Edmonton has not been ruled out as potential NHL hub city

The Edmonton Oilers have yet to be ruled out as a hub city to host NHL games, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reported Monday.

According to LeBrun, the big hold back on announcing a second hub city to go along with Las Vegas is the Canadian federal government’s impending decision on quarantine.

Federal law currently mandates anyone entering Canada is subjected to a mandatory 14-day quarantine period making it difficult for Canadian teams to operate as hub cities. Last week, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reported there may be a solution in the work from the federal government to allow the Canadian cities to stay in the running.

Edmonton, along with Vancouver and Toronto, continues to remain at the forefront as hub city options. League brass has indicated that they’d like to have one hub city in Canada and one in the US, but the uncertainty around the quarantine period could affect that.

Local and provincial government officials have thrown their support behind Edmonton’s bid.

The NHL is currently targeting July 10th as the start of phase three of their return to play plan that would see training camps start up.

Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh are all being considered as other hub cities.

On Twitter: @zjlaing