When Will the NHL Resume Play? League Considering All Options But Won’t Jeopardize 2020-21

We don’t know much about the 2020 sports calendar at this moment, but what we are sure of is that things will be very different this year. The suspension of the NBA, NHL and MLB, as well as the canceling of the 2020 NCAA Tournament has left the sports schedule in flux. And, as we’ve all heard over the past 10 days, the situation remains fluid.

A report by The Athletic stated that the NHL is considering all options, including resuming play in July and concluding in September, but the league's top priority is playing all 82 games in 2020-21.

“The only definite for us is we certainly don’t want to do anything around a resumption of play this season that will impact our ability to have a full season next year,” Daly told the Athletic. “So that’s kind of the outside parameters and rules we’re following currently. Everything else is kind of up for grabs for lack of a better term. There are lots of possibilities. We do have people working internally on those scenarios and what they look like and what the feasibility is.

“There are a lot of complications associated with that. Obviously you have network partner obligations that we have to take into account. And then we have to work through with the Players’ Association what the critical date calendar looks like. We need to work with our clubs on building availabilities. We have to consider whether a resumption of play is to a building that’s open to the public versus perhaps a resumption of play that doesn’t involve a building that’s open to the public. So these are all relevant considerations and variables none of which you can really align at this point behind a specific plan. So, it, like the situation generally, is very fluid.”

All NHL players have been sent home and told to self-quarantine, and the league specifically mentioned the CDC’s 60-day directive in its release. That would put us in mid-May, but the NHL has followed the lead of the NBA throughout this whole process, so it being a leader here. We’ll be conservative and project a mid-June return.

On March 17 the Ottawa Senators announced that one of their players had tested positive for COVID-19.

For more information on the ever-changing sports calendar, check out our updated tracker here.