Bob McKenzie reports major progress in Return to Play agreement; hub cities chosen

Late night negotiations between the NHL and the organization representing players (NHLPA) has yielded major progress on agreements for the league's Return to Play plan. That's according to TSN's Bob McKenzie, who is also reporting that the league has chosen its hub cities for its eventual return to finish the 2019-20 season.

"Long night of negotiations/hard work between NHL/NHLPA appears to have resulted in agreement on most issues on Phase 3/4 RTP, CBA extension, transition rules," said McKenzie on Twitter. "Still a couple of items to finalize today. NOTHING, of course, is actually done until both sides ratify a tentative deal."

"Barring any last-minute complications, and we have seen some of those (Vancouver and Las Vegas), the two NHL Hub cities will be Edmonton and Toronto."

Vancouver, who had been considered a lock for a hub city, withdrew its bid after local health officials were unable to reach an agreement with the league over what should happen if players began testing positive for COVID-19 once play resumed. Vegas, also considered a lock at one point, was eventually eliminated from the running after rising COVID-19 numbers in Nevada and several other U.S. states.

McKenzie is also reporting that, despite a push by the NHLPA, "recently signed players [Alexander] Romanov (MTL), [Kirill] Kaprizov (MIN), [Ilya] Sorokin (NYI) will not be eligible for 2019-20 RTP."

As for when an official announcement might come from the NHL, the consensus seems to be before the end of this week. Training camps are slated to open on July 10th. Games are expected to start taking place near the end of July with the best-of-five qualifying round.

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