NHL forced to respect tight deadline to award Stanley Cup in 2021

This sounds almost impossible at this point…

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
NHL forced to respect tight deadline to award Stanley Cup in 2021
Zuma Press

Fans and players across the National Hockey League are trying to remain patient when it comes to figuring out how the 2020-21 season will get underway and what the calendar will look like ahead of the postseason, however, patience might not be enough at this point. 

Something clear will need to be put together and a feasible scenario will have to be agreed upon by both the NHL and its Players Association and SOON, because we found out on Thursday night, thanks to senior hockey writer Frank Seravalli that there is a tight deadline in place and it might just be impossible to get the 2021 season completed under these circumstances. According to Seravalli, who explained the new obstacle in the NHL’s path, the league will have to get everything done and the Stanley Cup awarded before June 22nd. 

“The assumption to this point has been that the NHL will need to come to a full stop and complete the Stanley Cup playoffs before the Olympics start on July 22.”

This just sounds impossible. However, the NHL is reportedly looking at ways to complete the postseason, once again, later on in the summer. Or even with another broadcast partner. 

“The NHL has a multitude of options available if they need to prolong the season into the summer. We don’t know when the season is going to start at this point so it’s hard to say when it’s going to need to conclude and one option that the NHL has on the table could potentially be bringing in another broadcast partner. We know that this is the final year of NBC’s U.S. national television rights deal and looking forward does that contract end on July 1? Does it conclude when the season ends? I think there’s all sorts of questions there. I’m just told consider every option because don’t assume anything in 2020 in the COVID era.”

The NHL’s current deal with NBC is worth $200 million per season and is set to expire at the end of this upcoming season. We could see a whole new development on this end in order to get this impossible deadline off the table for the NHL. 

This will be interesting. 

Source: TSN