The NHL has finalized its plans for the 2020-21 season. On Sunday, the NHL and players completed a deal to hold a 56-game regular season starting Jan. 13 and ending May 8. The playoffs will start shortly after the regular season comes to an end with the Stanley Cup being awarded in July.
“The National Hockey League looks forward to the opening of our 2020-21 season, especially since the Return to Play in 2019-20 was so successful in crowning a Stanley Cup champion,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said via NHL.com. “While we are well aware of the challenges ahead, as was the case last spring and summer, we are continuing to prioritize the health and safety of our participants and the communities in which we live and play.”
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There will be no preseason games, but training camp will begin for all teams on Jan. 3. The seven teams that didn’t take part in the 2019-20 Return to Play will be permitted to start their camps as early as Dec. 31. The NHL and NHLPA will release the schedule “for each team, health and safety protocols, transition rules and a calendar of critical dates in the coming days.”
“The players are pleased to have finalized agreements for the upcoming season, which will be unique but also very exciting,” NHLPA executive director Don Fehr. “During these troubled times, we hope that NHL games will provide fans with some much-needed entertainment as the players return to the ice.”
Teams will play games in their home arenas, but fans will not be allowed to attend, at least in the early stages of the year. Additionally, the games will be within the realigned divisions only, including a division with the seven teams that are from Canada. Each team in the East, Central and West divisions will play every other team in its division eight times. And the teams in the North division (Canada teams) will play every other team in its division nine or 10 times.
The top four teams in the division will make the playoffs. The first two rounds will be intradivisional. The four teams that win the second-round series will be seeded by their total points in the regular season for the semifinal matchups. Each playoff series will be best-of-seven, and once the season ends, the league will go back to a normal hockey schedule in 2021-22.
