Tag: NHL return

The NHL and NHLPA have finally agreed on a plan to finish the 2020 season

Hockey is back!

It feels like we’ve been waiting on this forever, but the NHL and NHLPA have finally done it. The two sides have officially agreed on terms to bring back the 2020 season starting in August.

We’ve known what the plan would look like for a while. The NHLPA agreed to a format for the return all the way back in May. But there were still scheduling concerns, safety concerns and financial ramifications from coronavirus that needed to be agreed upon. Friday night’s deal took care of the rest of that.

The league and the NHLPA agreed on a return to play plan for this season as well as a  four-year extension to the current collective bargaining agreement that extends through the 2025-26 season.

The current plan has the season officially beginning with playoff qualifiers on August 1. The playoffs will start on August 11.

There is one big quirk. Instead of just having teams playing in one bubble like other leagues are doing, the NHL is using Edmenton and Toronto as their two “hub” cities to host their playoff games. Teams will be able to hold training camps between Friday when the deal was signed on the 10th and July 26th before traveling to their respective hubs.

The Stanley Cup Finals will begin on September 22 with a last possible day of playing on October 4. Phase 2 of their draft lottery for teams who fail to qualify for the playoffs is scheduled for August 10 and the draft will begin on October 9.

Players have until 5 p.m. on Monday to opt out without penalty

It’s been a long time coming, but hockey is back, folks.

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Report: The NHL is one step closer to returning after latest NHLPA vote

The NHL is on its way back.

We’re one step closer to finally getting the NHL back in action.

The NHL Player Association’s executive board voted to approve a 24-team, conference-based playoff format on Friday night to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, according to a report from the Washington Post.

The format proposed includes a bye for the top four seeds in each conference determined by points percentage and a best-of-5 “play-in” tournament for the bottom 16 teams.

They don’t quite have an official return date just yet, but the league is one step closer to resuming and they seem to have the players’ cooperation. The NHLPA released a statement on the format Friday night.

There are some details that still need to be hammered out to make this happen.

They still have to figure out where the bubble sites they’ll host these games will be and, most importantly, they need to figure out the best testing protocols and how to keep everyone safe.

But still, this train has actually left the station. And with everything the way it is right now, this is pretty much all we can ask for.