An update on the 2021 season from NHL insider Elliotte Friedman

NHL insider Elliotte Friedman has provided a bit of a short update on the potential 2021 NHL season today in his blog for Sportsnet. To summarize, Friedman reports that while the NHL and the NHLPA have agreed on the financial particulars of the season, there's still much, much, much more work to do before the players hit the ice.

Friedman reports that the league and the players will work on logistics for things like dates, schedules, playoff format and COVID-19 protocols through the weekend with hopes to put it to a vote sometime next week.

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The league and NHLPA continue grinding away on things like playoffs, critical dates, transition rules and protocols. It’s important stuff, and it’s time-consuming. The Board of Governors were told the hope is for a vote some time next week. The players would vote beforehand.

It appears as if the NHL is targeting Dec. 31st and January 3rd as training camp start dates with hub cities in Columbus, New Jersey, Las Vegas, Edmonton and Toronto. 

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COVID controls everything, but target dates are Dec. 31 for 2020 non-playoff teams to report; Jan. 3 for those who did make it. There is also a contingency plan for “hubs” if necessary. Potential sites include Columbus, Newark and Vegas in the US; Edmonton and Toronto in Canada.

Concerning playoff format, Friedman reports that the top four teams in each division make the playoffs. No mention of Wild Card spots or point systems outside of the division format. Yes, this means that a team with a lower point total than another team in a different division could qualify for the playoffs despite having a worse record.

Again from Friedman: 

The expectation is that the top four teams in each division will make the playoffs. Personal thought: would it make sense, for this year only, to choose the Stanley Cup semifinal matchups based on travel distance? There’s some precedent. When the NHL re-aligned to the current divisions, it considered re-seeding the final four. That didn’t happen, partially because of an East Coast/West Coast semifinal. Teams didn’t want that travel until the last round.

Suffice it to say that there's still a lot to sort out between now and whenever the puck finally drops on this season.