NHL creates Return to Play Committee featuring McDavid, Tavares, van Riemsdyk and more.

There can no longer be any doubt that the National Hockey League is genuinely looking to salvage this current season and is hopeful that they will be able to play out their remaining games sooner rather than later. 

According to a brand new report from New York Rangers insider Larry Brooks of the New York Post, the National Hockey League has now put together a Return to Play Committee that features representation from every corner of the league. Representing the league is a cast of familiar faces including commissioner Gary Bettman, deputy commissioner Bill Daly and senior vice presidents Colin Campbell and Steve Hatze Petros. On the other side of things the National Hockey League Players Association will be represented by leader Don Fehr, former NHL player Mathieu Schneider, general counsel Don Zavelo, divisional rep Steve Webb and active players John Tavares, Connor McDavid, James van Riemsdyk and Ron Hainsey. It is interesting how many current and former Leafs are on this committee, but I am not sure there is a whole lot that we can read into that, although Toronto, Columbus and Edmonton appear to be clear front runners to host games at this time.

Brooks reports that the purpose of this committee will not only be to determine whether or not the NHL can put forward a plan to resume play this season, but also to see that if they can put forward a plan that the players will be comfortable with and agree to as well. One of the big issues here appears to be players who are at higher risk of contracting the disease should the NHL return to play, specifically players like Montreal's Max Domi, New York's Kaapo Kakko and Minnesota's Luke Kunin all of whom suffer from Type 1 Diabetes. There are of course other players with other health concerns as well which will no doubt make this the biggest hurdle that the NHL will face in its efforts to resume the season.

In spite of this it seems the NHL does intend to resume as quickly as possible, just yesterday we reported that a dater has been set for a return to camp in the NHL.