Start here today.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Return to Play this time is the introduction of NHL Taxi Squads...Each team will be allowed to carry 6 players on their taxi squad..1 must be a goalie..and these players are going to be paid AHL salaries, not counting against the cap.. If a player needs to pass through waivers to be sent to the NHL, that still applies, however players that have two way contracts and DON’T have to pass through waivers can be moved freely back and forth.
Since players are still getting full salaries in a condensed period of time each day a player is with the big squad counts as more money than usual. You can expect teams to use this VERY creatively to potentially open up quite a bit of cap space....unfortunate for a player if you are the one getting your AHL salary on practice days...
Fans in seats to start?
Believe it or not...and this is truly baffling to me... fans will be allowed into arenas in Texas (around 4500) and Florida (around 2500) to watch these games...Yup...with Covid rates and deaths NEVER higher, this is a thing.
I am wondering if this could change in February...but at least on January 13th this is possible. These are INDOOR arenas and a few super spreaders could really haunt this whole thing, not to mention endangering lives...
Hope...
There is hope of course that as the season goes and the vaccine gets rolled out to the general public that life could return to some normalcy and by the playoffs we could see fans all over North America... Time will tell...
What’s the buzz??
What do you think of the taxi squad scenario? What do you think of fans being allowed into the arena in Texas and Florida?
Rumors to come as today the GMs are back to work full tilt!
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— Michael Augello (@MikeInBuffalo) August 2, 2017