It’s late December, and we’re finally starting to gear up for the return of NHL Hockey and the Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning. It’s been a unique year, and this upcoming season will also be a bit different. The NHL is playing a 56-game season and the schedule will end up pushing all of the normal dates by about a month, finally culminating in Free Agency opening up on July 28th, which hopefully allows them to return to a regular schedule for the 2021-22 season.
Because of the circumstances still surrounding the world and hockey, the NHL is expanding the rules for emergency recalls as well as allowing teams to have a six player taxi squad, with one of those players having to be a goaltender.