The Vancouver Canucks announced that their city will not be a 12-team “hub” if the NHL restarts its season this summer, despite speculation it had been one of the front-runners.
“From the beginning, our goal was to help the NHL get hockey back on the ice if we could. Although Vancouver won’t be a Hub City, we are still excited to see hockey start up again,” said Canucks Sports & Entertainment COO Trent Carroll.
The NHL season has been paused since March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The league and its players have approved a “return to play” format that features a 24-team Stanley Cup playoff tournament, with two “hub cities” hosting 12 teams from each conference.
The players have yet to officially approve an actual return to the ice this summer and have said that the identity of the “hub cities” will factor into their vote.
Chief among the criteria for the NHL in seeking out these cities were COVID-19 infection rate, the ability to create a “bubble” of safety for players and personnel, hotel capacity, available practice facilities and potential recreational activities for players during their down time.
Vancouver appeared to check many of those boxes, but several reports this week indicated that the city’s bid had hit a bump, as the province and the NHL had differing views on player safety.
“Vancouver, and anybody who’s paying any attention at all knows, that it is the best possible place for them to come because we enforce public health rules in British Columbia thoroughly and completely,” British Columbia health minister Adrian Dix said Thursday. “I love the NHL. I love the idea of hockey coming here, but I’m also the minister of health, and the players, and the fans, and those working in the arenas, and everyone in British Columbia expects the rules to apply to everybody. And that’s our advantage in this, it’s not a disadvantage in this.”
TSN reported that Bonnie Henry, health officer for British Columbia, suggested there was an impasse on how to handle a positive test for a player during the tournament. Henry felt there would likely have to be a pause in a series for a positive test. The NHL has indicated that it would remove a player from the series, but that a positive test would not necessitate a shutdown.
“Everything depends on the facts and the entire set of circumstances,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly told TSN in April, “but no, we do not believe that one positive test, even multiple positive tests wouldn’t necessarily shut the whole thing.”
A source told ESPN last week that there was a “good chance” the NHL would have one or both hub cities in Canada. The league intensified its talks with Edmonton and Toronto on Thursday. Las Vegas has remained a speculative front-runner for one of the hub cities, despite rising COVID-19 numbers in Nevada.
Chicago and Los Angeles are also still in the running as hub cities. Columbus, Dallas, Pittsburgh and Minnesota all dropped out of the running prior to Vancouver’s removal from the race.