NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Tuesday revealed the NHL is considering 10 hub cities in order to begin the 2019-20 playoffs this summer.
It ultimately will come down to two cities, one for the Eastern Conference and one for the Western Conference, which Bettman hopes to know which ones will be hosts within three-to-four weeks.
Three of those cities, though, are in Canada, which has a 14-day mandatory quarantine for those traveling into the country. And NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said on NBCSN that the NHL “won’t be in a position to use any of the Canadian cities as a hub city,” if restrictions weren’t loosened.
Apparently, that’s exactly what happened.
Daly said Chad Wolf, the U.S. acting director of homeland security, deemed NHL players as essential and will be able to travel to and from Canada without quarantining for 14 days.
Of course, that certainly would be crucial should one of the Canadian cities be named a hub city and another one is in the United States.
But only time will tell how this all plays out.
