from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- There’ve been some reports that Florida’s 2016 first-rounder, Henrik Borgstrom, will be going to Europe instead of staying in North America. Here is the response from Borgstrom’s agent, Markus Lehto: “Naturally, there are numerous top teams in all the best Euro leagues that definitely would like to have him. The NHL season may still continue and if that happens, Henrik is looking forward to helping the Panthers to win games. That is obviously if he is given the permission to play after his March injury. He is training hard in Helsinki with few other NHLers. Too early to discuss next season. Obviously the NHL is top priority.”

- Again, no guarantees, but if we go straight to a 24-team playoff, the guys on the league’s seven other teams could have to go nine months without a game....

- I don’t get this whole idea about anyone who wins a championship — whether it be the Stanley Cup, the NBA title or anything else — having “an asterisk” next to it because it didn’t come through a normal playoff. The world’s been thrown into total chaos — there’s an enormous effect on everyone’s mental and financial health. Anyone who wins is going to be separated from their families for months. All of this probably occurs before there’s a vaccine in place, so there’s real risk involved. Yeah, that sounds incredibly easy.

- Two weeks ago, when Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly sent out his memo advocating for a June draft, most of the reaction was, “We may not like it, but whatever the league wants, it gets.”

The note promised 30 days notice, so we’ve slipped by the June 5–6 date. The league could go back to its original date of June 26–27, but online. However, there is a growing sense that the league office is backing away from this fight. On the Board of Governors call three days after that memo, it’s believed that approximately half the teams indicated they were completely against doing it before the end of the playoffs. Even more of an issue was there weren’t many teams willing to fight for doing it early.

One of the concerns with having it in the fall is suddenly the sports calendar is jammed with NFL, tennis majors, golf majors, big horse races, MLB, etc. But that argument is not swaying anyone.

more Thoughts plus how a 24 team playoff scenerio could work...