Phillip Danault doesn't believe players will want to return
Montreal Canadiens forward Phillip Danault made it clear that he is not a fan of returning to game action if it means having to leave their families for 2-3 weeks. Speaking to TVA Sports, he doesn't believe other players will want to return to play under those circumstances either.
“If the players have a say on it via a vote, I'm not sure that it will be a positive one,” Danault said. He also stated that he would very likely vote against returning. This comes after rumours the NHL was considering having teams play out of just a few NHL arenas and having players from multiple teams stay in hotel rooms in those cities. Of course, this would mean that the players could potentially go months without seeing their families, depending how far their teams are able to advance in the playoffs.
It is important to note this may not affect Danault at all. If the NHL were to go straight to playoffs, the Canadiens would not have to worry about returning to play, as they were well outside of a postseason spot prior to the league suspending play. The 27-year-old Danault likely does speak for many other NHL players however, as the idea of leaving their families for a long period of time while playing in front of zero fans doesn't seem like something many players would be excited about.
shownhl_15610_shownhl
|
YESTERDAY
MAY 18, 2026
| ||||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Phillip Danault | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Greenway | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Beck Malenstyn | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan McLeod | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Owen Power | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zach Benson | - | - | - | |
| Bowen Byram | - | - | - | |
| Cole Caufield | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||