Welcome back to another edition of WWYDW, folks, and we do hope you’re doing well out there.

With no current hockey to idly speculate about, we’re forced to look into the past for subjects on which to pointlessly debate – and this week, we’re starting with a doozy.

Whenever the Vancouver Canucks make a trade, everyone has an opinion on it, but those opinions don’t always hold up to the scrutiny of hindsight. Don’t forget, just a half-year ago Jim Benning was lambasted for dealing a first round pick for JT Miller – yet, today, few if any in the fanbase would reverse that transaction.

Some trades, however, are not redeemed by the passage of time. Some trades just suck. And there are plenty of those to choose from in the annals of Canucks’ hockey.

That’s why, this week, we’re asking you:

Last week, we asked:

We’re still no closer to an official answer, so your responses are listed below!

 

There is no rest of the 2019/20 season.

It is done.

If hockey resumes on time for next season, we should all consider it a good outcome.

 

Shut it down and scrap the season. The players are getting it now (confirmed un-named Ottawa Sens) and the public in North America are yet to see the full force of Coronavirus and the ensuing lockdown.

Not important in the bigger picture. Start again when the curve goes down, no different than a lockout season now and moving forward.

Also gives the Canucks more time to replace the busts Benning and Greener and reset. Enough.

 

The fact is that life is lived on the margins. In winter time you don’t ask heat or no heat, there is a temperature for each house. Just like this case, there is a medium that can be reached.

Players have said that playing without fans would be weird, yes but it can be done. As long as players are tested in training camp and don’t have the virus, they should play.

I know trolls will pounce, but hockey has gone on through Spanish flu, polio, two World Wars and countless recent pandemics like SARS and H1N1 ten years ago.

As long as facilities are clean and players follow guidelines there shouldn’t be a problem. Unlike the NBA, there is no real skin-to-skin contact.

Leave it up to the players and union. If they don’t want to participate then scrap the season, if they do want to play, take reasonable health precautions.

 

First thing is I would set the playoff brackets based on point/games played percentages.

Once that is done, I would have a draw for draft position between all the playoff teams. Those that didn’t make the playoffs would draft in their point-per-game percentage.

Then, I would hold the NHL draft in the next two weeks. Viewership would be high because there is nothing else hockey-related going on. Players would view and participate online or by remote camera only.

Also, I would hand out the NHL individual awards during this event.

Last week of June would be a one-week training camp for playoff teams. Stanley Cup would start in July.

2020/2021 season to start a little late but will operate on a 70 games schedule to make up for the reduced time between the stop of 2020 and start of 2020/21 season.

 

The season is done. We’ve got our own challenges in Canada for sure but the majority of the games are played in Trumpland, which is a gong show. No hockey anytime soon.

 

Kill the reg season. Playoffs on TV in empty arena.

If you award a playoff spot to 24 teams then there is really only one team that is borderline (MTL), the rest were in the hunt. Maybe the first round or two are best of five, maybe they’re all best of seven. Depends on timeline.

It mostly comes down to air travel restrictions. Need to get players and media around. If the situation improves, allow fans at the games.

 

In honour of the 50th anniversaries of both the Canucks as well as the Sabres, I would give the cup to one of these teams based on the spin of an over/under roulette wheel.

This time the Canucks pick the under and this time they win!!!

Unfortunately, we can’t have a parade so we celebrate happily from home.

 

The idea of starting the 2020/21 campaign without concluding the previous season still rankles, but it is becoming more and more of a likely outcome as the weeks pass. At this point, it is hard to imagine restrictions on travel or public gatherings being lifted in both the United States and Canada before sometime in May – and that would leave the NHL with quite the tight timeline to work with.

If the league were to open up shop again exactly two months from today, they could burn the last week of May with a shortened training camp, and then play a limited amount of regular season games as somewhat of an exhibition schedule – say a guaranteed two games for every team, plus whatever extra games are needed to bring each team to the same total of games played.

That would eliminate any unfairness that comes from relying entirely on points-percentage or from disregarding it entirely. Teams would still have to earn their spot in the playoffs.

The best-of-seven format is sacred and should be maintained if at all possible. If the playoffs start in early- or mid-June, this would put their conclusion in early August, after which the NHL would have to immediately begin its offseason proceedings; including the Entry Draft, free agency, and arbitration.

Of course, all of this would take place in a best-case scenario – both because hockey would be back and because starting back up in May would mean that the pandemic has been handled about as well as possible. If that’s not the case, we’ll all have much more important things to worry about than the NHL.