And a January start date!
While it feels like weeks ago, Renaud Lavoie noted two days ago that the NHL and NHLPA would need to get their act together within the week in order to achieve a mid-January start date. Two weeks ago, Katya said the same thing about a January 1st start date, by the way.
Another day of talks between the NHLPA and the NHL and you can expect more in the next few days. Goal is to have a season starting around January 15. For that to happen, a deal needs to be done in the next week.
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) December 7, 2020
But better late than never that the NHL and NHLPA got out their calendars, settled their differences, and are moving forward on finalizing a January 13th start date (a Wednesday) for a 56-game schedule for the 2021 season.
37 days from now. Five weeks.
Both sides targeting Jan. 13 start to season in order to get 56-game sked but even with financials no longer an issue as @DarrenDreger first reported, still some work to be done on protocols, schedule, critical date, etc, plus subject to NHL BOG and NHLPA executive board approval https://t.co/ESSjY94Slt
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) December 8, 2020
Branching out from that January 13th start date, I looked at the sporting schedule to see if there’s a hard deadline for the NHL to finish their season and playoffs. The 2021 Tokyo Winter Olympics stands out pretty clearly (and they’re on NBC!). That event opens on July 28th, meaning the Stanley Cup Playoffs will need to be done by then. If we give the tournament and maybe also the Draft eight weeks from that deadline, we land on May 28th or so as the final day for the NHL regular season. January 13th to May 28th is 135 days, giving teams the ability to play games every 2.4 days. There’s enough breathing room in there for teams to quarantine and postpone games if/when necessary.
Hopefully the Leafs can win the Canadian Division.
Get ready for another T25 article today. We’ve ruined so many careers, why not a few more?
Until then, last year’s ruined careers:
Leafs Prospect! Almost Skoar!
Filip Král (#LeafsForever) exhibit 1, zdroj: @sportCT pic.twitter.com/etqOEZqFa5
— Petr Malina (@xpmalina) December 7, 2020
Leafs Prospect! Skoar!
Dmitri Ovchinnikov (TOR) takes advantage of the WIDE open net and pots his 14th goal of the season. #LeafsForever | #MHL pic.twitter.com/NiIGwODiDU
— Dylan Griffing (@Dylan_Griffing) December 8, 2020
And Egor Korshkov has gotten some recognition from the Russian Men’s Team with a selection to the Channel One Cup roster. This small tournament will happen just before the WJC between December 17th and 20th.
Meet the host of the Channel One Cup – Team Russia . pic.twitter.com/I247IoemhY
— KHL (@khl_eng) December 7, 2020
MLSE opening their cheque books once more. Someone’s gotta pay for Nick Schmaltz’s $5.85 million for the next six years.
The NHL provides a league wide credit facility for all clubs. Sources say the league is considering increasing the credit amount fairly significantly. https://t.co/N8mVtmRDgR
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 7, 2020
