NHL 2020/21 Season could Start “Later in December or in January”

Carolina Hurricanes starting line up in 2017. Photo by Brent Clark/CSM/REX/Shutterstock

Don’t expect the NHL 2020/21 season to knock on our doors soon. According to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, the start of the next season could be delayed for late December or even be pushed to January.

Speaking ahead of the start of the Stanley Cup Finals, Bettman acknowledged that the league originally planned to kick off the next season on December 1st. However, with uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic, he left the possibility of this date to be pushed back.

“Dec. 1 has always been a notional date,” said Bettman. “I will not be surprised if it slips into later December, could slip into January. But there’s no point right now in making any definitive comments on our plans because there’s still too much we don’t know.”

Bettman also added that NHL is optimistic about staging a full 82-game season, with the best of seven series throughout the playoffs.

Bettman also talked about other technicalities surrounding the 2020/21, including the fans’ presence on the stands.

“It’s conceivable that we start without fans, that we move to socially distant fans at some point, and by some point in time maybe our buildings are open,” he added.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHL decided to cut the 2019/20 regular season short, and instead stage a three-game series play-in tournament for the teams that had realistic options to make the playoffs. Later stages of the Stanley Cup playoffs proceeded as usual and reverted to seven-game series.

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