Bettman: NHL has 'great deal of flexibility'

Gary Bettman spoke with Ron MacLean on Sportsnet on Wednesday evening regarding the potential plans for the remainder of the NHL season.

"We are hopeful that by doing the right things in the short term that we'll be able to come back and hopefully complete this season on some basis that is fair and has integrity," Bettman said. "We'll talk more about it, but timing creates both interesting dilemmas and opportunities. Everything we're going to do is going to be for the right reasons at the right time."

"Whether or not we play the rest of the regular season on some basis, whether or not we play the playoffs as we normally do or on an expanded basis, whether or not there are going to be fans in the building, how we deal with all of our partners, media and otherwise, how we continue to interact with our fans, we're just constantly trying to figure out what the alternatives will be," Bettman said. "Clearly we can play into the summer. Clearly we can play next season, which we intend to do in its entirety, starting later. With a lot of timing options, we have a great deal of flexibility. We're not going to rush anything, we're not going to do anything that's crazy. We're going to try to do something under the circumstances of the time that is sensible."

One of the dilemmas the league is facing is where to hold the remainder of the season.

Bettman, confirming what ESPN reported earlier in the day, said that one plan the NHL is looking at would include "as many as four" locations in which teams would play, and that those locations would be in NHL cities. The previous idea of neutral site games in college rinks like in North Dakota is completely off the table.

"If we're going to be centralized, we need the back of the house that NHL arenas provide, whether it's multiple locker rooms, the technology, the procedures, the boards and glass, the video replay, the broadcasting facilities, those are the things that are in place in NHL arenas," Bettman said. "That's what we're going to ultimately need if we're going to come back in a centralized basis and play multiple games a day."

Bettman said that if the NHL were to play in centralized games in NHL cities, it wouldn't necessarily be division-based, with each division having its own city. Locations would need to be somewhere that isn't a coronavirus hotspot, and also have adequate practice facilities for several teams.

Bettman also said that he and the league's general managers have discussed the idea of still having the NHL Draft in June, which would likely be before the end of the season.

Holding the draft before the season ends presents a number of problems. The league would have to come up with a different system for deciding the draft order, given that the playoff elimination order typically decides the draft order for the teams in the postseason. There are also a number of conditional draft picks that have been traded that involve postseason results. Additionally, holding the draft before the end of the postseason would prevent playoff teams from trading players for draft picks, as often happens on draft day.

"We don't live in a world of perfect anymore," Bettman said of the remainder of the season. "We're going to have to make adjustments. ... If we can't do perfect, we're going to have to do what's next to perfect."

The full interview can be seen here: