The Current State of Minnesota Sports: The Minnesota Wild

At this time last year, the NHL was just wrapping up the season, and the St. Louis Blues were about to win their first-ever Stanley Cup. This year, we haven't even seen a single playoff game.

The NHL is trying to salvage something out of the suddenly shortened season. Commissioner Gary Bettman released a video last month talking about the NHL having a plan to return to play.

The plan had four phases. The NHL just entered into Phase 2 this past Monday. Players can now return to their team's city and conduct small group practices and off ice training.

Phase 3 has teams starting a short training camp. Regarding Phase 4, the last phase, the commissioner said:

Finally when appropriate we will move to phase 4 in which are participating clubs will report to the respective hub cities and we will resume okay. Obviously we anticipate playing over the summer and into the early fall. - NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman

What those two cities are is not known yet, but Minneapolis/St. Paul is on the shortlist of cities that are possible options.

Watch the video below for all the details. As it stands, the regular is over, and the top 12 teams in each conference, ranked by % points, will continue to play. The Eastern Conference will play each other in one hub city and the Western Conference in another. That means that the Minnesota Wild will be playing when hockey starts up again.

Get more details on all the phases of the NHL's plan in the video below.