NHL season unlikely to start by New Year’s Day

There hasn’t been much noise made from the NHL or its players recently and the silence is a little concerning.

The league has maintained publicly that it hopes to start the next season on or around Jan. 1, but with training camp nowhere in sight the clock is ticking.

Not only is the league, like everyone else, dealing with rising COVID-19 numbers in North America but another ongoing is issue is league owners recently asking players to make more salary concessions amid a decrease in revenue as a result of the pandemic.

The problems are compounded for Canadian teams. Provincial restrictions could prevent some teams from being able to open their practice facilities and immigration issues surrounding COVID-19 quarantine protocols that may make travel near impossible.

Other leagues have seen Canadian teams move south of the border permanently. The Toronto Blue Jays played their homes games in Buffalo while the Raptors are set to play their home games in Tampa, Florida.

With seven Canadian NHL franchises, this isn’t a plausible solution for the NHL.

Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston says the realistic path now is that we won’t even see the start of training camps, let alone the season, until some point in January.

He also believes there may be some owners who would rather just save money by not playing at all.

“I do think there are some, but if the other 22, or 23, or 24, really want to play and there’s a deal to made then there’s still going to be a season,” says Johnston.

The NBA, which normally starts its season a few weeks after the NHL, saw its training camps open on Tuesday. The 2020-21 season is slated to begin on Dec. 22.