NHL Receiving Pitches from Cities to Host Neutral-Site Playoff Games

Like many other sports organizations, the NHL is trying to figure out a plan to safely return to action after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the league to suspend operations March 12.

One solution may be holding playoff games at neutral sites. As NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told Emily Kaplan and Greg Wyshynski of ESPN, cities and arenas have approached the league about holding games.

"We do have people putting together the comprehensive laundry list of what we would need from facilities and evaluating some facilities on some level," Daly told ESPN. "But I can't tell you we've even finished creating a list [of potential sites], much less narrowed it down."

Kaplan and Wyshynski mentioned Grand Forks, North Dakota (the home of the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks); Manchester, New Hampshire (the home of the University of New Hampshire Wildcats) and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (home of the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League).

The ESPN duo mentioned that the games would "likely" occur in empty arenas. However, Daly also said the league has not "created the field yet" as far as determining places that could feasibly host postseason games.

Per Kaplan and Wyshynski, the NHL wants to conclude its regular season before holding a playoff tournament. Every team has at least 10 games remaining, and the league as a whole has 189 contests left on the ledger.

However, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, the league is open to holding a truncated regular season. All teams have played between 68-71 games, and LeBrun said it's possible each team could finish with 74, 76 or 78 contests instead.

Ultimately, so much is still unknown, including whether the league will be able to restart in time to finish the 2019-20 campaign.

Daly did say that the league doesn't have a date in mind as far as when the NHL would need to start again in order to hold regular-season games.

"We're just starting to get our minds around that," Daly said. "It's kind of a combination of things, like when we can start a regular season [in 2020-21] and how much time we need for an offseason and then what does the playoff format look like, in terms of knowing what you need to have a regular season."

One possible solution is decreasing the playoff rounds. The postseason typically takes two months to cover four rounds of best-of-seven series. Hypothetically, the league could do single-elimination, best-of-three or best-of-five instead.

Best-of-one doesn't appear to be in the cards, though, per Daly:

"I would say that a best-of-one is not something we would ever go to. I've always had the caveat that everything is on the table and nothing is out of the question. I would say there would be a strong opposition to ever creating a playoff where it was a single elimination. I think best-of-three is more possible, not preferred, but more possible than a best-of-one scenario."

Regardless, the league is most concerned with returning in safe manner for all those involved, per Daly: "From our perspective, the paramount consideration here is what is safe and is going to protect the health and well-being of our players and obviously the general public. It may not be on the calendar a real long way away, but it is on a decision tree, a real long way away."

That sentiment was echoed by NHLPA executive director Mathieu Schneider to LeBrun on Thursday:

"We're still too early in this process to speculate and make concrete assertions, and we are trying to keep an open mind to all options. We are now working together with the league to come up with viable solutions to address a wide array of issues we will be dealing with. The health and safety of our players, families and fans are No. 1 on our list in any scenario we would consider."

The NHL left off with the reigning Eastern Conference champion Boston Bruins leading the league with 100 points. The Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues paced the Western Conference with 94 points.