Sunday, November 8 was the last possible day for arbitration hearings, so now that the NHL calendar of events has hit an end for the offseason, and there’s only one thing to be decided — when does the next season start?
As recently as last week, Bill Daly, Deputy Commissioner, repeated the January 1 date as their target. Because the NBA has agreed to begin the next season in late December, the NHL was asked to assure people that they weren’t planning to go earlier than January 1. And it needs to be emphasized that they have always referred to that date with the qualifier “as early as.