As COVID-19 continues to thrash the sporting world and leave the resumption of new season’s to take place across many leagues around the world, the lack of discussion and information coming out of the National Hockey League leaves fans anxious and eerie to the idea of a possible lockout, again.

Commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHL head office is still rumoured to have their sites primarily set on a early January start date for the 2021 campaign, but with that date just a little over a month away, it is concerning to see no plans have been laid out, and no agreements have taken place between the league and the players association.

Before the NHL return to play in the summer, the two parties agreed to a 6 year collective bargaining agreement that accounted for the financial repercussions of the pandemic. However, since then, it is rumoured that the league has since requested the players defer their salaries by even more than initially agreed on in the CBA, as well as increase escrow numbers, a situation that has left the players feeling betrayed.

Another rumour is that the commissioner and NHL Players Association chairman Donald Fehr hadn’t spoken to each other for over a week in late November, leading people to believe the two sides were no where close to a deal that would help begin the new season.

As COVID cases continue to spike across the world, the challenge only gets more difficult for the organizers, who would be most interest in a personal isolation system with teams travelling from city to city to play their games, as the NFL and MLB have put forth.

An obstacle that remains, the Canadian governments boarder implications, that does not allow non-essential travel to take place from outside the country without the requirement of a 14-day quarantine period, which just isn’t doable for NHL teams.

So, what will it come down too? Will we see yet another lockout under the watch of Gary Bettman? Will the players be forced to forfeit even more of they salaries in order to make any money at all? When will this season start?

We hope to see news come out any day now, but the longer ti goes, the lower the chances of starting this NHL season on time go with it.