The less time the NHL played a 48 game season, it was due to a lockout. It was nearly 8 years ago the league played that many games starting on January 19th.
No less than 48 games in the next NHL season
There’s been plenty of rumors regarding next season and Gary Bettman has said it time and time again, it’s all speculation. Keep in mind what happened with Return-to-Play. Everyone said the Hub Cities were Vegas and Vancouver but the NHL refused to announce it. Instead they took in all the COVID-19 info they could up to the last minuted and chose Toronto and Edmonton.