[transplant99]

Duha gives his take on this situation through a Q&A in The Athletic.

What is the plausibility of the owners just deciding to cancel the season if a new amended deal can’t be reached with the players? Shane P

Intuitively, I believe there is a small percentage of NHL owners who’d rather not play this year, if they cannot admit fans into the building, because they’d lose less money not playing than they would by playing games, but not seeing any ticket revenue generated. Ultimately, I do not believe they will hold sway. Beyond keeping your product in the public eye, the primary value of playing would be to burn off the final year of the league’s U.S. national television deal, which means they can start taking bids from interested parties on an extension. The hope is they’ll get something that mirrors (though on a far smaller scale), the NFL national package, which is spread out among multiple rights holders.