Best Holiday Present EVER.
As I wrote yesterday, the NHL and NHLPA are close to announcing a deal and none of the issues left to be hammered out pertain to players' compensation...Just Covid protocol, etc... We are not out of the woods yet though...There are some fears about the Board of Governors signing off on this plan... especially the 3 or so teams who really don't want to play under these circumstances, but I get the impression the NHL will be helping those teams to find their way to a yes vote.
The season will start in mid-January...(Been saying January 18th the whole time) and when the official terms of the agreement are signed and delivered, you can expect another flurry of signings and, as one source put it, "a ton of trades," leading into camps opening and the holidays...
This is especially true given the NHL/NHLPA are likely and implement the standard "Holiday trade freeze." That generally runs from December 20th through December 27th.
This will be a fun time around here...Currently, we have seen almost no movement and very few signings since the "Return to Play" situation got dicey. One GM told me he had to tell his UFAs/RFAs that, "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what we can and can't do because we have no idea what the season will look like..."
That's all about to change.
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— Michael Augello (@MikeInBuffalo) August 2, 2017