Report: Latest “hold ups” to a new NHL season
Anthony Scultore
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The expectation is that the NHLPA and NHL will vote this week to announce the 2021 season. What has been settled is a 56 game schedule starting between January 13 or 16.
NHL and NHLPA hammering out details
Last night on Insider Trading, they broke down some of the “devil in the details” still outstanding.
- Roster size
- Taxi Squads
- Impact to AHL
- Impact to salary cap
- Will there be waivers for taxi squad
- How many times are teams allowed to use the taxi squad
“We’re told that at this point it would seem to be like a normal AHL transaction in the sense that no, the player is not leaving town but his salary cap hit would come off the books unless it’s one of those larger salaries that you’re trying to bury,” Frank Seravalli explained. “Everything except for $1.075 million would count against your cap.”
Another aspect that needs to be clarified will be the how this shortened season impacts the requirements for the expansion draft. In particular; accrued seasons and pro seasons.
Other tidbits
The group also discussed the challenge of health restrictions and its impacts. For example, as we wrote yesterday Vancouver health officials denied the Canucks plan to group quarantine.
Also noted was fan attendance. According to Darren Dreger they’re still uncertain which teams will be allowed fans in the building and to what capacity. Talks of 30% and up to 50% have been speculated.
“I’m told that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has sought the counsel of Dr. Anthony Fauci from the National Institute of Health over the course of this pandemic and one of the recommendations that Dr. Fauci had made to Bettman over the last number of weeks was if you want to pull this off and start the NHL season safely, the best way to do that would be in hubs,” Seravalli revealed. “That’s not the preference of both clubs and players, but I’m told that hubs very much remain a Plan B and are on the table.”