Starting training camp Dec. 31 would give the Wings two weeks to prepare for what will be their first game since March 10, when a loss the Hurricanes ensured a 17-49-5 finish to the 2019-20 season. There won’t be any exhibition games.
The Wings will be integrating several new players after general manager Steve Yzerman used the offseason to forwards Bobby Ryan and Vladislav Namestnikov, defensemen Marc Staal, Jon Merrill and Troy Stecher, and goaltender Thomas Greiss.
Detroit Red Wings: Will they be able to find secondary scoring?
There’s no shortage of questions for the league’s reigning last-place team, but the biggest may be how the Red Wings can find some scoring beyond their top line of Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi. Detroit gave itself a chance this offseason by adding Bobby Ryan and Vladislav Namestnikov, but this answer will also hinge significantly on the progress of Filip Zadina in his first full NHL season. Those three and Robby Fabbri make up Detroit’s likely pool for a second line, and should give the Red Wings much more firepower to work with if everyone stays healthy. It’s still likely not going to be enough to score with the league’s best, but those additions, combined with Zadina’s development, should make Detroit much more competitive. -Max Bultman
Continued (paywall); if the Wings can’t score more regularly, they won’t win many games.
The NHL and NHLPA will release the health and safety protocols, transition rules and critical dates calendar as well as the 2020-21 schedule in the coming days.
Here is a list of some of those significant dates, according to Sportsnet.ca and tsa.ca:
Start of training camp for non-playoff teams: Dec. 31
Start of training camp for playoff teams: Jan. 3
Trade deadline: April 12
End of regular season: May 8
Date for teams to submit protected lists for expansion draft: July 17
Seattle expansion draft: July 21
Entry draft: July 23-24
Start of free agency: July 28
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, players on the Red Wings and six other non-playoff teams have until Thursday to decide whether to opt-out of the season or attend training camp while others have until Dec. 27 to decide.
Teams have the option to “toll” the contracts of players who opt out, meaning they will own their rights for another season.
National Hockey League, National Hockey League Players’ Association Announce Plans for 2020-21 Regular Season and Playoffs
NEW YORK / TORONTO (Dec. 20, 2020) – The National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) and National Hockey League (NHL) announced today an agreement to play a 2020-21 regular-season schedule of 56 games beginning Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021, and concluding on May 8. As part of the agreement, the Stanley Cup Playoffs would feature 16 teams in the traditional best-of-seven, four-round format and conclude around mid-July with the plan of returning to a “normal” hockey calendar for the 2021-22 season (regular season beginning in October). The NHL and NHLPA will release the Health and Safety Protocols, transition rules and critical dates calendar as well as the 2020-21 schedule in the coming days.
Given the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHLPA and the NHL intend to be flexible and adaptable in their approach during the coming weeks to ensure compliance with directives from both local and national governmental and health authorities focusing on the health and safety of the players, other game-related personnel and the communities in which we play. The priority will continue to be focused on the health and safety of our fans and Players and Club, League, NHLPA and arena personnel.
“The National Hockey League looks forward to the opening of our 2020-21 season, especially since the Return to Play in 2019-20 was so successful in crowning a Stanley Cup champion,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “While we are well aware of the challenges ahead, as was the case last spring and summer, we are continuing to prioritize the health and safety of our participants and the communities in which we live and play. And, as was the case last spring and summer, I thank the NHLPA, particularly Executive Director Don Fehr, for working cooperatively with us to get our League back on the ice.”
“The Players are pleased to have finalized agreements for the upcoming season, which will be unique but also very exciting for the fans and Players alike,” said Don Fehr, NHLPA Executive Director. “During these troubled times, we hope that NHL games will provide fans with some much needed entertainment as the players return to the ice.”
In reaching agreement on the format for the 2020-21 season, the NHL and NHLPA determined that the ongoing closure of the U.S.-Canada border required realignment and the League and the Players also sought to minimize team travel as much as possible by shifting to exclusively intradivisional play. It is the current plan to play games in the home arenas of participating teams while understanding that most arenas will not, at least in the initial part of the season, be able to host fans. However, depending on prevailing conditions both in local markets and across North America, the League will be prepared to play games in one or more “neutral site” venues per division should it become necessary.
For the 2020-21 season, teams will be re-aligned as follows:
Each team in the East, Central and West divisions will play every other team in its division eight times while each team in the North Division will play every other team in its division nine or 10 times.
The top four teams in each division will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with intradivisional play in the first two rounds (#1 vs. #4; #2 vs. #3). The four teams that advance to the Semifinal Round would be seeded by their regular season points total, with the No. 1 seed playing the No. 4 seed in one series and the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds meeting in the other.
Formal training camps will begin on Jan. 3. There will be no pre-season games. The seven teams that did not participate in the 2019-20 Return to Play will be permitted to open their training camps as early as Dec. 31.
The 20-year-old about his hunt for the World Championship team: “I should have a good chance”
Jonatan Berggren became a goal-scorer for the first time with the Tre Kronor.
Skelleftea’s 20-year-old does not deny that he wants to fight for a spot on the World Championship team.
“I probably have the chance now that I’ve been involved and shown that what I do at home in Skelleftea also works here,” says Berggren after the end of the Channel One Cup.
Thanks to Michael Rasmussen who leaves us today as he returns to @DetroitRedWings to report for @NHL training camp. He was a great team mate and even better person, we wish him every success back in North America #BigRas— Graz99ers (@graz99ers) December 20, 2020
The Swedish World Junior Championship team has been hit hard by the coronavirus, and two positive tests by members of their front office mean that the Swedish team, in quarantine in Edmonton, presently, won’t be able to get in an exhibition game until December 24th.
“I tell people, the couple of negatives of being Gordie Howe’s son, they were harsh, they were hard,” Mark said. “But they’re mostly internal things.”
Speaking of internal things, Mark Howe said being the offspring of one of the great players in the game’s history — a mythical figure who owned a good portion of the NHL record book before an admirer named Wayne Gretzky arrived to rewrite things — could occasionally make you question your worthiness. There was only one Gordie Howe, sure, but both of his professional-playing sons had to wear a sweater bearing his surname.
“You’re always being compared,” Mark said. “I remember my mom sat me down and said, ‘The only person you need to measure yourself by is yourself. You set your own expectations.’ And that was my mindset for many years. I was bound and determined to make it to pro hockey whether my name was Smith, Jones, Howe, James, whatever the heck it was.”
There were undeniable upsides: “A billion of ’em,” Mark estimates. On weekends when the Red Wings were on the road, the staff at Detroit’s Olympia arena would allow Mark to skate on the Red Wings’ home ice by himself for most of the day; he’d take a break for a lunch of hot dogs and popcorn served by a concession-stand attendee named Jesse. At age 14, Mark was invited to participate in Red Wings training camp for a few days. As an unusually large kid, about five-foot-11 and 180 pounds at the time, the story goes that he held his own.
