There isn’t going to be time for a “full everything”. This delay — at best — will be 3 weeks. Probably a lot longer.Here's the thing... if they ditch the RS now and jump right to playoffs, then half a dozen teams have legitimate claims that they were close to making the playoffs and got screwed out of the chance. It's especially egregious if they don't have every team play out an equal number of RS games. Just look at the Metro, two teams in the POs right now at 81 pts, one with 68 games and one with 70. Then two teams 1 or 2 pts back, again one with 68 and one with 70 games played. Unless they even those differences up at a bare minimum, there's no way they can declare "playoffs" with any sense of fairness at all. Then repeat for the other three divisions. Who gets in between Nashville and Vancouver?
But... if they finish this RS, no one can complain about shit, everyone got the same deal, the same pause, the same schedule, the same qty of games.
Next year, if they want a full offseason and decide to start late, everyone hits the starting blocks knowing the deal. They all get the same amount of games, they all start from zero, and no team is at an advantage or disadvantage vs any other team.
Also, thats only IF they decide to start late. They could, for the love of money, decide to have a short offseason and start close to on time, pack in a few more games per month, and call it good. We really don't know the plan yet, they don't even know. I just know, if games get skipped, they should be 2020/21 games, not games this season.
I’d be far more in line with trying to find a champion. The last seeds (save once, I believe — the LA Kings) have never won a Cup. So any grousing from them is really immaterial. If you wanted to be in the playoffs when it was halted, then they should have played better until then. Win % is just that. It’s not related to games.
Anyway — it will probably just get cancelled. I don’t personally see this as being “safe” until they get a drug that will cure it. Otherwise it’s simply not safe. No cure, no large events.