Report: 2020-21 NHL season could start in November

It’s already been a month since the NHL officially paused the 2019-20 season and the league and NHLPA continue to work through every possible angle as a means of reaching a conclusion for the 2019-20 NHL season. With that goal still firmly in place, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun suggested on Twitter that an option the league is looking at involves pushing back the start of next season into November.

Yesterday after, TSN Insider, Pierre LeBrun reported that the National Hockey League is looking at potentially pushing back the start of the 2020-21 season into November as a means of being able to award the Stanley Cup for the current season that was forcefully and rightly interrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic.

While there is no doubt that starting next season in November is by no means a perfect solution, we know that the NHL desperately hopes to reach a conclusion for the 2019-20 season without cutting an 82-game season in 2020-21. Is there a scenario where that would even be possible?

If the owners and players can find a middle ground, the NHL could theoretically start of the 20-21 season in November by getting rid of or shortening bye weeks for teams, and eliminating the NHL all-star week. That said, those are two sizeable hurdles to clear if this plan has any chance of working whatsoever. There are also varying reports circulating Twitter over the past couple of days that there are owners around the league that favour the idea of starting the next season later than usual if that means being able to award the Stanley Cup in July or August.

If the National Hockey League has their way, we may see next year’s playoffs pushed back into late June should the league be able to run with a model that sees 2020-21 start at some point in November rather than the usual October.