from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The 24 clubs participating in the tournament are reaping the benefit of simply being on the ice and playing competitive hockey following the COVID-necessitated pause that shut down the NHL on March 12. The Seven Dwarfs, as they are known affectionately in this space, however, face a best-case scenario of an eight-month offseason if the NHL can meet its Nov. 17 target date to open 2020-21 training camps. That’s not quite equitable.

Fitzgerald knows it, so do his counterparts in Detroit, Ottawa, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose and Buffalo. They have been in constant communication, hardly commiserating, but instead constructing a proposal to submit to the NHL for permission to have a Phase 3 camp of their own leading into Nov. 17.

“We are working on a plan to present to the league so that we have the same opportunity to work with our players as the teams that are in the playoffs,” said Fitzgerald, whose team actually came up only .007 percentage points shy of the cut line. “Eight months is just too long of a layoff.

“We would open under the same Phase 3 protocols that were in place leading up to this and would lead directly into training camp.

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