New NHL memo pushes for early return and some players are furious.

A brand new memo released by the National Hockey League has some players up in arms but at this point ut does not sound like their outrage is going to achieve much of anything. 

According to a breaking news report from Sportsnet's National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman, the league sent out a new memo on Friday night to teams in the league that indicated that they will be holding their draft in early June, a shockingly early return to business for the National Hockey League but one that now seems to be moving forward. The reactions that Friedman received to the news from those around the league have not been positive, but it sounds like the NHL is intent on going forward with this plan.

“They’re really trying to convince us, aren’t they?” was a common response to the feedback received by Friedman.

The majority of the responses that Friedman received however appeared to be ones of resignation, as there did not appear to be much room for discussion in the memo sent out by the league. Friedman himself admitted that this was how the memo came off to him as well.

“It sure reads like, this is what we are doing… get used to it,” read several responses received by Friedman.

There are a ton of concerns with an early drat and that is before we even talk about the potential health risks that would be involved in hosting an event this early during these rather crazy times. What will happen to conditional draft picks that are still in play with the season suspended? How will the draft order be decided with games still left on the regular season schedule and no playoffs? What if teams would have traded a player at this year's draft,  say a player on an expiring contract, but plan to use him for their playoff run if the season resumes? Those are difficult questions that need to be answered but NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly makes the case that no matter what happens this seasons draft is going to end up being abnormal.

“While this is certainly a valid concern,” Daly said as per Sportsnet, “the fact of the matter is that whenever we hold the 2020 Draft — in early June or ‘shoehorned’ into a short window in October or November — (it) is not going to be a typical NHL Draft. It is not going to look the same; it is not going to feel the same; and it is not going to be the same. While we may know more about next year’s landscape in terms of CBA, Salary Cap, Escrow, etc., in November than we will in June, we are still not going to know everything, and there is still going to be a multitude of questions that have no answers. So, any comparison of the 2020 NHL Draft to a typical year’s Draft is not — and cannot be — an ‘apples to apples’ comparison.”

Some of the reactions received by Friedman no doubts sums up how a lot of players feel about this, but the question now is will it even matter.

“This is terrible, and I don’t support it,” said some of the replies Friedman received.