Restarting the Season: How the Player Proposal Affects the Hurricanes

The NHL Season is still on Hiatus. The players have their own proposal to restarting it. How does that affect the Hurricanes?

With the season on hiatus for quite a while now and not looking like coming back anytime soon, let’s look at a proposal from the Players themselves to re-starting the season right where we left off and how that would affect the Carolina Hurricanes.

Right now there are several ideas bouncing around the league. From just ending the season and giving the Bruins the Cup (yuck) to an expanded 24 team playoff format that would have everyone but the Sabres, Devils, Senators, Red Wings, Ducks, Kings, and Sharks from making it.

But what do the players themselves want?

While most of us were concerned with contract years and how the draft and free agency would work, the players came up with a lengthy plan that had the season start again in the middle of summer.

This is an interesting proposal for two main reasons. First it shows that the players want the time to get back into shape and compete, with the value of the competition showing with the fact that they want to finish the season and get to a traditional 16 team playoff format. No gimmies.

These guys want to compete for the cup fairly and they want to do so with full strength. This could be good news for the Carolina Hurricanes who have more than a few players looking to get healthy again.

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The second interesting part is the fact that next season would be delayed by two months. This shrinks the offseason to a single month of October and more likely than not shortens the following season. That could work to the advantage of the Hurricanes who have a tendency to start hot and lose steam as the season goes, but we will get to that later.

This plan makes sense from a player perspective when you think about injuries. These guys want to get back on the ice, get some training in, and then play fresh and loose. They do not want to be vaulted into playoff scenarios where they will have to give it all they have or risk having to go back to social distancing at the golf clubs.

The players also want the time to get healthy again for those who are injured. For the Carolina Hurricanes, chances are, Dougie Hamilton, James Reimer, and Sami Vatanen will all get back and healthy by the time July rolls around. If the Playoffs aren’t starting until August and into September, a deep run could see the return of Brett Pesce as well.

Now this might put the Carolina Hurricanes into a bind with the Cap limit, but considering how the season has been extended in this plan, and the fact that the trade deadline has passed, I can see the league making exemptions for cap space. This would give every player the opportunity to earn their worth before the extremely short offseason.

All in all this isn’t a terrible plan and might give us some semblance of normalcy within a year or so. Something we all desperately need.

Question for CC Readers: What do you think of the player proposal?