Confirmed with Link: 2019-20 NHL Season officially suspended due to COVID-19

[Felonious Python]

The NHL is looking at 4 empty arenas to house the rest of the season. Neither Florida team has been mentioned to my knowledge. Montreal is out though for our division. FL is maybe too much of a hotspot to host I'm guessing.

What I don't fully understand is the idea that you can't trade during a June draft. If it happens during the remainder of the regular season, that could become the new trade deadline.

I'd much rather punt the draft to after the season, since it'll likely be a conference call anyway, and I wouldn't want to trade roster players during this.

 

[Hoek]

Hillsborough County hasn't really been that terrible in cases and fatalities so far. The percentage of our tests coming out as positive keeps falling and is down to 6% overall since the start (compared to Miami-Dade which is at 15%, so the Panthers are definitely out). That said, I would assume Ottawa would be better? How is Buffalo doing? They were already rumored as a neutral site before and have more rinks than we do.

Edit: I went ahead and looked it up. Actually Ottawa has about as many cases and deaths as we do. 1020 cases for us vs. 977 for them. Only 23 deaths for us to their 35. Buffalo has 2450 cases and 179 deaths, so they're actually worse off than us. It really looks like we might be the best place from a epidemiological perspective, despite all the hype about how bad Florida is doing. Ottawa might make more sense infrastructure wise though since they probably have more rinks if those are what's needed.

Florida coronavirus deaths surpass 1,000 as cases reach 29,648

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

Workbook: NYS-COVID19-Tracker

 

[Felonious Python]

Hillsborough County hasn't really been that terrible in cases and fatalities so far. The percentage of our tests coming out as positive keeps falling and is down to 6% overall since the start (compared to Miami-Dade which is at 15%, so the Panthers are definitely out). That said, I would assume Ottawa would be better? How is Buffalo doing? They were already rumored as a neutral site before and have more rinks than we do.

The Sens are in Kanata technically. That might complicate practice rinks and hotels, but they can take busses.

Buffalo seems appealing with HarborCenter next door to HSBC. Two practice rinks and a hotel upstairs.

 

[Hoek]

Just to round it out, Detroit has 14994 cases and 1396 deaths, Toronto has 4347 cases and 222 deaths, and Boston has 6958 cases and 232 deaths.

It really should be between us and Ottawa, looking at the numbers.

The Sens are in Kanata technically. That might complicate practice rinks and hotels, but they can take busses.

Buffalo seems appealing with HarborCenter next door to HSBC. Two practice rinks and a hotel upstairs.

That's a good point. Buffalo's setup would be really nice to avoid having to worry about the buses being safe.

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

So teams will return and play within their division? I wonder if this means we'll see a full expanded playoff bracket.

You can't do top 4 teams from each division because that will exclude some wild card teams that would have made it in. I don't think you can pull off all 8 teams going head to head because it wouldn't be fair that the Central division leader gets a bye.

So maybe, top 6 from each division make it and the top 2 teams get a bye? Something like:

Round 1:
Toronto vs Buffalo
Florida vs Montreal

Round 2:
Boston vs Florida/Montreal
Tampa vs Toronto/Buffalo

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

Or maybe I'm overthinking this, and the WC team will just play in the other division's arena if necessary. But expanding and including more teams seems more fair for those who were in a playoff race.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Hillsborough County hasn't really been that terrible in cases and fatalities so far. The percentage of our tests coming out as positive keeps falling and is down to 6% overall since the start (compared to Miami-Dade which is at 15%, so the Panthers are definitely out). That said, I would assume Ottawa would be better? How is Buffalo doing? They were already rumored as a neutral site before and have more rinks than we do.

Edit: I went ahead and looked it up. Actually Ottawa has about as many cases and deaths as we do. 1020 cases for us vs. 977 for them. Only 23 deaths for us to their 35. Buffalo has 2450 cases and 179 deaths, so they're actually worse off than us. It really looks like we might be the best place from a epidemiological perspective, despite all the hype about how bad Florida is doing. Ottawa might make more sense infrastructure wise though since they probably have more rinks if those are what's needed.

Florida coronavirus deaths surpass 1,000 as cases reach 29,648

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

Workbook: NYS-COVID19-Tracker

Yeah, but they're full of shit with these numbers. They still have backlogs of tests that are over 10 days that still haven't delivered results, they're counting pneumonia deaths as unrelated even if they are. I wouldn't trust any of the shit that Ron DeSantis spouts.

 

[Hoek]

Yeah, but they're full of shit with these numbers. They still have backlogs of tests that are over 10 days that still haven't delivered results, they're counting pneumonia deaths as unrelated even if they are. I wouldn't trust any of the shit that Ron DeSantis spouts.

If it was just a backlog issue the rate of positives would still be higher than 6% and they would be going up, not down. You can't hide or suppress that part. We aren't the only state with backlog issues. Hospitalizations aren't terrible here either. This is all from the Department of Health, not DeSantis. He definitely deserves shit for how he's handled things, and hiding what was going on at long term care facilities was also terrible. I think we still don't know the full picture of what's going on with these high risk areas and that could be a tragedy. But people have been practically rooting for Floridians to die for almost a couple months now with all their outrage at DeSantis it feels like and the facts on the ground just don't seem to be bearing that out besides South Florida.

 

[Felonious Python]

The ECHL is starting to release home schedules. You've sort of got to cobble them together, and Orlando's will change drastically when the Magic take all the weekend dates, but in the first one I came across (Florida Everblades), they only have 5 home games in October and November combined.

This could indicate that the NHL is going to do the same, as has been rumored in the media. Load the games towards the back of the schedule. The first out-of-division opponent for them only comes on Feb 24th. The Coast plays a ton of divisional games, but the late placement is noteworthy.

The ECHL will play the typical mid-October to early April regular season as well.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

JBB, Bill Guerin, Kyle Dubas, and John Chayka together

 

[LightningStrikes]

Bill got fat

 

[Hoek]

Apparently we have been considered according to this article from The Athletic. We are in the second tier as a "Strong possibility"

NHL hub cities: Evaluating the markets where the hockey...

One of the things I didn't realize would be a plus is not sharing the facility with an NBA team.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[Felonious Python]

87 Canada Cup is fantastic, but it's on TSN, which isn't available on cable in the US.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

I would imagine this will still leave some prospects season up in the air on the possibility that the NHL resumes and teams need extra players as injury replacements & black aces

 

[Felonious Python]

I would imagine this will still leave some prospects season up in the air on the possibility that the NHL resumes and teams need extra players as injury replacements & black aces

Game shape will be an issue, but maybe since the teams would be centralized, their black aces would play games.

They could put all the Atlantic guys together, all the Metro guys together, etc. and get them some games that way.

 

[HoseEmDown]

I would imagine this will still leave some prospects season up in the air on the possibility that the NHL resumes and teams need extra players as injury replacements & black aces

My question is since it seems the AHL season will be canceled, does that count as a full season for prospects? I ask because come next off-season and the expansion draft players with less than 2 seasons of pro experience are exempt. They didn't count the season that just had finished as one in the last ED since the ED was done technically before the next season begins on July 1st. So if it's canceled does it count as a season because we wouldn't need to protect guys like Foote, Barre-Boulet and Raddysh.

 

[Todd1a]

My question is since it seems the AHL season will be canceled, does that count as a full season for prospects? I ask because come next off-season and the expansion draft players with less than 2 seasons of pro experience are exempt. They didn't count the season that just had finished as one in the last ED since the ED was done technically before the next season begins on July 1st. So if it's canceled does it count as a season because we wouldn't need to protect guys like Foote, Barre-Boulet and Raddysh.

don’t know on July 1st starts the new league year ? So are shattenkirk and maroon free agents ?

 

[Felonious Python]

don’t know on July 1st starts the new league year ? So are shattenkirk and maroon free agents ?

They can move free agency to whenever they want. They'll push it back. It's not like August has ever found much use.

The AHL doesn't even play the same number of games across the league. They'll count this as a full season.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[Felonious Python]

 

[Todd1a]

ugh 24 team nhl playoffs? Hopefully they do some preseason games before going straight to the playoffs

 

[Hoek]

ugh 24 team nhl playoffs? Hopefully they do some preseason games before going straight to the playoffs

That's the plan. Some games at first to help determine seeding among the top teams while the lower teams play in.