lockdown will have to undergo extensive medical testing on top of delivering a number of negative tests, before he is once again deemed fit to play.
However — in keeping with how things have been done so far, the identities of players and staff who test positive will not be released to the public unless approved by the NHL or NHLPA. There may be situations where that information has to be released, especially if a player disappears abruptly during the tournament itself. But I think the league's hope is that once they get the players into their bubbles, the positive tests will stop and it won't be a situation that needs to be addressed.
I imagine there will be a ton of scrutiny on the 31-player lists that will need to be submitted at the beginning of Phase 3 — to see which names are missing due to either opt-outs or medical issues.
Max Domi is a high-profile Type 1 diabetic whose underlying condition came into public focus several weeks back when Mitch Marner expressed concern about him during a videogame livestream. So is Kaapo Kakko of the New York Rangers, who has said he wants to play. Most relevant to the Canucks: Wild forward Luke Kunin is also a Type 1 diabetic.
A couple of weeks ago, Kunin said he has every intention of participating in the tournament.
Kunin, 22, said that after talking to his endocrinologist and team doctors and staff, he feels there aren’t many concerns for him and he will take the same precautions as everyone else such as not sharing towels and drinks and washing his hands as often as possible.
“It’s definitely something I think about, having to live with Type 1 diabetes,” said Kunin, who had 15 goals and 16 assists during 63 regular-season games. “Whether this pandemic was going on or not, I’m going to face some harder things and some more difficult times taking care of myself than others.
“Obviously, I’m going to do everything in my power and I know the doctors and the team will as well to make sure that we don’t get there, that we do all the right things to make sure I’m staying healthy along with all the other players so we don’t have to get to that point.
“I don’t think it’s going to stop me from suiting up.”
I believe the league is sticking to its guns, that only players who were on NHL/AHL rosters during the 2019-20 season are eligible to play in the summer tournament. If that remains the case, that means the Canucks will not have to face 2019-20 KHL leading goal scorer Kiril Kaprizov, who the Wild have been desperately trying to sign and get into their lineup.
Speaking of Russians, KHL players are starting to hit the ice. Did you see this tasty treat from Vasily Podkolzin from the weekend?
The KHL currently remains scheduled to start its regular season in early September, as usual, so full training camps in Russia should also open in the next couple of weeks. That means it's getting down to crunch time for Nikita Tryamkin and the Canucks.
Am I the only one who finds this a little ironic, considering Tryamkin refused to report to Utica to play under Green during his first tenure with the Canucks?
And without much salary-cap wiggle room, can the Canucks find room for Tryamkin on an already-crowded left side? Can he switch to the right? Or do they see him as a possible trade chip — perhaps a player who can be moved to recoup a draft pick?
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