Gary Bettman to review bids from at least 8 cities on Tuesday.

The National Hockey League appears to be taking another step towards resuming its season and this one, according to a report from Sportsnet's NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, is set to take place on Tuesday of this week. 

Friedman reports that the league’s chief content officer, Steve Mayer, along with his events team will meet with both NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly to discuss the bids that have been submitted to them for what would be the resumption of the 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season. While you might think that cities would be cautious about holding such an event locally during these trying times the reality is that many of these cities have taken a major economic hit and, much like the NHL itself, could use a boost to that economy to right the ship after the damage has been done. Friedman reports that there are 8 cities that he is aware of that are involved, however he also reports that one source informed him that there could be at least 2 other as of yet unidentified teams in the mix as well. 

From Friedman:

It’s believed that Carolina, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vegas have expressed interest, but one team official said he heard there were “more than 10 of us submitting bids.”

It sounds like the league would like to have a location for each of its 4 divisions although safety is going to be the number one priority in each and every case here. There is not an expectation that a final decision will be reached at this meeting on Tuesday, however Friedman does believe that the list of potential contenders could be narrowed down. Given that we know the NHL is focused on a team in each division and that they will be looking for cities with a particularly low number of cases, it will become much easier to narrow down what the NHL's plans for a restart to the season will begin to look like.

Combine this news with the fact that the NHL sent out a memo late last week to teams indicating that it would likely be holding a draft in early June, and it looks like Bettman and co are beginning to accelerate a potential return to action for the NHL.