Talk about this in the comments at my site here.

Five topics:

1. The door is opening on a 2021 season

Alberta is already in. It sounds like British Columbia is close and will try to go full bubble.

Nothing yet from Oregon, but it doesn’t really matter with Washington giving approval. Presumably the Winterhawks in a worst-case scenario could play in Vancouver. Although if billeting weren’t an issue, it would make more sense to me for them to play in Everett or Seattle. (Will billeting be an issue?)

They’re going to try to start a season, at least.

2. What will a season look like?

What we know: the season is going to be division play only. The Winterhawks will not go to Canada, they will play exclusively in the US Division.

What we think we know: playoffs may not happen, if they do happen they will be very short, and will also not leave the division. A division title will be the highest achievement this season.

What we don’t know: most everything else.

I did a Twitter thread last night on the guidelines that went with the Alberta announcement. In the best case scenario, where no games are lost to Covid, you get a sparsely populated regular season that ends in early June. If one of a team’s players/coaches/staff tests positive, the team gets shut down for two weeks. It will be hard to plug those games into the middle of the season; the league might get a couple of chances to rearrange games if they byes worked out. But the bottom line is that it’s going to be hard for teams to get a “full” 24-game season in, unless they’re willing to go into July. I’d say any team that plays 20 games will have done well.

By those guidelines, teams will have to have byes, so a team is going to have two or three times where they go 12 days between games. Good luck keeping up fan interest with that.

If you’re a parent, is this a season worth sending your kid away for? Especially for Canadian kids on US teams who have a border crossing involved?

Is a season like this worth all this trouble? The main upside I’d see is a few months of team bonding...and a lot of practices.

Obviously these are just guidelines for Alberta. How the US Division sets up their season could be very different. But it’s the starting point.

3. The Winterhawks mini-season outlook

We have no idea. Not just because the Winterhawks’ roster is a question mark, but those of the other four teams are as well.

We do know that four of their veterans will be playing in Lincoln, Nebraska until their USHL season ends. The regular season ends April 24, but it sounds like they will have playoffs. Lincoln is currently 8th (and last) in a division where six make the playoffs. Potentially the four could be back for a month or so, unless all the parties involved were inclined to give them the rest of the summer off.

We don’t know about 1st-round NHL pick Seth Jarvis, either. Normally he’d be certain to be back with the Winterhawks, but in this time everything is uncertain.

Really, the most we know about the outlook is the stellar track record of management, but how much difference that might make in what could be a coin-flip season is also unknown.

4. Streaming

From a fan perspective, streaming is the only way we’ll be able to see the games. And that’s as unknown as anything else.

Before we ask if it will be any good, we have to ask if there will be streaming at all. If the Winterhawks were to play their home games in Mountain View Ice Arena in Vancouver, can a broadcast be set up there? Then we can ask if it will be any good.

5. The sister USHL team

Lincoln Stars: 8-12-1, 8th place out of 8 in the USHL Western Conference. With the four Winterhawks they’re 3-5.

Cross Hanas: 1 goal in 4 games. He’s missed the last 4.

James Stefan: 3 goals, 1 assist in 8 games.

Jack O’Brien: 2 assists in 6 games.

Clay Hanus: 3 assists in 8 games.

Discuss at my site here.