NHL faces deadline to end 2020-21 season if it takes place…

The Stanley Cup has been hoisted, but rumours keep rolling on what will happened next in the National Hockey League. No official decision has yet to be made on what will happened to the league’s 2020-21 season, but we hear a lot of scenarios and how things might look on and off the ice in the coming months.

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. The NHL and Players’ Association will meet shortly after a player committee was created to work on the logistics for the upcoming campaign. The two sides have been expected to meet after the end of the Stanley Cup Final in the hopes that there can get some concrete foundation before we jump into the NHL Draft and the opening of free agency.

However, it sounds like there is already a huge hurdle in the road for both parties as the NHL will have to handle a deadline, forced upon them. 

While it has been said numerously that the 2020-21 season could start in January or even early February, it will have to end by July, 22nd. According to reporter Dan Marrazza, it would be impossible for the NHL to play past that date since the Olympics start on July 23 and NBC has “paid $1.45 BILLION for Olympic broadcasting rights.”

The Olympics are once again an issue here: the season’s length appears like it will get affected because of NBC’s coverage of the Summer Games in August. If this is true and really causes an issue for the NHL to hold games to present on television to its fans, it almost sounds like a wasted campaign…

But fans also have the right to wonder if the Olympics will remain in place with a pandemic not slowing down. This might change the tenure of the International event as well… 

We also don’t know if the NHL will propose to hold the 2020-21 season in a bubble setting once again. How will players react to being caught in a bubble city once again, and that for much longer than they have been during the postseason?  While this potential calendar would be shorter, we doubt players will be at ease with being away from their loved ones for so long, especially now that we are dealing with a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.