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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 cross-border travel restrictions imposed by the Government of Canada, the league temporarily realigned for this season, 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 Finals 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 (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-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.

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. 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 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

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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 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.

Expansion

On April 30, 2021, the Seattle Kraken paid the final installment of their expansion fee, formally admitting them into the NHL and allowing them to begin acquiring players. The team signed their first player, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) free agent Luke Henman, on May 12, 2021.

Coaching changes

(*) Indicates interim.

Front office changes

(*) Indicates interim

Arena changes and regulations

• The Colorado Avalanche's home arena was renamed from the Pepsi Center to Ball Arena on October 22, 2020, under a new naming rights agreement with the Ball Corporation.
• The New York Islanders played 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 previous two seasons. The Islanders moved to UBS Arena in 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 at the arena for the 2020–21 season.

COVID-19 restrictions

All American teams hosted a limited amount of in-person spectators during the regular season; only three admitted them at the start of the season. While several Canadian teams submitted proposals (including Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa) to allow for in-person spectators, they were all rejected by local health authorities. All North Division games were played behind closed doors for the entirety of the regular season. During the Stanley Cup playoffs, a number of U.S. teams further increased their capacity, and three of the Canadian playoff teams admitted spectators for the first time, although only one team has offered tickets to the general public.

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 percent capacity. However, the team's ownership later announced that no spectators were going to 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 May 20, the arena was allowed to expand to 7,000 spectators.

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. By the end of March, Madison Square Garden removed the requirement for testing if the spectator is fully vaccinated (no fewer than 14 days since the spectator received the second dose of a two-dose vaccine).

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 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. With their playoff run, the Penguins were able to increase to 50% capacity on May 18.

Monumental Sports & Entertainment, parent company of the Washington Capitals, applied for a waiver for 10% capacity in Capital One Arena in late March. The city government initially did not grant the waiver, leaving it as pending; it was subsequently granted on April 9. The Capitals subsequently announced that they would admit spectators beginning with a home game on April 27. The city later allowed an expansion to 25%, and the team would have been allowed to return to full capacity on June 11 if the Capitals advanced further into the playoffs.

The Government of California announced on April 2 that indoor venues could host spectators at limited capacities with proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, affecting the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks. The Ducks and Kings began admitting spectators at 10% capacity on April 16 and April 20, while the Sharks began admitting spectators on April 26, scaling up from 520 to the cap of 1,000 over time.

On April 29, 2021, the city of Chicago announced that it would allow United Center to operate at a quarter of its capacity beginning May 9, making the Blackhawks the final U.S.-based NHL team to reopen its arena to spectators.

On May 18, 2021, the Canadiens announced that under changes to Quebec public health orders and curfews, it would be able to admit 2,500 spectators to Bell Centre no earlier than May 28. The Canadiens' Game 5 victory in their first-round series against Toronto on May 27 took the series back home to Montreal on May 29, making them the first Canadian NHL team to play a game with in-person spectators this season. On May 31, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that the provincial government and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment would invite 550 fully-vaccinated health care workers to attend Game 7 at Scotiabank Arena, marking the Maple Leafs' first, and ultimately, only, home game with any spectators this season.

In June, the Manitoba government gave clearance to allow up to 500 fully-vaccinated health care workers, as well as the immediate family members of team staff, to attend Winnipeg Jets home games beginning with their second-round (North Division finals) series against Montreal.

Regular season

The regular season began on January 13, 2021. Teams played games within their division only. The teams in the three U.S. divisions played each of their seven division opponents eight times.

Outdoor games

On January 11, 2021, the NHL announced two outdoor games would be played on February 20 and 21 at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Lake Tahoe; the Flyers would play the Bruins and the Avalanche would play the Golden Knights.

The Saturday game between Colorado and Vegas was initially beset by ice quality issues; 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 attempt to avoid further issues, the Sunday game between Boston and Philadelphia was rescheduled for 4:30 PM (7:30 ET), five and a half hours after the originally planned 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 Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and their entire coaching staff 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 16 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 five 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, then for May 10 after further schedule changes.
• 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.
• Ten Vancouver Canucks games (initial four were 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. By April 4, the protocol list had grown to all but six players on Vancouver's active roster. The league further postponed Vancouver's two road games in Calgary on April 8 and 10. On April 10, the NHL announced that 13 North Division games would be rescheduled to accommodate the Canucks, with the team's final regular season game scheduled on May 16. On April 15, two home games scheduled for April 16 and 17 against Edmonton and Toronto, respectively, were postponed.
• Three Avalanche games (April 16 and 18 vs. Los Angeles, April 20 at St. Louis) were postponed after three Avalanche players were placed on the COVID-19 protocol list.