Rumor: Multiple signs point to NHL teams gearing up for training camp.

I for one cannot wait for more National Hockey League hockey, and the good news is all signs suggest I won't be waiting very long at all.

The first and most obvious sign this week came in the form of an admission from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly who told reporters on Friday that he still expects the league to begin play on January 1st. This is the rumor we've been hearing for weeks now but there have also been rumblings of a potential delay, and in some cases much worse, that have kept fans on edge for some time now. The fact that it came from Daly, even though he would not officially confirm the news and added that the negotiations were still ongoing, did however alleviate a lot of the fears that I myself had personally. 

Daly, as is always the case, worded things in such a way however that it left open the possibility of a change of plans.

Now it is one thing for the deputy commissioner to hint at the fact that the season is going to get under way in roughly a month and a half, and it is another matter entirely when NHL teams began to behave as though that is indeed the case. Calgary Flames forward Glenn Gawdin was currently playing in the Switzerland Swiss League but a report from the team he was on loan to, Visp EHC, has now revealed that he has been sent back to Calgary effective immediately. 

Here is their report translated to English:

Due to the possible restart in the NHL at the beginning of January, Glenn Gawdin was brought back for the training camp with immediate effect.

The timing makes perfect sense. Gawdin plays on a Canadian team and Canada currently enforces a 14 day quarantine on people coming in from outside of the country due to the pandemic. That timeline would have Gawdin in isolation into very late November or the early days of December, and if that January 1st date holds this would be right around the time training camps are set to begin in the NHL. 

It's still not official but it now looks very much like a new season is just weeks from getting underway.