TORONTO — Quick dispatch from the GM meetings, which broke up just after noon at a downtown Toronto hotel:
This get-together can introduce potential rule-change discussions for the larger meeting in March. Not this time.
“Lots of housekeeping,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
“Just a boring report from us,” per executive vice-president Colin Campbell. “The game’s in a good place, we’re not worried about any big issues.”
The newsiest item is that NHL senior director of facilities operations/hockey operations Derek King and executive vice-president for NHL events Dean Matsuzaki are headed to Milan after this week’s Nashville/Pittsburgh games in Sweden. The main Olympic hockey rink is behind schedule and they will get an eyewitness view.
Is there real concern?
“We’ll know when they get there,” one source deadpanned.
“It’s something that we’re monitoring closely and we have absolutely no control over,” Bettman said. “We constantly get reassurances from the (International Olympic Committee) and the (International Ice Hockey Federation) that everything will be fine.”
Whatever the case, this is more of a headache than everyone hoped.
I remember walking into my hotel room in Sochi 2014, surprised by two gentlemen installing the screen door. But, as Bettman has said, the arena was completed in plenty of time, hosting the World Under-18s 10 months before the Olympic Games. One test event scheduled for Milan has already been moved.
We’ll know better next week.
• Other than that, it looks like both Team Canada and Team USA will announce their Olympic squads around New Year’s Day. (The roster submission deadline is Dec. 31.) Other countries may wait until after the World Juniors, with the gold medal game scheduled for Jan. 5.
• There were a number of progress reports, everything from scoring trends to time-of-game trends to penalty trends to goalie masks getting knocked off to the development pipeline.
• Deputy commissioner Bill Daly had a good line about the wild west conditions created by CHL players now eligible to compete in the NCAA: “Water finds its level over time.”
As soon as next season, one 19-year-old per organization drafted out of the CHL is allowed to play in the AHL. The process was not discussed in serious detail on Tuesday, but it’s clear this will be a conversation of consequence over the next few months. NHL clubs want more flexibility than that. The CHL wants to protect itself and the NHLPA definitely has a say.
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• There has been some grumbling about the “paper transaction” change in the new CBA. Previously, if teams wanted to send down a player for cap reasons, they could just do it. Now, anyone transferred to the AHL must actually play at least one game. NHL teams weren’t happy with the idea even before it became law, because gaps in AHL schedules could mean someone gets “trapped.”
That happened when Vancouver demoted Victor Mancini on Oct. 20 to maximize its LTIR cap space. Abbotsford didn’t play until the 24th, so the Canucks asked for a one-time waiver since there was so much time between games.
They didn’t get it.
Teams have asked for this to be revisited, but I’m not sure we’re going to see any change.
