“I don’t think the border will be open until January 1st. If it’s open on January 1st, I really don’t.”
While the teams around the NHL prepare for the next season with free agent signings and trades, it is still unclear when the next season will take place and what it will look like.
At the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced a plan to start the 2020-21 season on January 1 to make it more of a 2021 season. Before that, however, Bettman had made it very clear that they need to be “flexible and agile” to deal with changing circumstances, so even the January 1st launch date is tentative.
One of the main complications of restarting the season is the closed border between the US and Canada, with no clear indication of when the border will reopen. With the NHL being a true two-country league, this is daunting logistics other leagues don’t have to deal with.
The Toronto Blue Jays are the only Canadian team in baseball, so holding a full MLB season has been as easy as moving the Blue Jays to Buffalo. The Toronto Raptors, also the only Canadian team in the NBA, are likely to face a similar situation next season.
MLS is similar to the NHL in that there are several Canadian teams, if only three compared to the NHL’s seven. When they resumed their season after the COVID shutdown, the Vancouver Whitecaps, Toronto FC and Montreal Impact stayed in Canada and played a revamped Canadian championship tournament. After that, the three Canadian teams moved to “neutral locations” in the US for their remaining home games while the Whitecaps played in Portland.
This short all-Canadian portion of the MLS schedule offers one possible solution for the NHL: an all-Canadian division. It’s an idea that was promoted by a number of people, but on Wednesday a source directly affiliated with the NHL suggested this as a real possibility: Bill Foley, the owner of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Foley was on KSHP Radio in Las Vegas for a lengthy interview with Brian Blessing of the Vegas Hockey Hotline. He was asked if he wanted to lose Nate Schmidt to the Canucks, a player Foley clearly broke his heart when he saw him leave town.
“I was really concerned that we had to act Schmidtty,” said Foley. “He’s a really great guy, he’s a great team-mate, the guys all like him.”
Then he dropped a bomb aside. When Foley spoke about the possibility of facing a highly motivated Schmidt with the Canucks in the future, he suggested that it might not happen soon.
“Yes, but they’ll be playing in the Canadian division next year,” said Foley.
He said it at about 9:40 p.m. of the following video, almost in jest, but he seemed pretty serious.
Vegas Hockey Hotline – Exclusive Interview with Bill Foley https://t.co/EbpzlqkJz6
– KSHP Radio Las Vegas (@KSHPVegas) October 14, 2020
“I don’t think the border will be open until Jan 1st. If it’s open Jan 1st, I really don’t,” said Foley. “You’re starting to lock again. Winnipeg closes. Quebec has tips. I think they will play a Canadian division. I don’t think they will cross the border. “
The NHL wasn’t ready to back up any aspect of what Foley said – it just seems to be his opinion of what’s going to happen – but as an NHL owner, his words carry weight. He is one of the key players in shaping the decisions that are made behind the scenes.
If the border is still closed through January and the NHL is determined to start the season, what other option would you have? The NHL could create four makeshift divisions and start the season with one game within the divisions in the hopes that the border will open later in the season to include games between Canadian and U.S. teams.
The other alternative – relocating seven Canadian teams – just wouldn’t work, partly because of the logistics of finding a home for so many teams, but mostly because of the financial considerations. The NHL is a goal-driven league and they need fans in arenas in a way. Foley also touched on this subject.
“Who knows if we will play? If we don’t play in front of fans I don’t know if a lot of teams can make it, including us, it would be very difficult, ”he said. “We’d have to make a serious financial commitment to fund the team if we weren’t playing in front of fans. I think Gary Bettman is not going to let us fly around and play in empty arenas. There will be another plan. “
“If you currently have more than 2500 seats in Vegas, you can occupy 10% of that,” he added. “That’s not enough. 10% of 18,000 are 1800, you can’t do that.”
An all-Canadian division seems reasonable enough – the league already has a seven-team division – and that’s not entirely without precedent. Certainly there never was a fully Canadian division, but when the Canucks first entered the NHL they were thrown into the East Division with the only other Canadian teams at the time, the Toronto Maple Leafs and, an absurdity for the extreme west coast of Vancouver Montreal Canadiens.
From 1982 to 1991 the Canucks played in the Smythe Division, which was barely Canadian. The other Canadian members of the division were the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, and Winnipeg Jets, with only the Los Angeles Kings being the odd ones.
An all-Canadian division would certainly be fun for the fans who often battle online over which Canadian team is the best and most likely to bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada.
Foley’s proposal for an all-Canadian division also aligns with a recent report by Elliotte Friedman in his 31st Thoughts column on the AHL.
“This depends on what happens to the border, but there is talk of NHL teams based in Canada and AHL affiliates in the US considering moving it north of the 49th for the 2020-21 season.” said Friedman. This obviously affects the Canucks, whose subsidiary is in Utica, but also the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers, whose AHL subsidiary is in Stockton and Bakersfield, respectively.
“It makes sense,” he continued, “because a quarantine period would mean you can’t call players.” I’m not sure if these teams would be outside of the NHL buildings or centralized, but these three organizations need to prepare for that. “
For the Canucks, that means relocating the comets from their avid fans in New York and likely placing the team somewhere in Ontario. As much as fans want to see the Canucks game in Abbotsford or the Pacific Coliseum, the team would need to avoid air travel as much as possible and stay in close proximity to division rivals like the Belleville Senators. Toronto Marlies and Laval Rocket.
Of course, it is completely unknown whether an AHL season will take place at all. Her original plan was to start the season on December 4th, but that plan is out the window. Since the AHL depends on players from the NHL, their schedule must match theirs. What makes the AHL season more difficult is that it is an even higher-scoring league than the NHL – without a major television deal, the AHL relies heavily on ticket sales and in-game purchases.
Foley had further thoughts on when the 2020-21 season might start and what it might look like.
“[Bettman’s] When I talk about January 1st, I don’t know. Maybe February 1st, maybe a shortened season and an accelerated season, “he said and later speculated:” Let’s say it’s a 56-game season. Whatever happens, they have to finish the playoffs by the end of June as the Olympics are in July and NBC has the Olympics. We have to finish our season and all playoffs sometime in late June. “
“Do you think that’s the number?” asked Blessing and seemed incredulous. “Less than 60?”
“Oh, I think it’s less than 60. I do. I think it’s 48 or 56. “
That goes against what Bettman has said in the past about wanting a full 82-game season, but in his own words the NHL needs to be “flexible and agile”. If the season doesn’t start until January, maybe February, then an 82 game season isn’t planned, especially if the season and playoffs have to end before the scheduled Olympics start in July, as Foley suggests.
Foley believes the 2020-21 season will be shortened and condensed, have an all-Canadian division, and have fans in arenas of some capacity – hopefully more than 10% capacity to be precise. Does that sound feasible for the NHL? With the playoffs abandoned without a single positive COVID-19 test, it’s hard to bet against the NHL for the regular season to work.
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