OTTAWA – Canada’s health minister says the federal government has had initial talks with the National Hockey League about its return to play plan.
Patty Hajdu on Thursday said the discussions are preliminary at this point, but added she’s not ruling out the possibility of a Canadian city acting as one of two playoff hubs proposed by the league earlier this week.
NHL officials have proposed playing out the postseason in a pair of 12-team hubs. The top four teams in each conference would jockey for seeding in a round-robin division, while the remaining eight teams would pair off and play in a best-of-five play-in series, with the four winners advancing to compete in the traditional opening round of a 16-team playoff.
The league has listed 10 cities, including Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto, as potential hosts, and hopes to make a decision in the next three to four weeks.
It won’t happen north of the border unless all the public-health boxes are checked, Hajdu said, reached by phone in Ottawa.
“All health ministers across Canada agree we have to put the health and safety of Canadians first. But having said that, we’re also having conversations right now with the NHL and other professional sports, to hear what their plans are in terms of protecting their players and also their staff; but also how they’ll manage any potential risk to Canadians’ health,” Hajdu said.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an extension of the border closure to all non-essential travel to and from the United States until June 21.
Under the regulations, anyone entering Canada internationally must self-quarantine for 14 days.
According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the NHL won’t begin Phase 3 of its return to play plan, the start of training camps, until July 10 at the earliest.
Despite the timelines, Hajdu said it’s just too soon to say whether or not the NHL will get the go-ahead to resume play in Canada.
“We won’t move ahead unless the premiers and the provinces in which teams want to locate are willing to accept those teams into their community."
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has already made his pitch. In a May 26 letter to the federal government Kenney asked Ottawa to consider giving Edmonton a quarantine exemption to allow the city to host one half of the postseason draw.
"The government of Alberta believes there are effective strategies in place to mitigate any risk for our province if such an exemption was granted,” Kenney said in the letter, as reported by CTV Edmonton.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly has said the league will absolutely not consider Canadian cities if the mandatory 14-day quarantine order remained in place.
Alberta has had more than 6,900 COVID-19 cases, the third-most of any province in Canada. There have been 141 deaths, the fourth most in the country, but there are only 53 active cases in the Edmonton zone as of Thursday. Calgary, by comparison, has 518 active cases.
Hajdu said her government will have more to say once talks with the NHL and other leagues have concluded.