Inside The AHL's Return To Play Process

For Jim Brooks and the American Hockey League's (AHL) Return To Play Task Force, the NHL finalizing plans for their 2020-21 season allowed them to finalize their own return to play plans, which they presented to the AHL's Board of Governors (BoG) and subsequently voted on Wednesday.

"It was a big step to get everybody on the same page," Brooks, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms' co-owner [along with his brother Rob], told InsideAHLHockey.com Saturday via phone. "We unanimously agreed on this framework, so that's huge."

Brooks explained, "In essence, what we did was created a template that the league could use to allow teams to evaluate what a season would look like. And from there, teams can decide whether they're able to participate or not."

Teams will have until Monday to opt in or opt out of the 2020-21 season when the AHL has their next BoG meeting.

"But now, there's still a lot of hurdles left for every team to evaluate and make a decision. And each of those decisions will impact the other. So there's a lot of unknowns right now."

Monday's meeting will clear up who's in and who's out. From there, the schedule can be made.

AHL teams don't currently have a permanent schedule in front of them, but the framework approved by the BoG on Wednesday set a flexible schedule where teams must commit to a minimum number of games. It also allows for teams to play more than that based on the market's preference and proximity to other opponents.

"We know we have to be flexible. I do think you'll most likely see a range of games. Even within division, you could see the number of games being different for each team," Brooks said. "You could see a lot of the teams with same number of games, then some with a different number of games. I think we needed to do that to allow teams to feel comfortable one way or another - if they wanted more or less - rather than just saying here's how many games [we're going to play]."

Brooks said that the Calder Cup Playoffs haven't been discussed yet, but that the standings for the divisions will be based on points-percentage.

Dual-affiliations and AHL teams housing players from multiple NHL teams is certainly on the table and has been discussed, according to Brooks.

"I would anticipate there will probably be some of that, but I don't know for sure," Brooks said. "When you talk about player supply, the taxi squads - not everyone saw that coming, so it's definitely something that could change the player supply."

When asked if the Phantoms, specifically, would be interested in a dual-affiliation or hosting another team's players, Brooks said they would be open to the idea.

"We have discussed that," Brooks replied. "We believe in being great partners, as good a partner as we can be to the other league partners that we have. To the extent that somebody needs to place some players, we'd be open to that for sure."

One thing that Brooks learned from sitting on the league's return to play committee is how important the AHL is to NHL General Managers.

"I've been thinking about it an awful lot, being able to interact with NHL GM's I realized how important the AHL is to them. That's reassuring to me as an AHL team owner, to see that. It's really cool," Brooks said, adding, "Well it's pretty cool, when we're participating, that it shows the strength of our league and the importance of our league in hockey. From my perspective, we're really proud to own a team in the AHL. The AHL is so connected and important to the NHL. That's an honor for us and something we want to make sure, again, that we continue to put the best foot forward for the sport of hockey."

There's no guarantee that all 31 AHL teams will be able to opt in for the shortened 2020-21 season, but the AHL's Return To Play Task Force was tasked with proposing a solution that all 31 teams would view as viable and the unanimous approval at last Wednesday's BoG meeting proves they did exactly that.

Brooks added that even if some AHL teams are unable to participate, he expects all NHL teams will have players playing in the AHL this season. For now, it's a wait and see how Monday's BoG meeting unfolds - which AHL teams will be participating and which won't be able to - and then moving on to finalizing a schedule.

"We'll see what Monday brings," Brooks said, who added his sense is that a majority of the league's team will be able to participate though he wouldn't speculate on specific teams. "The AHL might look a lot different this year than it has in the past, but that's okay."

READ ALSO: All Signs Point to Phantoms Being A Part of AHL's Return To Play

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