It’s mid-November and the NHL is still hanging in the balance and discussing just what will come next. Nothing is written in stone, but for now the best laid plan to hope for is the league still hoping for a mid-December training camp and a season start date of January 1st.
One big problem looming is the timing. NBC has the 2021 Olympics scheduled to begin on July 23rd, the NHL will have to be over by then. Yet, for those same broadcast constraints the league will need to fit in a TON of games in. From Scott Burnside at The Athletic:
One longtime league executive said he thought the NHL would go for 48 games but other sources have said that number is too low.