Folks, it sounds like we’ll have National Hockey League regular season games in the New Year. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting that a tentative deal has been reached for a 2020-21 campaign.
There is word tonight NHL & NHLPA have tentative deal on 56-game season.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 19, 2020
TVA’s Renaud Lavoie offered a few additional details.
Hearing NHL and NHLPA are getting close to a deal and you have to expect an announcement in the next few days. Season should start January 13 and hearing we will have a Canadian division.
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) December 19, 2020
The NHL has reached an agreement with the NHLPA on the season, pending respective votes by each side.
NHL plans to schedule a Board of Governors call/vote sometime this weekend. The NHLPA already had an exec board call scheduled for 8 pm ET tonight.— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) December 19, 2020
Tentative agreement between #NHL and #NHLPA (which requires approval) calls for training camps to open on Jan. 3 and regular season on Jan. 13.
The 7 teams who did not make 24-team playoff can open camp on Dec. 30.
All dates subject to change. Scheduling not finalized.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) December 19, 2020
We will have more on this story as it develops, especially with the pending NHLPA Executive Committee and NHL Board of Governors meetings to ratify this tentative deal coming in the next few days. There’s obviously going to be a ton of stuff to unpack here.