Commissioner Gary Bettman not contemplating canceling NHL season

Well hockey fans, it looks like there's no sign of the NHL canceling its season amid the coronavirus pandemic.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman appeared as a guest in a virtual town hall hosted by the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday and noted canceling the season is “not something I’m even contemplating.”

“I believe that if the right time comes, and the right circumstances, based on all of the options that we’re considering and our ability to execute them, we’ll get this season done,” Bettman said, according to Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. “I don’t want to sound Pollyanna, but canceling is too easy a solution. That means you stop working hard to do all of the things that we’re doing, and I ultimately believe that there will be an opportunity.”

The NHL has only canceled its season twice... in 1919 because of the Spanish flu and in 2005 because of the lockout.

Bettman and the league paused the NHL season on March 12 due to the pandemic, but things seem to be on the rise, for the most part. Many states are in the process of phased reopenings and leagues may be able to play at neutral sites in order to finish the seasons.

Overseas Germany's Bundesliga and Italy's Serie A are set to resume play in the coming weeks, but France's Ligue 1 and 2 have canceled the remainder of the season.

If the NHL does resume the season, there's going to need to be some guarantees in place for player/employee health and safety. Players also don't seem to like the idea of playing away from their families, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.