from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

It is still undecided what form, exactly, the return of the Premiere Games in Europe will have. For five straight seasons from 2007 through 2011, the NHL held regular-season games in Europe to open the year.

One idea that seems to have the most traction is to hold the games around late October instead of at the beginning of the regular season, as had previously been done. Given that most NHL teams have already booked their preseason games for next season, it would make sense to delay the event later into October....

Meanwhile, there has been debate about whether the World Cup of Hockey -- not held since September 2004 -- would return either in the fall of 2015 or the fall of 2016, but as my colleague Elliotte Friedman reported over the weekend on Hockey Night In Canada and a source also told ESPN.com, it’s almost a given if the tournament returns that it would be in September 2015; the idea being that it would avoid going up against the 2016 Summer Olympics or the 2016 World Cup of Soccer.

more plus additional topics include more spin-o-rama talk and Craig Berube...