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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman indicated last month that if possible he would like to have a Canadian city be one of the two hub cities when the league resumes play later this summer, but that would be contingent on whether the Canadian government would allow players to not have the quarantine for two weeks when crossing the border into Canada.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that he is open to the possibility of either Edmonton, Vancouver or Toronto serving as host cities, in spite of the extension of the non-essential travel ban between the US and Canada to July 21 and maintaining the 14-day quarantine.
“We have indicated that we are comfortable with moving forward on an NHL hub in one of three Canadian cities that are asking for it,… Trudeau said. “Obviously the decision needs to be made by the NHL and the cities and the provinces in the jurisdiction. Canada is open to it as long as it is okay by the local health authorities.…
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Ontario’s Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Lisa MacLeod stated that the province of Ontario is on board with working with the NHL and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
Toronto has advantages for being a host city with the large number of hotels, practice facilities and a history of holding multi-team events like the World Cup of Hockey, but the motivation on the part of the league may the inexpensive Canadian dollar and keeping the costs down for a nearly two-month long playoff tournament.
While the naming of the hub cities is not expected until later this month, there have been some indicators that if Toronto is named as a host city that it would likely be to the Western Conference teams, while the 12 Eastern clubs (including the Toronto Maple Leafs) would play in Las Vegas (if reports from last weekend that it had been selected as the first hub city are correct).
The switch of Eastern teams to Vegas and Western teams to an Eastern city is to avoid any home-ice advantage (even the most minute In terms of familiarity with the arena) that the Golden Knights would have playing at T-Mobiie Arena or the Leafs playing at Scotiabank Arena.
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We discuss #NHL Return To Play Phases 2 & 3, Hub Cities, how NHL plan compares with #NBA/#MLB, the hotel front, Calder Trophy race (best D class in years) & more...https://t.co/GErRrTA9Ma
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