Gary Bettman announces start date of the 2020-21 season!

The 2020 NHL Draft is something else! In the first minutes of the event, taking place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman offered a speech, focusing on the positive ahead in the upcoming season. 

In his lengthy speech before putting the New York Rangers on the clock with the first overall pick, Bettman spoke about the 2020-21 campaign and announced that it is set to kick off at the very start of the new year as the NHL is focused on a Jan. 1 start for next season. 

However, nothing written in stone.

“The National Hockey League Players’ Association and National Hockey League announced today that they will target Jan. 1 for the start of the 2020-21 regular season.”

It has become obvious that most teams need to safely welcome fans during their local games, in order to earn significant additional income, however, it sounds hard to make that a reality, especially with the current second wave of the coronavirus. But things are surely looking up with this announcement. 

Last week, Bettman had been heard on the air of TSN 1040 in Vancouver that the start of the 2020-21 campaign could come at a much later date than first expected.

When the Return to Play plan was confirmed back in June, Bettman was hoping for a start for December 1st, now we are a month later… 

This is still very good news for the NHL and fans out there… for now.