The NHL and NHLPA have yet to have discussions on possible neutral site locations for games this season, NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr told ESPN on Saturday.
"Other than the general understanding that they're looking at all possibilities, which includes neutral sites -- neutral being defined as a place that isn't a home base for an NHL team," Fehr said. "We haven't had those discussions yet."
Last week, deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN that the league was still in the stages of compiling a list of potential locations.
“We do have people putting together the comprehensive laundry list of what we would need from facilities and evaluating some facilities on some level,” Daly said. “But I can’t tell you we’ve even finished creating a list (of potential sites), much less narrowed it down.”
New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu told radio station WEEI on Friday that he has had discussions with the league about hosting NHL games in Manchester. Manchester is home to SNHU Arena, the former rink of the AHL Manchester Monarchs from 2001-15 and the ECHL Manchester Monarchs from 2015-19.
"I can tell you it would be a very interesting opportunity for New Hampshire," Sununu said, "but even the venues would have to say, 'Yes, we want this,' because we have to make sure where the liabilities are here. What if a team were to get sick, how is it going to be managed?
"So we’re working on some of those logistics. But that’s on the table, for sure."
Fehr said that any plans for the season resuming would be done so with the guidance of federal and local governments.
"You're going to want to know what the CDC says, without any question at all," said Fehr. "But in addition to that, as we all know, the state governors and the provincial premiers have the basic responsibilities over their own jurisdictions, so you're going to have to work with them too. The implication of the question is whether it's OK to play in some places and not others. I don't know if that's true. I assume it's certainly possible. If it is, we'll see what makes sense."
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