It’s been 44 days since the Rochester Americans last skated on the ice together as a team and it continues to look like that’ll go down as the last game of the 2019-2020 season. Pierre LeBrun has reported about the American Hockey League season on TSN saying that “the chances are pretty much zero” and on The Athletic that “it’s pretty obvious they’re not resuming.”

There’s more information in both linked articles below talking about various plans for the NHL to try and continue the season in some way along with different scenarios the AHL is looking at for next season. If the NHL is able to resume at some point, which they’re hopeful for, they’ll still have a need for players in case of injury as replacements that were playing on AHL teams. Would those players on NHL contracts automaticaly join NHL teams in some sort of camp when they resume? Good question that’ll have to be addressed.

Players on AHL contracts would likely begin looking towards the next opportunity based on contract status.

I guess it’s time to start working on a full recap of the partial regular season and what could’ve been in the final 14 games heading into the playoffs.

(Featured picture is from the archives of the 2018 locker cleanout day)

Updated… AHL President and CEO David Andrews was on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and saying, “Now we’re beginning to pivot more directly toward the 2020-21 season & what that might look like.” Here’s te audio clip:

Pierre LeBrun weighed in on TSN [ Source ] and stated the following below:

How does this impact other leagues? The AHL?

LeBrun: It’s worth mentioning that the American Hockey League hasn’t announced what it’s doing with its suspended season for this year. Let’s be honest. The chances are pretty much zero that they’re going to resume their season this year. They are a gate-driven league. They need fans in the building. So at some point, they’ll get the board together and vote on that. But, I suspect this year is toast. Their focus, really, has begun on what to do about next year. The AHL has started modelling different scenarios for next season. Again, not knowing what the world is going to look like exactly. But because they really do need fans in their buildings, especially all of those franchises that are owned independently, and not the ones owned by NHL teams. I don’t know if they could open without fans in the building. So they’ve had modelling for an October start, a November start, a December start, and even a scenario in which they have a short January season. It’s all up in the air, but those are all things the American Hockey League is discussing. In the meantime, you’ve got NHL teams that are a bit nervous about whether the NHL season starts a few months before the AHL and where they park their AHL prospects. Again, questions but no answers right now.

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LeBrun also wrote the following (along with more) on The Athletic [ Source ]:

The American Hockey League hasn’t made any pronouncement on the end of this suspended season but it’s pretty obvious they’re not resuming. The AHL will convene a Board call at some point over the next few weeks to make that official.

What’s more important now for the AHL is to focus on next season and to that end, I’m told the AHL under the leadership of outgoing president David Andrews has begun modelling different scenarios for what next season might look like.

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https://twitter.com/InsideAHLHockey/status/1253805208729260034?s=20

Click through both the additional sources above for more information on everything.

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