NHL Eyes December to Start 2020-21 Season

The 2019-20 NHL season has been suspended for about a month and a half now as the world fights the developing COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s not yet known when (or if) the season will fire up once more. While there’s some certainty that it won’t be dropped inside and out, what occurs on this front will direct when the 2020-21 season begins.

As indicated by a report from Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, the NHL is examining a December start to next season.

“As I hinted near the bottom of my column last Friday, the idea of delaying next season’s start until December has indeed been discussed by the NHL with its teams as a possibility, multiple sources around the league confirmed,” the report read. “The kicker is that the league still hopes to cram in a full 82-game season, even with a December start.”

LeBrun takes note of that All-Star weekend and bye weeks would be dropped. Christmas holiday would likewise be abbreviated under this situation.

Similarly as with different games that were in-season when the pandemic hit, everything is by all accounts in a brief delay. NHL groups would almost certainly need to lead a small scale preparing camp before activity can restart. Regardless of whether the class chose to end the normal season with the flow standings deciding season finisher recognizes, this is a multi-month process.

It bodes well to push back the beginning of the 2020-21 season to December. Obviously, the entirety of that is subject to this season really continuing in some structure.