The NHL Board of Governors and the NHLPA Executive Board (31 player representatives) will be holding calls today to provide updates on the state of affairs for each side.
A start date of January 1st continues to be the goal, and seems more and more likely. That would mean training camps will start in the middle of December for the 24 teams that participated in the 2020 Playoffs, and the first week of December for teams that missed the 2020 playoffs, and have been essentially idle since March.
Both the NHL and NHLPA continue to maintain a Jan. 1 target date for opening night, which means mid-Dec opening of camps (and 7 days before that for the 7 non-RTP teams from last summer). But that’s not written in stone yet. Could change. (con’t)
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) November 12, 2020
According to NHL insider Pierre Lebrun, there are now 16 players on the Return to Play (RTP) committee. It appears the committee is working in a different fashion compared to the spring RTP committee.
While the spring RTP committee (which had 5 players) held joint calls with the NHL throughout the process, so far the 16-player committee has worked more internally NHLPA-wise.
It looks like teams may get to play home games in their home arenas this season, but like everything else, that’s still on the table.
Not expecting much news from NHL BOG today, though it looks increasingly like teams will play in their home rinks and not hubs as Gary Bettman suggested just a few days ago. That said, everything is on the table. NHL and NHLPA in constant contact.
— Kevin McGran (@kevin_mcgran) November 12, 2020
Additionally, it’s looking more and more likely that the 2020-21 season will begin with an all-Canadian division, at least until the NHL can figure out how manage US-Canadian border crossings later in the season.
And finally, given the continued border restrictions, looking more and more like a 2020-21 season begins with an all-Canadian division at least until they can figure out how to cross the border later in the season… so that should be fun. But again, nothing decided for sure yet
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) November 12, 2020
Despite the lack of concrete details, NHL.com reported on Tuesday the league is considering many possibilities for 2020-21, including short-term hubs, temporary realignment and a reduced schedule.
Earlier this week preliminary details for the NHL’s Return To Play plan began to leak, with sights remaining firmly set on starting the 2020-21 season on January 1. On Tuesday the ECHL announced their plans for the upcoming season, which will start next month.
On Wednesday Hockey East also announced their schedule and plans for Return To Play, with games set to begin on November 20. That’s right, in nine days. The first collegiate league to announce their Return to Play plans, the NCHC, released its full 26-game conference schedule on Monday, three weeks after announcing its basic framework.
By Jon Sorensen
