The National Hockey League and its players reached a provisional agreement on Friday to hold a 56-match season in 2021 starting January 13, pending approval by each side’s executive board and officials. Canadian health services.
Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly confirmed that the parties have an agreement, pending the approval of several executive boards.
The board of the NHL Players Association meets Friday night to discuss it, while the board of governors of the league could vote on the plan as early as this weekend. It still needs the approval of health officials from the five Canadian provinces that have teams before the NHL can continue with the season.
The training camps of the seven teams that did not participate in last season’s playoff bubbles would open on December 31 and the fields would begin on January 3 for the other 24 teams. It is unclear whether the teams would play at home or in the “hub” cities, although a schedule for all divisions is expected.
Exhibition games are not expected to be included in the pre-season period. Sportsnet in Canada first reported the interim deal.
The NHL, like the NBA, finished the previous season in a quarantined bubble: two of them, one in Toronto and Edmonton, Alberta. Commissioner Gary Bettman awarded the Stanley Cup to the Tampa Bay Lightning in late September in Edmonton, after defeating the Dallas Stars. The league did a qualifying round in these cities before the Eastern and Western Conference playoffs began.
Owners and players agreed on a long-term extension of the collective agreement before resuming the 2019-20 season, setting the table for the financial ramifications of the pandemic. They recently agreed to comply with this agreement, which includes players deferring 10% of salaries, a deposit money limit and a flat salary cap of $ 81.5 million.
The NHL is following the NBA to advance to another regular season. The basketball season is scheduled to open on Tuesday.
It remains an obstacle to play the seven teams based in Canada. The original plan was to place them in the same division, although tougher pandemic restrictions north of the border pushed it to the limit this week.
“The resumption of sporting events in Canada must be carried out following Canadian measures to mitigate the importation and dissemination of COVID-19,” the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement Thursday night . “NHL and other professional sports teams must operate within the rules of their provincial jurisdictions for sporting or sporting events.”
The Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball played last season in Buffalo, New York, and the Toronto Raptors of the NBA have moved to Tampa, Florida, due to government bans. So far, the NHL has an American team that might need a new home: the San Jose Sharks, who play in Santa Clara County, California, with a temporary ban on professional and collegiate team sports that has affected the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.