NHL's Gary Bettman: 'We're going to have to make adjustments' to settle on restart plan

When or if the NHL concludes its 2019-20 campaign is anyone’s guess.

Including the league’s commissioner.

But one thing is certain: Gary Bettman and company have explored multiple options for trying to stage games in order to finish this season and start the next one while the world at large tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

He made that abundantly clear Wednesday night during a video interview with Ron MacLean of Sportsnet in which Bettman outlined a handful of scenarios the league has considered in order to resume playing games.

“Which one of the plans?” Bettman quipped. “We’re modeling. We’re trying to see what our options will be under whatever scenario unfolds. And I’ve got a lot of talented people at our organization, both at the league level and at the clubs, and we’re focused on what the issues might be, how we respond if we get a green light. The decision ultimately will be made by medical people and people who run governments at all different levels. So we’re not going to try and do anything that flies in the face of what we’re being told is appropriate.

“But whether or not we play the rest of the regular season on some basis, whether 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.”

While stressing nothing has been determined, Bettman made it clear there is not necessarily a hard deadline to make a determination on when to complete the 2019-20 campaign.

“Clearly we can play into the summer,” Bettman said. “Clearly we can play next season, which we intend to do in its entirety, starting later. So 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 crazy. We’re going to try to do something under the circumstances at the time that is sensible.”

“If whatever we do (to award the Stanley Cup) is fair and has integrity, it will work. … We don’t live in a world of perfect anymore. We’re going to have to make adjustments. Ideally from our standpoint, and it would resolve a lot of issues, would be if we could complete the regular season, even if it’s on a centralized basis, and then go into the playoffs the way we normally play them. That would be ideal. But that’s again one of the numerous models that we’re looking at. If we can’t do ideal, if we can’t do perfect, we’re going to have to figure out what’s next to perfect.”

In his discussions with the NHL’s players association, the point of allowing players time to prepare for a potential restart has been emphasized.

“The first step will be getting our players back into the training facilities that our clubs have to be able just to work out pre-training camp,” Bettman said. “And we’re going to need a training camp. … We had a conversation with the players’ association and a number of players to discuss these issues. There was a sense that somewhere, give or take, probably more give, there needs to be at least three weeks of training camp. Because when the players come back, they want to be in, and we want them to be in, game-ready shape. Most importantly, so that nobody gets hurt needlessly.”

As has been the case with virtually every industry on the planet, the NHL’s finances have been damaged by the pandemic. Bettman declined to get into specifics beyond one point of emphasis.

“Let’s be clear about one thing,” Bettman said. “We have no revenues coming in right now. And that poses an issue, not just in terms of how our system works with players, but the tens of thousands of people that work for clubs in all sports and how they’re impacted by the fact that sports has no revenue coming in. I think our owners, overwhelmingly, have tried to do the right things.”

The full interview can be viewed here:

Follow the Penguins all season long.