from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- My guess is we don’t see training camps before July. In addition to the playoff format, it sounds like the NHL and NHLPA are working together on adjusting the critical-dates calendar. That means contracts for players will be extended from June 30 (the normal end of each season) to whenever this year officially concludes.

The interesting thing will be contracts for coaches/executives scheduled to expire on that date. There will be the option to extend those, too, but there might be situations where a team and/or an individual would not wish to extend. Vancouver and amateur scouting director Judd Brackett would be an obvious one. There is at least one coach not extended past this season who has mused about declining to return.

- On his Twitter feed, John Shannon reported the following: “The NHL and teams have done social distancing models for people in seats. Most arenas, based on people being six feet apart in every direction, would only be able to host 2,000-2,500 fans at a game.”

To add to that, another team indicated it modelled with families of four, who social-distanced together at home, and would then be allowed to be together at a game. They got up to 4,000.

- The same team indicated they were told that you’d need a one-mile lineup to get every 900 fans into the building. And, again, imagine getting everyone out post-game. The details are unbelievable.

- This is a long way down the line, but if the 2020-21 season does go from December/January to July — I wonder how many teams are going to ask their fans if they want that schedule to be permanent.

more