Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips April 8, 2020 Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02 Sportsnet.ca: Blue Jackets' Jones: Ankle 'felt good' during first skate since surgery Cleveland Monsters/Prospects NHL/Websites PAGE 03 The Athletic: LeBrun: Non-playoff teams using time wisely, one city playoff format unlikely PAGE 06 The Athletic: What would a centralized NHL playoff tournament look like? PAGE 11 The Athletic: Wheeler: Every lottery team’s biggest need at the 2020 NHL Draft PAGE 19 Sportsnet.ca: 'He's a warrior': Oilers' Colby Cave fighting for life due to brain bleed PAGE 21 TSN.CA: Gary Bettman: No Olympics gives NHL ‘broader window’ to play in summer PAGE 23 The Associated Press: Bettman raises chance of NHL not completing regular season Sportsnet.ca: Blue Jackets' Jones: Ankle 'felt good' during first skate since surgery By Emily Sadler – April 7, 2020 Columbus Blue Jackets fans got a little bit of good news this week when defenceman Seth Jones took his first strides on the ice after undergoing ankle surgery back in February. Jones, who posted a video of himself hitting the ice on Sunday, provided a brief update on his recovery process during an interview on Hockey Central on Tuesday. “The ankle felt good,” he said. “We’re obviously not rushing it too much at the moment, we’re handling things a little bit differently than if a season was going on still. So, taking it slow, just got out there in a track suit for a little Sunday skate. It was nice to lace up the skates again and stick-handle the puck again.” “I was a little rusty, but it was nice,” he said, adding that the skate lasted just 20 minutes. “Hopefully this week and next week I can start ramping up a little bit more.” Jones suffered a fractured ankle Feb. 8 against the Colorado Avalanche and underwent surgery a few days later. The team estimated at the time that he would be sidelined 8-10 weeks, which would have meant missing at least the remainder of the regular season with a potential return for the playoffs should the team make the post-season. Despite a long list of injured players that includes Jones, Josh Anderson, Alexander Wennberg, Alexandre Texier, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Murray and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, among others, the plucky Blue Jackets currently sit in the second wild-card spot – just one point ahead of the New York Islanders in the east. With the league now almost four weeks into its suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains unclear how the NHL will proceed to conclude the 2019-20 season. For now, Jones will continue to focus on getting his ankle healthy. “I’m not pushing it too hard but keep getting on the ice, I’ll work a little bit harder and push it a little bit harder with each time I’m out there, try to kind of get back in the groove,” Jones said when asked about next steps in rehabilitating the ankle. “I’m doing a lot of cardio work and strengthening and balance things with it off the ice. The trainers are doing a great job with me. It’s definitely a waiting game for all of us at the moment, but for now I’ll be here in Columbus and working.” The Athletic: LeBrun: Non-playoff teams using time wisely, one city playoff format unlikely By Pierre LeBrun – April 7, 2020 Last Saturday marked what was supposed to have been the last day of the NHL’s regular season had COVID-19 not come crashing down on us. Whether or not there will be a season resumption remains up in the air, but some non-playoff teams have made the wise decision to move on with player evaluations and individual player interviews. I mean, why not? The Anaheim Ducks, for example, have already started player exit interviews. “Where our organization is, we have to make adjustments for next year, and I want to talk to my players while it’s still fresh in their minds – what went on this year,’’ Ducks GM Bob Murray said over the phone on Tuesday from Anaheim. “If it gets too far down the road, it’s not going to be fresh. It’s going to be distant.’’ And Murray also notes that the players have welcomed the chats. They’ve got oodles of idle time on their hands and Murray has found his conversations with players have been terrific. “I spoke with Rickard Rakell today and it was two and a half hours, and it was outstanding,’’ Murray said of his player exit call with the Swedish forward. Maybe it’s therapeutic for everyone involved just to be talking hockey right now given what’s going on in the world. Either way, it’s a smart use of everyone’s time for teams that are obviously out of the playoff picture, such as Anaheim. Sure, the Ducks may be asked to come back this summer and play some regular- season games. But a handful of regular-season games isn’t going to change the narrative in these player evaluations and exit meetings for the Ducks. With 85 percent of the regular season played, the Ducks have a picture of their team. “I think it’s important for me and our players to talk about it now, we got to get better next year, and it’s good for them to talk about it now,’’ Murray said. What some other non-playoff teams are doing: San Jose is having player “update’’ calls. It’s not just an evaluation of their season but also in the event there’s a season resumption, it will help the players prepare for that. Los Angeles has started the review process with coaches but hasn’t begun player interviews yet. New Jersey coaches are working on player evaluations for coach/manager meetings which will be held at some point. No player exit meetings have been scheduled at this point. Buffalo has more player evaluation meetings this week with coaches, then the Sabres will have (virtual) “development meetings’’ with the players, but not exit meetings. The Sabres want to keep everyone ready for all potential options. Some other non-playoff teams I checked with are either waiting for official word from the league before moving on to player exit interviews or are operating under the assumption the season will resume and thus, have put the player interviews on hold. And yes, for now, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association remain focused on resuming the season even if it means July-August hockey, as we’ve been saying for a couple of weeks now. There’s been some confusion out there after a report from my good friend Elliotte Friedman at Sportsnet suggesting North Dakota as a potential neutral site for NHL playoff games. For whatever reason, some people have taken that to mean the league would stage its entire tournament in North Dakota. This is not the case. First of all, sources suggest North Dakota was mentioned internally a few weeks ago along with several other neutral sites as the league spit-balled different scenarios and different neutral sites. But most importantly, I’m told it is very unlikely the NHL would consider going to one site only if it is forced to go the centralized route. That’s because the NHL doesn’t believe a single location would work for its purposes. It could be four cities for 16 teams as we’ve reported before, or two locations, provided they each had two rinks apiece which the NHL could utilize. It could even be eight cities. All kinds of scenarios are being discussed but there is no formal plan at this point. It’s all in the very early stages of discussion. But if the NHL is forced by the realities of the ongoing coronavirus threat to centralize its season resumption this summer, the only certainty as this point is the desire to have more than one location involved. I thought colleague Scott Burnside had a really interesting take on the centralized format idea this week. There’s been an ongoing discussion within the NHL Players’ Association about what to do with the players’ final paycheque, which is scheduled to be deposited into the players’ bank accounts on April 15. The debate among players has been whether to forgo their final paycheque to start paying down the money they’re going to owe the owners in escrow. With the season interrupted and the overall hammering pro sports is taking due to the pause, the players are facing major paybacks next year. One argument is, if the players are going to owe a large sum due to escrow, why not start now? The counter-argument is to keep the paycheques and worry about the rest later, especially when nobody is in a position to say for sure if next season will start on time, never mind whether this season will be resumed. It’s a tough call for players. There was an executive board conference call over the weekend (player reps), plus the NHLPA has been busy with individual team calls discussing the issue. It’s very similar to the way players can be on the opposite side of the growth factor debate every year when it comes to the salary cap calculation. Players on expiring contracts always want the highest possible cap. Players on long-term deals would rather see the lowest possible cap to mitigate escrow. In any case, there’s another executive board conference call set for Wednesday at which point a decision should be made.