AHL Cancels Season, NHL and NHLPA Return To Play Committee Meeting Pushed Up To Today

The NHL-NHLPA Return to Play Committee meeting originally scheduled for Wednesday has been moved up to this afternoon.

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) May 12, 2020

Similar to what is going on with the MLB, it looks like the NHL is doing whatever they can to try to salvage the 2019-20 NHL season. After the American Hockey League (AHL) canceled their season yesterday, some speculated the NHL was going to follow its lead, but that doesn’t look like the case according to the reporters plugged into the league.

If the NHL is going to return, they would likely expand their rosters to 30 players or more, which is why it might be a good thing the AHL was canceled. Should a few NHL players from the same team were unable to play due to injury or testing positive for COVID-19, having dozens of AHLers at the ready would help these teams fill out rosters. Not a perfect plan, but nothing is.

yes rosters will be expanded if NHL season resumes, no question. At least to 30 if not more

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) May 11, 2020

There are still plenty of details that need to be worked out. Players like Devan Dubnyk have voiced their voiced their discomfort with being placed in a “bubble” away from their families for up to four months. However, it sounds like a four-city plan with no fans is going to be the play if they can figure this out. Things are constantly changing each day, so we’ll see what comes of today’s meeting between the parties.

It seems safe we won’t be seeing hockey for another 6 weeks, so for now, enjoy some absurd highlights from Connor McDavid.

I'd say this Connor McDavid mixtape is NSFW but since you're probably working from home right now just watch at your own discretion pic.twitter.com/GfLhDUsSUS

— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) May 4, 2020