The Penguins have shown interest in having games played at PPG Paints Arena if the NHL resumes its 2019-20 season.
If that is to happen, they might have to convince the league that facilities -- everything from locker rooms to hotels -- here are adequate to handle what Commissioner Gary Bettman said could be "a dozen or so teams in one location."
In a digital interview Monday with Leaders Week, a sports business conference, Bettman said that "probably eight or nine different places" are under consideration.
He did not identify those places or specify how many teams would be involved if the league were to go directly to the Stanley Cup playoffs when operations resume.
"Do we complete the regular season when we're given the opportunity?" Bettman said. "Do we do an abbreviated regular season, because our competitive balance is so extraordinary, it's hard to tell how the season would have ended? Do we go right to the playoffs, and in what form?
"And if we're not playing in front of fans, which at least in the short term seems (likely), do we do it in a centralized location or locations? And if so, what places what might suitable from a COVID-19 standpoint, in terms of the communities that you're in and how big the outbreak is? And what is the availability of testing? And so that requires a collaboration with our medical advisers."
Bettman's comments were reported by NHL.com, which said the league "probably" would stage multiple games in host cities each day.
Western Pennsylvania's large medical community and the relatively low number of COVID-19 cases here could work in the Penguins' favor, because regularly testing personnel that would be involved with restarting the season -- and doing so without interfering with the testing and treatment needs of people living in the area -- would be a priority for the league.
"I am told that there can be enough (testing) capacity, and certainly over the next couple of months, there will be more capacity," Bettman said. "But that is a fundamental question, and we certainly can't be jumping the line, in front of medical needs."
The NHL suspended operations more than two months ago because of the coronavirus pandemic and has since formulated a number of plans for resuming play, depending on when political and medical authorities give clearance to do so.
"I don't think anybody has a fixed timetable, particularly in North America right now," Bettman said. "We have been working very hard since we took the pause on March 12 to make sure that whatever the timing is, whatever the sequencing is, whatever physical ability we have in terms of locations to play, that we're in a position to execute any or all of those options. There is still a great deal of uncertainty.
"Everything we do is going to be governed by the doctors, the medical people and by governments at all levels, which will tell us what is and isn't appropriate for us to do. So a lot of our planning and a lot of the issues we're confronting ultimately are going to be resolved for us by other people, whether it's physicians or whether it's governmental leaders, and that's why we have to be doing a lot of contingency planning, so we can react to whatever they're telling is us appropriate and permissible."
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