Toronto Maple Leafs Captain Leads NHL Return to Play Committee

A few days ago, the NHL announced their Return to Play Committee, which includes one current and two former Toronto Maple Leafs players.

Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares is a representative on the committee, but is joined by ex-Leafs Ron Hainsey and James van Riemsdyk, as well as Connor McDavid and Mark Scheifele from a player perspective.

Representing the NHL is Gary Bettman, Bill Daly, Colin Campbell and Steve Hatze Petros, while Don Fehr, Mathieu Schneider, general counsel Don Zavelo and divisional rep Steve Webb are representing the NHLPA.

According to Pierre Lebrun from The Athletic, the committee will discuss all potential scenarios for resuming play.

NHL Trying to Get Back

In a similar article by Larry Brooks from The New York Post, Brooks mentioned that: “the union has conducted a pair of conference calls over the past three days with regularly scheduled ‘meetings’ to follow.”

Brooks continued to say “….the discussions thus far have not honed in on details as much as concepts. But the details will determine not only whether the NHL can develop a pragmatic plan in the midst of a pandemic, but whether the players will agree to it.”

This committee will be very important moving forward, but ultimately health officials will make the final call. However, Gary Bettman mentioned a few more details to Ron MacLean about what the NHL needs to figure out in order to resume play:

“Whether it’s multiple locker rooms, whether it’s 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 and 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.”

From a players perspective, the Leafs captain is definitely excited about the committee and being able to share his perspective.

“I was asked to be a part of it and I’m obviously happy to help and communicate with as many guys as I can and get a general feeling on what we feel is going to be best, collectively, going forward coming out of this, how best to deal with this situation…Obviously, timing is very important from a health and safety standpoint to proper preparation and then how to play with integrity and fairness to award the Stanley Cup. All that is part of this and I’m just happy to be part of it,” said Tavares.

Even though it’s fair from reality at this moment, it’s always nice to hear Tavares and the Stanley Cup used in the same sentence.

As mentioned prior, health officials will ultimately make a decision on whether the NHL will be able to resume, but this committee is a good step towards getting hockey back to normal.

Let’s hope that all three parts of the committee work together and find a solution on next steps so that when health officials deem that it’s safe to go back to work, the NHL will be ready.