With the NHL season suspended, it’s possible that the game in Denver was the last game the New York Rangers will play until their next season, whenever that may be. What does it mean?
The NHL suspended the 2019-20 season on Thursday. but gave no indication about what the future holds.  What happens to the rest of the New York Rangers’ season is pure speculation and directly related to the spread of COVID-19. Right now, let’s assume that the virus will have run its course and the next season will start close to on time next fall.
There are really two options for the 2019-20 season. The first is the suspended season will be resumed at some point in the next few months and the playoffs will be held and the Stanley Cup will be awarded. It could mean the season will run into July and NHL owners have been asked to investigate the availability of their arenas as late as that month.
Whether they will conclude the season or go right into the playoffs with the current standings remains to be determined as well as the playoff format. They could go to an abbreviated format with five game series instead of seven.
The other option is more dire. It assumes that there will be no more hockey to be played until it is safe for large gatherings and this season will go into the books as incomplete. There will be no more games, no playoffs and no Stanley Cup.
The 1919 Stanley Cup
This has happened before. In 1919 there was no Stanley Cup awarded when the playoffs were cancelled after five games between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans because of the Spanish Influenza. Players from both teams got sick before the deciding game six and it was determined that there would be no more games.
Canadiens defenseman Joe Hall actually died four days later and the Canadiens’ manager George Kennedy was hospitalized and died a few years later from complications due to the Spanish flu.
The Spanish flu was the first H1N1 flu pandemic with the second the swine flu epidemic of 2009. One fourth of the world’s population was infected and the death toll was as high as 50 million people.
If there is no more hockey
If the season is declared over and there are no playoffs, the league will have to recognize the standings as of March 12 as the final standings. The number of games played will be uneven, but the league will have to decide how to award final point totals in order to determine the order of the NHL Entry Draft.
If the final standings are as they are today, the here are the final draft standings by point total.
The standings (Worst is first)
Teams         GR   W-L-OTL    PT  RW
1. Detroit       11  17-49-5    39   13 (E)
2. Ottawa      11   25-34-12   62  18
3. San Jose     12   29-36-5    63  22
4. Los Angeles  12   29-35-6    64   21
5. Anaheim     11   29-33-9    67  20
6. Buffalo      13   30-31-8    68   22
7. New Jersey   13   28-29-12   68  22
8. Montreal     12   31-31-9    71   19
9. Chicago     12   32-30-8    72   23
10. Arizona     12  33-29-8     74   26
11. Minnesota  13  35-27-7    77   30
12. Vancouver   13  36-27-6    78   27
13. Nashville   13  35-26-8    78   28
14. Florida      13  35-26-8    78   30
15. Calgary      12  36-27-7    79   25
16. Rangers     12  37-28-5    79   31
17. Winnipeg    11  37-28-6    80   30
18. Islanders    14  35-23-10   80  24
19. Columbus   12   33-22-15   81  25
20. Toronto      12   36-25-9    81  28
21. Carolina     14   38-25-5    81  27
22. Dallas       13   37-24-8   82   26
23. Edmonton   11  37-25-9    83   31
24. Pittsburgh   13  40-23-6    86   29
25. Vegas       11  39-24-8    86   30
26. Philadelphia  13  41-21-7    89   31
27. Washington  14   41-20-7   89   31
28. Tampa       12   43-21-6   92  35
29. Colorado     12  42-20-8    92   37
30. St. Louis     11  42-19-10  94  33
31. Boston       12  44-14-12  100  38
Ranger draft picks in bold
In this scenario, the Rangers would end up with the 16th and 21st overall picks with the 16th pick not lottery eligible since the bottom 15 teams usually qualify for the lottery.
The league could also decide to award position in the standings by points percentage. That would take into account the different number of games played by each team and award positions by percentage of possible points gained.
If that case, there would be some changes in the final standings.  The Hurricanes would move from 21st to 23rd overall from the bottom.  The Rangers would move from 16th to 14th from the bottom. It would improve the Rangers’ own pick and hurt the pick that they got from Carolina in the Brady Skjei trade.
If the league awards lottery status to the worst 15 teams, this would move the Rangers into lottery contention.
What’s ahead
This is all speculation and it may seem ridiculous to be talking about the entry draft in the face of a global flu pandemic. It is just one of the hundreds of decisions that the NHL will have to make as they monitor the situation and decide how to move forward.
The cancellation of games and potentially the playoffs will have a disastrous effect on the league and many of its teams. The salary cap will be affected along with every aspect of professional hockey. All we can hope for is that at some point a discussion about the Entry Draft lottery will become relevant again and we can get back to normal.