New details emerge on format for 2021 NHL season!

It’s coming bit by bit, but we’re going to take in all of the new developments we can when it comes to the National Hockey League and its Players Association coming together to get a plan set in place for the start of the 2021 season. 

Earlier today, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported that “NHLPA has another Executive Board call (31 player reps) scheduled for late afternoon today to update things on negotiations with the NHL on the ’21 season.” He added that a previous meeting took place last Thursday, though the NHL has not yet scheduled its next Board of Governors meeting just yet.

Now, Andy Strickland of FOX Sports reveals that a calendar for the 2021 schedule is being put together and is expected to have 60 games to be played during a period of four or four and half months. 

Therefore, in the event that the season would be launched on Jan. 1st as the NHL is targeting, the campaign would likely stretch until April (or mid-April) and make way to the playoffs. And so, if we forced ourselves to put numbers and calculate all this, for each team to play 60 games from Jan. 1st for a length of four to four months and a half, that means a club would have to play four games a week. 

As you know, the NHL talked about the possibility of that the NHL could step away from the concept of hubs and allow teams to play their home games in their respective arena, leaving them the option of welcoming fans or not, depending on what’s happening with COVID and the rules set up by local authorities. The league could adopt a schedule similar to that of the MLB where we would see two teams face off three times in four days in mini series, in order to reduce travelling as much as possible. With the schedule likely be modeled on the 2020 MLB season in which travel was limited through geographical play, we could see for example a baseball-like series, with, the New York Rangers going to Boston for three games against the Bruins in a five-day period.

But teams would still need to travel and we have no clue what it means in terms of quarantine and strict health restrictions. The NHL would have to consider these things before getting a schedule set in stone. 

No doubt, the calendar would be a busy one - and imagine hockey fans out there trying to catch all of the NHL action! 

A lot of talk still needs to happen to get the complete setup for the upcoming season, however, these are major strides to get to a starting date and a schedule for the 2021 campaign and its Stanley Cup playoffs.