Important meeting to take place amongst players on Wednesday

A week ago, the NHLPA took an important step in trying to help the league to resume play by creating a Return to Play Committee. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun revealed on Tuesday that the NHL-NHLPA Return to Play Committee is scheduled to hold their fourth meeting on Wednesday. 

Toronto Maple Leafs’ John Tavares, Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid, Winnipeg Jets’ Mark Scheifele, Philadelphia Flyers’ James van Riemsdyk and Ottawa Senators’ Ron Hainsey accepted roles on the committee, which includes high-ranking officials from the NHL and NHLPA. 

It is believed that the group plans to hold at least one meeting a week as they attempt to map out potential scenarios for resuming play.

“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,” Tavares told LeBrun in The Athletic last week . “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.’’

The NHL season has been shut down since March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are still awaiting to see when action can resume. Let’s see if that committee can play a role in what happens next.