2020–21 NHL season

2020–21 NHL season
League	National Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	January 13, 2021 – July 2021
Number of games	56
Number of teams	31
Draft
Top draft pick	Alexis Lafreniere
Picked by	New York Rangers
Regular season
Playoffs
Stanley Cup

The 2020–21 NHL season is the 104th season of operation (103rd season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the regular season has been reduced to 56 games and began on January 13, 2021. Due to COVID-19 cross-border travel restrictions currently imposed by the Government of Canada, the league temporarily realigned for this season, putting all seven Canadian teams into one division. The playoffs are then tentatively scheduled to run from May until July under a 16-team format with the top four teams from each division.

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. In December, the league said that the season would be shorter than the typical 82 games. Attendance at each arena will be limited by local health orders. The league also relies on attendance for at least 50 percent of its revenue, and the players are 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 (see § Media rights, below).

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 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 divisions. Due to COVID-19 restrictions traveling into and out of Canada, all seven Canadian teams were placed in one division. 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.

The temporary alignment is as follows:

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

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 is experimenting with allowing additional advertising placements that will aim to retain between $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 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 have 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
• 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
• 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 will 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 $750,000 from $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 will 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 $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 will be automatically renewed through 2026–27 if player escrow debt falls between $125 million and $250 million after the 2024–25 season.

Salary cap

As part of the new CBA, the salary cap will remain at $81.5 million for the 2020–21 season. Future increases will 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 will allow on-air features such as speed displays, puck tracking graphics, and marker graphics hovering above players (though not to the extremes on-air of the mid-90s FoxTrax experiment). 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.

After the first week of the season, the league announced that it was temporarily suspending the puck tracking system due to performance issues, stating that "the first supply of 2020–21 pucks did not receive the same precise finishing treatments during the off-season manufacturing process as were used during the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs". The player tracking remained unaffected.

Coaching changes

Coaching changes

Off–season
Team	2019–20 coach	2020–21 coach	Story / Accomplishments
Calgary Flames	Bill Peters Geoff Ward*	Geoff Ward	Peters resigned on November 29, 2019, after accusations of racism were made by former Rockford IceHogs player Akim Aliu when Peters was coaching the AHL club a decade earlier. Peters spent 1⅓ seasons with the Flames, registering a record of 12–12–4 to start the season after reaching the first round of the playoffs as the top seed in the Western Conference the previous season. Ward, who served as an assistant coach, was named interim head coach. On September 14, Ward was named head coach.
Dallas Stars	Jim Montgomery Rick Bowness*	Rick Bowness	Montgomery was dismissed on December 10, 2019, due to "unprofessional conduct inconsistent with the core values and beliefs" of the Stars and the league. He spent 1⅓ seasons with the Stars, registering a record of 17–11–3 to start the season after reaching the second round of the playoffs the previous season. Bowness, who served as an assistant coach, was named interim head coach. On October 29, Bowness was named head coach.
Minnesota Wild	Bruce Boudreau Dean Evason*	Dean Evason	Boudreau was fired on February 14, 2020, after 3⅔ seasons with the team, which had registered a record of 27–23–7 to start the season. The Wild had reached the playoffs in the first two seasons of his tenure in Minnesota but had not qualified for the playoffs since the 2017–18 season. Evason, who had served as an assistant coach with the Wild since the start of the 2018–19 season, was immediately named interim head coach. On July 13, Evason was named head coach.
New Jersey Devils	John Hynes Alain Nasreddine*	Lindy Ruff	Hynes was fired on December 3, 2019, after 4⅓ seasons with the team, which had registered a 9–13–4 record to start the season. The Devils reached the playoffs once in Hynes' tenure, and did not advance past the first round in 2018. Nasreddine, who served as an assistant coach, was named interim head coach. On July 9, the Devils named Ruff as head coach who was previously an assistant coach for the New York Rangers.
San Jose Sharks	Peter DeBoer Bob Boughner*	Bob Boughner	DeBoer was fired on December 11, 2019, after 4⅓ seasons with the team, which had registered a record of 15–16–2 to start the season. The Sharks qualified for the playoffs in all of the four previous seasons under DeBoer, and advanced to the 2016 Stanley Cup Finals. Boughner, who served as an assistant coach, was named interim head coach. On September 22, Boughner was named head coach.
Washington Capitals	Todd Reirden	Peter Laviolette	Reirden was fired on August 24, 2020, after the team failed to get past the first round for the second consecutive year. The team won the division title each year under Reirden, accumulating an 89–46–16 record over two seasons. On September 15, the Capitals named Laviolette as head coach, who had been fired by Nashville the previous season.
In–season
Team	Outgoing coach	Incoming coach	Story / Accomplishments
Buffalo Sabres	Ralph Krueger	Don Granato*	Krueger was fired on March 17, 2021, after pats of two seasons with Buffalo, with the team suffering a 6–18–4 start and a 12-game losing streak. Krueger totaled a 36–49–12 record during his short tenure, and failed to lead the team to the playoffs in his lone complete season. Assistant coach Granato was named interim head coach.
Calgary Flames	Geoff Ward	Darryl Sutter	Ward was fired on March 4, 2021, after parts of two seasons with Calgary, with the team starting the season 11–11–2. Ward amassed a 35–26–5 record during his brief tenure, and led the team to the first round of the playoffs in 2020. Sutter, who had previously coached Calgary from 2002 to 2006, and most recently was head coach of the Los Angeles Kings from 2011 to 2017, was named as his replacement shortly afterwards.
Montreal Canadiens	Claude Julien	Dominique Ducharme*	Julien was fired on February 24, 2021, after parts of five seasons during his second stint as head coach of the Canadiens, which had registered a 9–5–4 record to start the season. Julien compiled a 129–123–35 record during his second stint and the team reached the playoffs twice during his tenure, never advancing past the first round. Assistant coach Ducharme was named interim head coach.

(*) Indicates interim.

Front office changes

General managers

Off–season
Team	2019–20 GM	2020–21 GM	Story / Accomplishments
Arizona Coyotes	John Chayka Steve Sullivan*	Bill Armstrong	Chayka (after four years with the team) quit unexpectedly as the team headed into the 2020 Qualifying Round. Sullivan was named interim general manager. Bill Armstrong was named general manager on September 16. Armstrong had previously served as assistant general manager of the St. Louis Blues.
Buffalo Sabres	Jason Botterill	Kevyn Adams	Botterill was fired on June 16, 2020, after three years as the Sabres' general manager, and was replaced by Adams.
Florida Panthers	Dale Tallon	Bill Zito	Tallon and the Panthers agreed to part ways on August 10, 2020. Zito was named general manager on September 2.
New Jersey Devils	Ray Shero Tom Fitzgerald*	Tom Fitzgerald	Shero was fired on January 12, 2020, after five years as the Devils' general manager. Fitzgerald was named interim general manager. On July 9, Fitzgerald was named general manager.
In–season
Team	Outgoing general manager	Incoming general manager	Story / Accomplishments
Pittsburgh Penguins	Jim Rutherford Patrik Allvin*	Ron Hextall	Rutherford resigned on January 27, 2021 citing personal reasons. Rutherford joined the Penguins in 2014 as general manager and led the team to two Stanley Cup victories, making the playoffs in all six seasons. Patrik Allvin was named interim general manager. On February 9, 2021, Ron Hextall was announced as the general manager. He was previously GM of the Philadelphia Flyers from 2014 to 2018.

(*) Indicates interim.

Arena changes

• The Colorado Avalanche's home arena was renamed from the Pepsi Center to Ball Arena on October 22, 2020.
• The New York Islanders are scheduled to play all of their home games for the 2020–21 season at Nassau Coliseum. The team had split their home games between Nassau and Barclays Center during the past two seasons. The Islanders plan to move to UBS Arena for the 2021–22 season. In June 2020, Mikhail Prokhorov, whose company ran the Nassau Coliseum, announced that the Coliseum would be closed indefinitely while it seeks new investors to take it over and assume the remaining debt. In August 2020, the Coliseum's new leaseholders said that the Islanders would continue to play their home games in the arena during the season.

COVID-19 restrictions

Some teams hosted spectators during the season; only a select few admitted, or attempted to admit, a limited amount of in-person spectators at the start of the season.

Team	Home games with spectators allowed	Limitations	Source
Arizona Coyotes	All	Capped at 25% capacity from start of season.
Boston Bruins	Some	Will begin allowing spectators for home games beginning March 22. Capped at 12% capacity, per approval from Governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker.
Buffalo Sabres	Some	Will begin allowing spectators for select home games beginning April 3. Capped at 10% capacity (1,907) with a negative COVID test or proof of full vaccination no sooner than two weeks prior to game day required, per an executive order from Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo. The first game that was to be open to fans on March 20 was canceled and ticket purchasers did not get refunds for the mandated test.
Carolina Hurricanes	Some	Capped at 15% capacity starting March 4, following approval from Governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
Columbus Blue Jackets	Some	Capped at 10% capacity starting March 2, after approval by the Ohio Department of Health. This was later revised to 25% capacity starting March 9, following a new executive order by Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine.
Dallas Stars	All	Capped at 25% capacity from start of season.
Florida Panthers	All	Capped at 30% capacity from start of season.
Nashville Predators	Some	Capped at 15% capacity starting January 26.
New Jersey Devils	Some	Prudential Center prohibited spectators at sporting events per an executive order from Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy. Allowed 75 people in capacity. Capped at 10% capacity starting March 1 by Governor Murphy.
New York Islanders	Some	Will begin allowing spectators for home games beginning March 18. Capped at 10% capacity with a negative COVID test required, per an executive order from Governor Cuomo.
New York Rangers	Some	Began allowing spectators at home games on February 26. Capped at 10% capacity with a negative COVID test required, per an executive order from Governor Cuomo.
Ottawa Senators	None	Owner Eugene Melnyk proposed to allow the Canadian Tire Centre to have 6,000 spectators from the start of the season. On January 15, Premier of Ontario Doug Ford declared a second state of emergency, with all games to be played behind closed doors.
Philadelphia Flyers	Some	Capped at 15% capacity starting March 1, after approval by Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Pittsburgh Penguins	Some	Capped at 15% capacity starting March 1, after approval by Governor Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
St. Louis Blues	Some	Capped at 1,400 spectators starting February 2.
Tampa Bay Lightning	Some	Capped at 3,800 spectators (20% capacity) beginning March 13.
Vegas Golden Knights	Some	Capped at 15% capacity starting March 1, after approval by the Nevada Department of Business and Industry.

Due to Santa Clara County banning all contact sports in response to a local rise of COVID-19 cases, the San Jose Sharks began the season on an extended road trip. Their first two home games on February 1 and 3 against the Vegas Golden Knights was to have been held at Gila River Arena, the home of division rival Arizona Coyotes, but ended up being postponed due to a COVID outbreak among the Golden Knights (see also § Postponed games, below). On January 25, Santa Clara County health officials announced that they were lifting the ban, but the Sharks stated that they still needed to work out several health and safety issues and therefore did not return to SAP Center until February 13.

The Tampa Bay Lightning initially announced that it would cap Amalie Arena at 20% capacity. However, the team's ownership later announced that no spectators will be allowed at the arena for Lightning games through at least February 2, 2021, due to concerns surrounding local case numbers. The team later announced on March 4 that a maximum of 3,800 fans would be allowed at home games beginning March 13.

On February 10, 2021, Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would allow large sports venues to host spectators at 10% of their capacity beginning February 23, 2021, affecting the Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, and New York Rangers. All spectators must present proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of the event, and may also be required to submit to a rapid test if their PCR test was within more than 48 hours of the event.

On March 1, 2021, Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Wolf announced that large indoor sports venues could now host spectators at 15% of their capacity, affecting the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins. While the Penguins began hosting spectators the very next day, the Flyers were required to wait for the city of Philadelphia to revise its own stricter health orders to match state law first; however, the city quickly followed the state's guidance.

Regular season

The regular season began on January 13, 2021. Teams will play games within their division only. The teams in the three U.S. divisions will play each of their seven division opponents eight times. Due to limitations on travel into and out of Canada, the seven Canadian teams have been aligned into a single North division. The seven teams in the North Division will play each other nine or ten times. To further reduce travel, a "baseball-style" schedule is being used where teams will play each other twice or thrice consecutively in the same location.

Outdoor games

On January 1, 2021, it was reported that the NHL was planning two outdoor games at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Lake Tahoe on February 20 and 21, with the Flyers playing the Bruins and the Avalanche playing the Golden Knights. It was suggested that the cancellation of stadium-based outdoor games due to reduced fan involvement had led the NHL to pursue outdoor games in scenic locations instead. The NHL officially confirmed the games, NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe, on January 11, 2021.

The Saturday game between Colorado and Vegas was initially beset by ice quality issues; unlike previous outdoor games, there was a lack of cloud cover, and as a result the playing surface was partially melted by direct sunlight. The game suffered a postponement of approximately eight hours following the end of the first period, with Colorado leading 1–0, in order to wait for sunset and repair the ice; play resumed at 9:00 PM local time (midnight ET), with Colorado ultimately winning 3–2. In an additional attempt to avoid further issues, the Sunday game between Boston and Philadelphia was rescheduled for 4:30 PM (7:30 ET), instead of the initially-planned 11:00 AM (2:00 ET) start time.

Postponed games

COVID-19-related

• The Dallas Stars' first four games (road contests against the Florida Panthers on January 14 and 15 and the Tampa Bay Lightning on January 17 and 19) were postponed after six Dallas players and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19 by January 8. At least eight games involving either Dallas, Florida, or Tampa Bay were rescheduled to accommodate the postponements, including rescheduling one of the Dallas–Tampa Bay games for May 10, two days after the regular season was originally scheduled to end.
• The Carolina Hurricanes–Nashville Predators game on January 19 was postponed "out of an abundance of caution" after four Carolina players were added to the COVID-19 list. On the following day, the league decided to also postpone Carolina's next two games against Florida on January 21 and 23. The league further postponed Carolina's game against Tampa Bay on January 26, and then rescheduled at least seven games involving either of these four teams.
• The St. Louis Blues–Vegas Golden Knights game on January 28 was postponed after several Vegas players and coaches tested positive. The league further postponed Vegas' next two games at the San Jose Sharks on February 1 and 3. Six games were then rescheduled involving either of those three teams.
• Three New Jersey Devils games (road contests against the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 2 and 4 and a home game against the New York Rangers on February 6) were postponed after several New Jersey players were placed on the COVID-19 protocol list.
• Four Buffalo Sabres road games (at the New York Islanders on February 2 and 4, and at the Boston Bruins on February 6 and 8) were postponed. The Sabres were the last team to play the Devils before the three aforementioned New Jersey games were postponed. The league had initially only postponed Buffalo's February 2 game after the team's flight to New York was delayed due to weather conditions and thus pushed back the required COVID-19 tracing protocols, but decided to postpone more games after Sabres players were placed on the COVID-19 protocol list. On February 6, the league rescheduled 27 games involving Buffalo, New Jersey, or other East Division teams.
• Four Minnesota Wild games (at the Colorado Avalanche on February 4, two home games against the Arizona Coyotes on February 6 and 7, and a home game against St. Louis on February 9) were postponed after several Wild players were placed on the COVID-19 protocol list.
• Four additional Avalanche games (two road games at St. Louis on February 6 and 7, and two home games against Arizona on February 9 and 11) were postponed after forwards Tyson Jost and Gabriel Landeskog were placed on the COVID-19 protocol list. As a result, the Blues and Coyotes' two-game set in St. Louis on March 29 and 31 was rescheduled to February 6 and 8, originally making it a four-game series between the two teams after having previously played on February 2 and 4.
• On February 8, the league postponed seven additional games involving Buffalo (against the Washington Capitals on February 11 and 13), Minnesota (against St. Louis on February 11 and the Los Angeles Kings on February 13), and New Jersey (against the Philadelphia Flyers on February 11 and 13 and Boston on February 15). Additional players on all three teams were placed on the COVID-19 protocol list, as well as Buffalo head coach Ralph Krueger testing positive for the virus. As a result, the April 15 St. Louis–Arizona game was moved to February 12; with the previous postponements, and their originally scheduled games on February 13 and 15 in Arizona, the Blues and the Coyotes played seven consecutive times.
• The Flyers–Capitals game on February 9 was postponed after Philadelphia players were placed on the COVID-19 protocol list. The league further postponed the Flyers' February 14 game at the Rangers.
• The Sharks–Golden Knights game on February 25, already a rescheduling from earlier in the month, was postponed after Sharks forward Tomas Hertl was placed on the COVID-19 protocol list. The game was later rescheduled for April 23.
• Two Bruins games (at Buffalo on March 20 and a home game against the Islanders on March 23) were postponed after five Bruins players were placed on the COVID-19 protocol list. The Buffalo game was rescheduled to April 20 while the Islanders game was rescheduled to April 23.
• The Edmonton Oilers–Montreal Canadiens games on March 22, 24 and 26, and the Ottawa Senators–Montreal game on March 28 were postponed after Canadiens forwards Joel Armia and Jesperi Kotkaniemi were placed on the COVID-19 protocol list. As a result, thirteen North Division games were rescheduled.
• Four Vancouver Canucks games (March 31 vs. Calgary, April 3 at Edmonton, and April 4 and 6 at Winnipeg) were postponed after two Canucks players and a member of its coaching staff were placed on the COVID–19 protocol list.

Other

• Four Stars home games (against Nashville on February 15–16, and against Tampa Bay on February 18 and 20) were postponed due to the February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm. As a result, the Lightning's road game at Carolina on March 28 was moved up to February 20, while the Hurricanes' originally scheduled home game against the Chicago Blackhawks was rescheduled to a later date. The Lightning–Stars home contests were later rescheduled to March 2 and 16, while the Predators–Stars matchups were moved to March 7 and 21. Two Stars road games in Columbus, three in Tampa, two in Chicago, and one in Nashville were also rescheduled.
• The Blues–Kings game on March 15 was postponed as a result of the March 2021 North American storm complex. The Kings had previously played a two-game series against the Avalanche, and were unable to leave Denver and return to Los Angeles before the storm hit. The game was rescheduled to May 10.

Standings

West Division

Pos	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	RW	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	p – Colorado Avalanche	56	39	13	4	35	197	133	+64	82
2	x – Vegas Golden Knights	56	40	14	2	30	191	124	+67	82
3	x – Minnesota Wild	56	35	16	5	27	181	160	+21	75
4	x – St. Louis Blues	56	27	20	9	19	169	170	−1	63
5	e – Arizona Coyotes	56	24	26	6	19	153	176	−23	54
6	e – Los Angeles Kings	56	21	28	7	19	143	170	−27	49
7	e – San Jose Sharks	56	21	28	7	15	151	199	−48	49
8	e – Anaheim Ducks	56	17	30	9	11	126	179	−53	43

Source: National Hockey League
Rules for classification: 1) Fewer number of games played (GP, only during regular season); 2) Greater number of regulation wins (RW); 3) Greater number of wins in regulation and overtime, excluding shootout wins (ROW); 4) Greater number of total wins, including shootouts (W); 5) Greater number of points earned in head-to-head play; if teams played an uneven number of head-to-head games, the result of the first game on the home ice of the team with the extra home game is discarded; 6) Greater goal differential (GD); 7) Greater number of goals scored (GF)
e – Eliminated from playoff contention; p – Clinched Presidents' Trophy; x – Clinched playoff spot

North Division

Pos	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	RW	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	y – Toronto Maple Leafs	56	35	14	7	29	187	148	+39	77
2	x – Edmonton Oilers	56	35	19	2	31	183	154	+29	72
3	x – Winnipeg Jets	56	30	23	3	24	170	154	+16	63
4	x – Montreal Canadiens	56	24	21	11	20	159	168	−9	59
5	e – Calgary Flames	56	26	27	3	22	156	161	−5	55
6	e – Ottawa Senators	56	23	28	5	18	157	190	−33	51
7	e – Vancouver Canucks	56	23	29	4	17	151	188	−37	50

Source: National Hockey League
Rules for classification: 1) Fewer number of games played (GP, only during regular season); 2) Greater number of regulation wins (RW); 3) Greater number of wins in regulation and overtime, excluding shootout wins (ROW); 4) Greater number of total wins, including shootouts (W); 5) Greater number of points earned in head-to-head play; if teams played an uneven number of head-to-head games, the result of the first game on the home ice of the team with the extra home game is discarded; 6) Greater goal differential (GD); 7) Greater number of goals scored (GF)
e – Eliminated from playoff contention; x – Clinched playoff spot; y – Clinched division

East Division

Pos	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	RW	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	y – Pittsburgh Penguins	56	37	16	3	29	196	156	+40	77
2	x – Washington Capitals	56	36	15	5	29	191	163	+28	77
3	x – Boston Bruins	56	33	16	7	25	168	136	+32	73
4	x – New York Islanders	56	32	17	7	24	156	128	+28	71
5	e – New York Rangers	56	27	23	6	24	177	157	+20	60
6	e – Philadelphia Flyers	56	25	23	8	17	163	201	−38	58
7	e – New Jersey Devils	56	19	30	7	15	145	194	−49	45
8	e – Buffalo Sabres	56	15	34	7	11	138	199	−61	37

Source: National Hockey League
Rules for classification: 1) Fewer number of games played (GP, only during regular season); 2) Greater number of regulation wins (RW); 3) Greater number of wins in regulation and overtime, excluding shootout wins (ROW); 4) Greater number of total wins, including shootouts (W); 5) Greater number of points earned in head-to-head play; if teams played an uneven number of head-to-head games, the result of the first game on the home ice of the team with the extra home game is discarded; 6) Greater goal differential (GD); 7) Greater number of goals scored (GF)
e – Eliminated from playoff contention; x – Clinched playoff spot; y – Clinched division

Playoffs

The top four teams in each division will qualify for the 2021 playoffs under this season's temporary realignment. The first two rounds of the playoffs will be played under a divisional format, with the first-place team in each division playing the fourth-place team, and the second-place team playing the third-place team. The winners of those series will then play each other in the Second Round. The four teams that then advance to the third round, dubbed the Stanley Cup Semifinals, will be re-seeded based on regular season points. The winners of the Semifinals will go to play in the Stanley Cup Finals. All rounds will be best-of-7. With the temporary realignment and suspension of conferences, the league has yet to announce whether they will award the Campbell and Wales trophies this season.

The first two rounds will have the higher-seeded team getting the home-ice advantage; thereafter, it goes to the team with the better regular season record.

Statistics

Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in regular season points at the completion of games played on April 2, 2021.

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	+/–	PIM
Connor McDavid	Edmonton Oilers	38	22	42	64	+13	16
Leon Draisaitl	Edmonton Oilers	38	19	37	56	+21	14
Patrick Kane	Chicago Blackhawks	38	13	36	49	+5	14
Mitch Marner	Toronto Maple Leafs	37	13	33	46	+18	16
Mark Scheifele	Winnipeg Jets	38	15	29	44	–5	12
Mikko Rantanen	Colorado Avalanche	36	21	22	43	+17	16
Auston Matthews	Toronto Maple Leafs	34	24	18	42	+14	8
Jonathan Huberdeau	Florida Panthers	37	14	28	42	–1	20
Nathan MacKinnon	Colorado Avalanche	32	12	30	42	+19	24
Sidney Crosby	Pittsburgh Penguins	36	14	26	40	+8	16

Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders led the league in regular season goals against average at the conclusion of games played on April 2, 2021, while playing at least 960 minutes.

Player	Team	GP	TOI	W	L	OTL	GA	SO	SV%	GAA
Philipp Grubauer	Colorado Avalanche	30	1,781:39	22	7	1	53	5	.928	1.78
Andrei Vasilevskiy	Tampa Bay Lightning	28	1,687:47	22	5	1	56	3	.931	1.99
Marc-Andre Fleury	Vegas Golden Knights	25	1,485:59	17	8	0	53	4	.924	2.14
Chris Driedger	Florida Panthers	16	963:33	10	4	2	35	1	.927	2.18
Semyon Varlamov	New York Islanders	26	1,540:16	15	7	3	58	3	.919	2.26
Igor Shestyorkin	New York Rangers	19	1046:27	9	8	1	40	0	.924	2.29
Cam Talbot	Minnesota Wild	18	1052:48	10	5	2	41	2	.926	2.34
Kaapo Kahkonen	Minnesota Wild	18	1053:26	12	6	0	41	2	.920	2.34
Juuse Saros	Nashville Predators	20	1,077:41	10	7	0	43	1	.923	2.39
Mike Smith	Edmonton Oilers	19	1,080:15	13	3	1	43	2	.919	2.39

Uniforms

Wholesale team changes

• The Buffalo Sabres reintroduced their original royal blue, gold and white uniforms full-time, worn by the team from 1970 to 1996.
• The Calgary Flames reintroduced their original red, yellow, and white uniforms, worn by the team from 1980 to 1994. The design had been used as an alternate, retro jersey in recent seasons. The team's primarily red and black former home sweater will be the alternate jersey going forward.
• The Dallas Stars introduced new alternate black and neon green uniforms.
• The Ottawa Senators reintroduced its 1997–2007 logo, with a gold outline as opposed to red, and a uniform set similar to the jerseys used from 1992 to 1995.
• The San Jose Sharks reintroduced their original Heritage jersey worn by the team from 1991 to 1998, to be worn during select games to celebrate their 30th anniversary.
• The Vegas Golden Knights introduced new alternate metallic gold uniforms.
• The Washington Capitals introduced alternate navy blue uniforms based on the ones they wore during the 2018 NHL Stadium Series.
• From January 16, 2021 through the end of February (in honour of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month), all players will wear commemorative "Celebrating Equality" decals on their helmets featuring an image of Willie O'Ree—the first black player in the NHL.

"Reverse Retro" jerseys

On November 16, 2020, the NHL introduced Adidas "Reverse Retro" jerseys for all 31 teams, which feature throwback uniforms with a modern twist.

West Division

• Anaheim Ducks: The team's first third jersey in 1995, featuring team mascot Wildwing breaking out a sheet of ice, except white instead of jade.
• Arizona Coyotes: The team's first third jersey in 1999, originally colored green but now purple.
• Colorado Avalanche: 1979 Quebec Nordiques jerseys, the team's first season after the NHL–WHA merger when they were the Nordiques albeit in a 1991 design and using the Avalanche's burgundy and blue color scheme.
• Los Angeles Kings: 1989 throwbacks, when Wayne Gretzky broke the NHL record for all-time leading scorer. The design has the 1988–1998 era logo and is colored in forum blue (purple) and gold colors used on the team's original uniforms from 1967 to 1988.
• Minnesota Wild: Features the current Wild logo with the style and colors of the 1978 Minnesota North Stars jerseys.
• St. Louis Blues: 1995 throwbacks, but colored in red.
• San Jose Sharks: The team's first third jersey in 1998, but now gray.
• Vegas Golden Knights: Based on the jerseys worn by the 1995 Las Vegas Thunder of the International Hockey League, except the teams's secondary logo is on the crest of the jersey, and the dominant color is red.

Central Division

• Carolina Hurricanes: 1979 Hartford Whalers jerseys, the team's first season after the NHL–WHA merger when they were the Whalers, except gray.
• Chicago Blackhawks: 1940 throwbacks.
• Columbus Blue Jackets: 2000 throwbacks, the team's inaugural season, except red.
• Dallas Stars: 1999 throwbacks, when they won the Stanley Cup, except white throughout, including the pants.
• Detroit Red Wings: 1998 throwbacks, when they won their ninth Stanley Cup in 1998; taking additional inspiration from their white jerseys from 1961 except replacing the red stripes with silver ones.
• Florida Panthers: 1996 throwbacks, when they made their only Stanley Cup Finals appearance, except navy blue and with the team's current color scheme.
• Nashville Predators: 1998 throwbacks, the team's inaugural season.
• Tampa Bay Lightning: 2004 throwbacks, when they won their first Stanley Cup, but now blue.

North Division

• Calgary Flames: The team's first third jersey in 1998, but black throughout.
• Edmonton Oilers: 1979 throwbacks, the team's first season after the NHL–WHA merger. This jersey is inspired by the 1972 Alberta Oilers design.
• Montreal Canadiens: 1976 throwbacks, except the blue and red are reversed.
• Ottawa Senators: 1992 throwbacks, the team's inaugural season, but now red.
• Toronto Maple Leafs: 1970 throwbacks, originally colored with white accents, but now gray, the 1967–1970 logo is on the crest of the jersey.
• Vancouver Canucks: The team's third jersey in 2001, originally colored with red gradients, but now green.
• Winnipeg Jets: The 1979 jerseys of the original Winnipeg Jets, the team's first season after the NHL–WHA merger, except now a dark gray base with navy blue accents.

East Division

• Boston Bruins: primarily "gold"-color throwback jerseys, with details matching those of the 1987–88 and 1989–90 seasons, when the team reached two Stanley Cup Finals over a three-season span.
• Buffalo Sabres: The team's first third jersey in 2000, except done in the team's current colors and on a white template.
• New Jersey Devils: 1982 throwbacks, the team's first season in New Jersey after relocating from Denver when they were the Colorado Rockies, except the green and red are reversed.
• New York Islanders: 1980 throwbacks, when they won the first out of four consecutive Stanley Cups in the navy blue focused color scheme the team used from 1995 to 2010.
• New York Rangers: 1996 alternate jerseys that feature the head of the Statue of Liberty, but navy blue throughout.
• Philadelphia Flyers: 1995 throwbacks, when Eric Lindros won the Hart Trophy, similar but the black and white elements are swapped out for one another.
• Pittsburgh Penguins: 1997 throwbacks, when Mario Lemieux won his sixth scoring title, except white instead of black.
• Washington Capitals: 1997 throwbacks, featuring the "screaming eagle", except done in their current color scheme.

Milestones

First games

The following is a list of notable players who played their first NHL game during the 2020–21 NHL season, listed with their first team.

Player	Team	Notability
Alexis Lafreniere	New York Rangers	First overall pick in the 2020 Draft

Last games

The following is a list of players of note who played their last NHL game in 2020–21, listed with their team:

Player	Team	Notability
Mikko Koivu	Columbus Blue Jackets	Over 1,000 games played, one-time NHL All-Star

Major milestones reached

• On January 14, 2021, Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov became the first player in NHL history to have three-plus points and an overtime goal in his debut.
• On January 28, 2021, New Jersey Devils head coach Lindy Ruff became the seventh head coach to coach 1,500 games.
• On February 2, 2021, Montreal Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber played his 1,000th NHL game, becoming the 349th player to reach the mark.
• On February 6, 2021, New York Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov became the 76th goaltender to play 500 games.
• On February 20, 2021, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby played his 1,000th NHL game, becoming the 350th player to reach the mark.
• On February 21, 2021, New Jersey Devils forward Travis Zajac played his 1,000th NHL game, becoming the 351st player to reach the mark.
• On March 7, 2021, Florida Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle played his 1,000th NHL game, becoming the 352nd player to reach the mark.
• On March 9, 2021, Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane played his 1,000th NHL game, becoming the 353rd player to reach the mark.
• On March 17, 2021, New York Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad tied a modern NHL record for most points in one period with 6, set by Bryan Trottier in 1978. On March 25, Zibanejad also became the first player in NHL history to score 6 or more points in consecutive games against one opponent, recording 6 points in two games against Philadelphia.
• On April 3, 2021, Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky became the 77th goaltender to play 500 games.

Broadcast rights

Canadian television

National

This is the seventh season of the league's 12-year Canadian national broadcast rights deal with Sportsnet. This includes Sportnet's sub-licensing agreements to air Hockey Night in Canada games on CBC Television and French-language broadcasts on TVA Sports. As a result of the league's temporary realignment, HNIC and Wednesday Night Hockey will only air all-Canadian regular season games.

Local

• TSN3 renewed its regional rights to the Winnipeg Jets under a multi-year deal.
• Sportsnet West renewed its regional rights to the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers under a multi-year deal.

U.S. television

National

This is the tenth and final season of the league's U.S. national broadcast rights deal with NBC Sports (marking its 15th season overall as an NHL broadcaster). On January 22, 2021, it was reported that NBCUniversal would shut down NBCSN—the main U.S. cable broadcaster of the NHL—by the end of the year, with its programming to be subsumed by USA Network and Peacock. As part of the transition, USA is expected to begin "carrying and/or simulcasting certain NBC Sports programming" later in the year, including NHL playoff games.

On February 6, 2021, NHL Network began to air its first original game telecasts (as opposed to simulcasts from regional networks) under the NHL Network Showcase branding, with the inaugural season featuring 16 weekend afternoon games through the remainder of the season. Modeled upon the similarly named broadcasts on sister channel MLB Network, the games are called by Stephen Nelson and rotating analysts. They are drawn from the "European Game of the Week" package, which had been introduced in the 2018–19 season to provide opportunities for primetime NHL broadcasts by European rightsholders; with the introduction of original broadcasts for the window, the NHL Network Showcase feed is being repackaged for distribution as a world feed in Europe.

With the NBC Sports contract expiring at the end of the season, the league has explored the possibility of splitting its U.S. national media rights between multiple broadcasters, and over-the-top services (such as DAZN, ESPN+, or NBC's Peacock). In any case, the league aimed to surpass the US$2 billion total that NBC paid over the life of their 2011–12 to 2020–21 contract. On March 10, 2021, the NHL announced that ESPN would serve as one of the new rightsholders under a seven-year contract, which will include packages of regular season games for ESPN and ABC (including opening night, the All-Star Game, and other special events), 75 original exclusive games and all out-of-market games on ESPN+, rights to half of the Stanley Cup playoffs (including one conference final per-season), and four Stanley Cup Finals over the length of the contract.

Local

• On January 26, 2021, the Seattle Kraken announced that Root Sports Northwest will be their regional TV broadcaster when the expansion team begins play in 2021–22.
• On January 27, 2021, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced the upcoming rebranding of Fox Sports Networks (which owns regional rights to 14 of the NHL's 32 teams) as Bally Sports, as part of a sponsorship agreement with casino operator Bally's Corporation. The rebrand took place March 31 to coincide with Opening Day of the 2021 Major League Baseball season.

Radio

• On October 5, 2020, the Winnipeg Jets announced that Corus Entertainment would assume the team's radio rights under a seven-year deal. 680 CJOB and 97.5 CJKR-FM serve as co-flagships, both replacing 1290 CFRW. It marks the first time Winnipeg's NHL team will air on CJOB, since the original Winnipeg Jets. CFRW ceased operating as a sports radio station on February 5, 2021, switching to a comedy format.
• The San Jose Sharks ended their radio relationship with 98.5 KUFX and shifted to online-only audio broadcasts.

Personnel

Harnarayan Singh, after spending the previous decade calling games in the Punjabi language for Hockey Night in Canada, made his English play-by-play debut this season working HNIC games in Alberta.

NBC's lead play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick announced his retirement from broadcasting on October 19, 2020, after a 47-year career. In January 2021, it was announced that Sportsnet commentator Dave Randorf would become the new play-by-play announcer for the Tampa Bay Lightning on Fox Sports Sun, succeeding Rick Peckham.

Impact of COVID-19 on production

For most regular season games, the home team's regional rightsholder is serving as the host broadcaster, providing a neutral "world feed" to the away team's local rightsholder and other media partners. The away team's commentators are then calling the games remotely off of monitors from either their respective studios or from their home arena press boxes. NBC will also use the world feed during its non-exclusive telecasts, with its commentators working remotely from NBC Sports' studios in Stamford, Connecticut, but will also have its own crews on-site for its exclusive broadcasts (including Wednesday Night Hockey and games on the NBC broadcast network). A similar arrangement is being used in Canada by Sportsnet, TSN, TVA Sports, and RDS, based primarily on their respective national and regional rights. Sportsnet is assigned to Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver; TSN has Ottawa and Winnipeg; Sportsnet and TSN are splitting Toronto; and RDS and TVA Sports are splitting Montreal. TSN and Sportsnet's respective parent companies Bell Media and Rogers Media jointly own Dome Productions, which provides the broadcast facilities for both networks.

For its exclusive Hockey Night in Canada and Wednesday Night Hockey national broadcasts, Sportsnet will either use its regular national production crews or use its local Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, or Vancouver production crews. Sportsnet also suspended production of its remote Hometown Hockey broadcasts. To further reduce travel during the regular season, Sportsnet/HNIC's lead play-by-play announcer Jim Hughson has opted to only call national Vancouver home games, and Chris Cuthbert (who joined Sportsnet from TSN during the suspension of play) will mostly work games in Eastern Canada.

See also

• 2020–21 NHL transactions
• List of 2020–21 NHL Three Star Awards
• 2020–21 NHL suspensions and fines
• 2020 in sports
• 2021 in sports
• COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
• COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports