After two weeks of no talks, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Don Fehr and back trying to figure out how the league can play a 2021 season. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun said despite the two sides talking, little progress is being made.
The two sides agreed to a collective bargaining agreement back in July, but Bettman said things have changed from when they were talking in summer.
Bettman thought that fans would be back in buildings by now, but with COVID raging out of control, that’s not happening.
Bettman had originally hoped to start a season by Dec. 1 and now he’d like to have one going by Jan. 1. With quarantines and different rules all over North America, getting players back is going to be a challenge. As of now due to public safety, San Jose, Winnipeg and Montreal can’t even open their practice facilities.
On Wednesday, Bettman spoke to The Sports Business Journal. When talking about Jan. 1 he said, “That is a work in progress focused largely by what we’re hearing from medical experts.” The commissioner added, “COVID is going through a second wave which could be worse than the first wave and from Thanksgiving and the aftermath and what they think is going to happen with Christmas and the aftermath, we are taking our time and making sure as we look for ways to move forward, we’re focused on health and safety and doing the right thing.”
College football is postponing close to 20 games per week and hockey leagues all over the world are pausing their seasons due to the latest COVID outbreak. That includes Finland where Arttu Ruotsalainen, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Oskari Laaksonen and Miska Kukkonen are playing. I will update those four Sabres prospects later in the article.
Team Canada had to pause its World Junior Camp because some players had been infected with the virus. Everybody that was there is now in quarantine. That includes Sabres 2019 first-round pick Dylan Cozens and this year’s first rounder Jack Quinn.
The NFL is hanging by a thread as team outbreaks are starting to happen.
COVID is now worse than it was in April and May so how in the world can the NHL be thinking it can start a season by Jan. 1? It’s the same thing with the NBA which is planning on starting Dec. 22.
As of now, players don’t want to start training camps until after the holidays. That would mean a season couldn’t start until the end of January or early February. That is two months away so nobody can predict what COVID will be like by then.
I have been reporting since late June that there are a small amount of owners in the NHL that don’t want a season. They will lose less money with no season than they would by playing one. The Pegula’s have remained silent on this topic.
From a business standpoint Bettman said on Wednesday that he’s not trying to renegotiate the CBA that was agreed to in July. In that agreement players will get 72% of their 2021 salaries. The players would give back 20% off the top and 8% would be deferred and paid back by the owners over three seasons.
With the financial climate of the world worse off than Bettman anticipated, he has proposed for just this year that the players give back 25% and have 20% deferred and paid back. I don’t know what Bettman’s definition of renegotiation is, but that’s exactly what he’s asking from the players, who by the way haven’t budged. Fehr said the agreement is just five months old and the owners need to abide by it.
If there is a season, owners still want games in their home arenas. That may not be possible in some cases as counties could do the same thing that Santa Clara did stopping all contact sports and forcing the San Francisco 49ers to head to Arizona for three weeks. The Niners will host the Bills Monday night in Arizona.
Some think that if the NHL wants to have any chance of starting by Jan. 1, they have about a week to iron out the details. I think it’s too late now. Too many players would be coming from too many different countries and there just isn’t enough time for testing and quarantines.
I promised you an update on the four players in Finland. Ruotsalainen was a free agent signing by Jason Botterill. In 19 games with Ilves Tampere he has 16 goals and 11 assists for 27 points. Last season while playing for the same team, Ruotsalainen on had 15 goals in 44 games. He is 23-years-old.
Goaltender Luukkonen was Buffalo’s second-round pick in 2017. He’s 5-2-4 playing for TPS with a 2.34 goals against and .916 save percentage.
In the same year the Sabres took defenseman Oskari Laaksonen in the third round. He plays for the Pelicans. In 18 games he has four goals and eight assists for 12 points.
In 2018 Buffalo’s fifth-round pick was defenseman Miska Kukkonen. In 19 games with Lukko Rauma he has no goals and eight assists.
