New York Rangers: If the season ended today

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.