I was just wondering about the next year's schedule myself, and the format they'd be playing through the season. Will they return to a normal format, or keep the current one...
So, the Seattle Expansion draft and the 2021 NHL Entry Draft is set to be on 21 July and 23-24 July, with the free agency opening July 28.
So we're more or less a month late on a "normal" schedule. I wonder if they hurry the offseason up and start the season normally, in October, as usual. Or will they add a month to the break and start in November-December.
Here's a thought - no matter which way they'll start playing, the season will be cut for a while due to the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are set to begin February 4th, 2022. That takes three weeks from the league, no matter what happens. I'm under the assumption that NHL players will be allowed to participate in Beijing.
We also don't know yet what's the situation with the pandemic in a year from now, but I'm not expecting a quick return to normal.
I'm just speculating here, but all things considered we might be having one more shortened divisional-based season ahead of us... NHL can use this timespan to normalize the situation time-wise, meaning we'd have return back to normal for the 2022-23 season. Perhaps by then the pandemic could be over too. With the vaccine situation developing, I feel like in a spun of 1,5 years the situation just might get tad closer to normal.
But honestly it's just me speculating at this point.