Players are ready to reject one of the NHL scenarios for 2020-21

We are still waiting for the National Hockey League and its Players Association to get together and meet to discuss what will come of the 2020-21 season and what the set-up of that campaign will look like and earlier this week, we were told by TSN’s Darren Dreger that the league is currently looking at six different playing scenarios for the upcoming season. 

However, it sounds like the players might already be ready to reject one of the options on the table. According to goalie Devan Dubnyk, who was recently traded from the Minnesota Wild to the San Jose Sharks, players across the league are not willing to start the next season in NHL bubbles like they were forced to for the postseason. 

“I don’t think anybody is signing up to do another 60 days or anything extended like that,” Dubnyk said, according to  NBC Sports California’s Brodie Brazil. “It’s really tough.”

Dubnyk spent just over a week in the NHL’s bubble over the summer when he competed in the postseason for the Wild. The champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Dallas Stars, who loss in the Stanley Cup Final, spent two months inside the bubble.

While it was impressive that the NHL recorded zero positive tests from the moment players and staff entered the controlled zones, Dubnyk is certain there are ways around needing to set up bubbles, and he points to other major sports leagues.

“I don’t think guys will want to do that, or should be put in a position to do that,” Dubnyk said. “No other sport is, and it’s not necessary to do that. It’s not what we signed up for, and not what anybody is really prepared to do. There’s so many players with young families, that’s just really hard.”

It is believed that one of the options on the table for the NHL to resume play for the 2020-21 campaign is the possibility of using a hybrid bubble system to make the season work. The concept would put players on a rotation, spending two weeks inside a bubble and then one week at home before reentering.

However as of now, we have no clue what the NHL and its players have planned to kick off the 2020-21 season. But the players sure have an opinion about it.