The 2020–21 NHL season was the 104th season of operation (103rd season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the regular season was reduced to 56 games and began on January 13, 2021. Due to COVID-19 restrictions on non-essential cross-border travel imposed by the Government of Canada, the league temporarily realigned for this season, dividing the league into four temporary divisions, each of whose teams only played within their respective division, and putting all seven Canadian teams into one division. COVID-19 outbreaks caused the games of most teams to be rescheduled beyond the regular season's original end date of May 8, with the last game being moved to May 19. The playoffs began four days earlier on May 15, under a 16-team format with the top four teams from each division.
The playoffs concluded on July 7, with the Tampa Bay Lightning defeating the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final in five games, winning their second consecutive and third overall Stanley Cup in franchise history.
League business
Impact of COVID-19 and temporary realignment The 2020–21 season was originally planned to begin in October 2020 and end with the Stanley Cup being awarded in June 2021, but this had to be changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting later than normal conclusion of the previous season. In December, the league said that the season would be shorter than the typical 82 games. Attendance at each arena was limited by local health orders. The league also relies on attendance for at least 50 percent of its revenue, and the players were against spending the full season isolated in neutral-site bubbles similar to their situation during the 2020 playoffs. With the NHL expecting to lose billions of dollars, several team owners privately told NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman that they wanted to suspend the season. But Bettman convinced them that they could not afford to sit out the season in the long run, especially with the expansion team Seattle Kraken joining the league in 2021–22, as well as the prospect of signing new U.S. national television deals with multiple networks .
In July 2020, the league and the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) initially agreed to tentatively schedule the opening of training camp on November 17, 2020, and the start of the regular season on December 1. In October 2020, both the NHL and NHLPA began discussions on the specific details on how to proceed with the season. On October 6, the NHL and the NHLPA agreed to delay the targeted start date of the regular season to January 1, 2021, and to decide at a later date when to open training camp.
In mid-November 2020, deputy commissioner Bill Daly stated that the league was still targeting a January 1 start, but that "we have to build in flexibility for the hiccups that we expect will come along and have to expect will come along with potential COVID-19 positives and contact tracing requirements", citing "difficulties" faced by Major League Baseball and the National Football League over their handling of the pandemic.
On December 20, the league unveiled its plans for a 56-game regular season, and that the teams would temporarily be realigned into four regional divisions. Due to limitations on travel into and out of Canada, the seven Canadian teams were aligned into a single North division. The seven teams in the North Division played each other nine or ten times during the regular season.
West Central North East Anaheim Ducks Carolina Hurricanes Calgary Flames Boston Bruins Arizona Coyotes Chicago Blackhawks Edmonton Oilers Buffalo Sabres Colorado Avalanche Columbus Blue Jackets Montreal Canadiens New Jersey Devils Los Angeles Kings Dallas Stars Ottawa Senators New York Islanders Minnesota Wild Detroit Red Wings Toronto Maple Leafs New York Rangers San Jose Sharks Florida Panthers Vancouver Canucks Philadelphia Flyers St. Louis Blues Nashville Predators Winnipeg Jets Pittsburgh Penguins Vegas Golden Knights Tampa Bay Lightning Washington Capitals To further reduce travel, the regular season schedule was arranged into baseball-style homestands, where multiple consecutive games with the same teams were played at the same location. The only contentious issue with the temporary realignment was which two teams in the Central Time Zone would have to join the West Division. They would have more travel time playing games in the Pacific Time Zone, but they would be against the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks, three of the seven teams that did not qualify for the expanded 24-team 2020 playoffs. It was eventually decided to leave the Dallas Stars in the Central to make up for the team being in the Pacific Division from 1998 to 2013, and the Minnesota Wild and the St. Louis Blues moved to the West.
It was the latest a season had started, and with the fewest games per team, since the 2012–13 season. In that season, each team played only 48 games due to the aftermath of the 2012–13 NHL lockout.
Taxi squad Only for this season, the NHL allowed each team to retain an extra traveling group of four to six players, including one goaltender, known as the taxi squad. The taxi squad was designed to enable swift call-ups to the NHL team in the event of positive COVID-19 cases on each team. Waiver-eligible members of the taxi squad are still subject to waiver rules. Daly stated that the taxi squad was devised only to circumvent the difficulties presented by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and is not likely to be used again in future seasons.
Draft The 2020 NHL entry draft was originally scheduled for June 26–27, 2020, at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It took place on October 6 and 7 in a remote format, hosted from the NHL Network studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. The New York Rangers were awarded the first pick in the 2020 draft after winning the second phase of the draft lottery on August 10 and selected Alexis Lafreniere.
Postponed All-Star, outdoor, and international games The league had originally scheduled this season's international, All-Star, and outdoor games prior to the pandemic.
Two preseason games were planned to be played in Europe: the Boston Bruins against Adler Mannheim at SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany, and the Nashville Predators against SC Bern at PostFinance Arena in Bern, Switzerland. In addition, three regular season games, were also planned: the Boston Bruins and Nashville Predators at O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic; and two games between the Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland, later in the fall.
The 2021 Winter Classic planned for January 1, 2021, was to feature the Minnesota Wild hosting the St. Louis Blues at Target Field. The Florida Panthers and their BB&T Center were then scheduled to host the All-Star Game on January 30, and the Stadium Series game was to be hosted by the Carolina Hurricanes at Carter–Finley Stadium on February 20, against an opponent yet to be announced.
On May 8, 2020, the league postponed the five international games, aiming to reschedule them for the 2021–22 season. The league then announced on October 22, 2020, that the Winter Classic and the All-Star Game were also being postponed to the next year due to "ongoing uncertainty" since fan participation are considered "integral to the[ir] success. The decision to further postpone the Stadium Series game was made on December 23, also because fans would not be able to attend that event.
Sponsorship
To offset reduced revenue due to games being played with limited to no spectators, the NHL experimented with allowing additional advertising placements that aimed to retain between US$80–90 million that would have otherwise been lost, including allowing teams to sell a sponsor placement on their players' helmets (helmet entitlement partner). Sponsor logos include those along the bottom of the glass just above the boards, sponsor logos on front-row tarps covering unused seats, sponsor logos on the glass behind the benches (in addition to the boards below them), and virtual ads projected just inside the blue lines.
The following teams announced their helmet sponsors for the season: Anaheim: Pacific Premier Bancorp Arizona: Dignity Health (away), Mountain America Credit Union (home) Boston: TD Bank Buffalo: Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (away), KeyBank (home) Calgary: Scotiabank Carolina: PNC Bank (regular season), DieHard (playoffs) Chicago: United Airlines Colorado: Ball Corporation Columbus: Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (away), OhioHealth (home) Dallas: AT&T Detroit: United Wholesale Mortgage Edmonton: Rogers Communications Florida: Ford Motor Company (games), Baptist Health South Florida (practices) Los Angeles: CalHOPE Crisis Counseling Program Minnesota: Xcel Energy Montreal: Bell Canada Nashville: Bridgestone (regular uniforms), Vanderbilt Health (Reverse Retro) New Jersey: Prudential Financial New York Islanders: UBS (away), Northwell Health (home) New York Rangers: Chase Bank Ottawa: Canadian Tire (away), Bell Canada (home) Philadelphia: Tata Consultancy Services Pittsburgh: PPG Industries San Jose: Zoom Video Communications (away), SAP (home) St. Louis: Enterprise Rent-A-Car (away), Stifel (home) Tampa Bay: Tampa General Hospital (away), DEX Imaging (home) Toronto: Scotiabank Vancouver: Rogers Communications Vegas: Allegiant Air (away), Credit One Bank (home) Washington: Capital One Winnipeg: Bell Canada
On January 5, 2021, the NHL announced that the Central, East, North, and West divisions this season would be sponsored by Discover Card, MassMutual, Scotiabank, and Honda, respectively.
On February 24, 2021, the NHL announced a partnership with DreamHack to serve as its new partner for esports events.
Collective bargaining agreement The collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which had been in effect since the end of the 2012–13 NHL lockout, was set to enter its penultimate season in 2020–21.
On July 10, 2020, the league reached an agreement to renew the CBA through the 2025–26 NHL season, including an increase of the minimum player salary to US$750,000 from US$700,000, increasing the maximum value of entry-level contracts, deferring 10% of player salaries for the 2020–21 season to cover costs associated with the pandemic (they were to be paid back over three seasons beginning 2022–23), escrow of player salaries capped at 20% for this season and decreasing incrementally to 14-18%, 10%, and 6% over the three seasons that follow (with the 6% applying thereafter), doubling of the playoff bonus pool to US$32 million, and an agreement for the NHL to negotiate a return to the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics (after being absent from the 2018 Winter Olympics).
The CBA was automatically renewed through 2026–27 if player escrow debt falls between US$125 million and US$250 million after the 2024–25 season.
Salary cap As part of the new CBA, the salary cap remained at US$81.5 million for the 2020–21 season. Future increases would occur incrementally until the league recovers from the financial impact of the pandemic.
Rule changes The league announced on December 22, 2020, that the offside rules have been modified so that players only have to break the plane of the blue line to be ruled onside instead of having to actually touch it with their skate.
Player and puck tracking technology For the first time, the NHL deployed the league's player and puck tracking system in all 31 NHL arenas. The system allowed on-air features such as speed displays, puck tracking graphics, and marker graphics hovering above players (though not to the same extremes as the infamous "FoxTrax" graphics from the former NHL on Fox during the 1990s). The league had planned to deploy this technology to all 31 arenas by September 2019, but a change to its primary technology partner delayed implementation until the 2020 playoffs.