Montreal Canadiens: The NHL is officially back
By Omar L
All the speculation is over as the NHL and NHLPA approved and confirmed the return of the NHL, giving the Montreal Canadiens three weeks to get ready.
After weeks and weeks of meetings and tweet threads from NHL insiders, we have confirmation that the Montreal Canadiens and the rest of the NHL (well 24 out of 31 teams) are coming back to our television screens.
The NHL and NHLPA have reached a memorandum of understanding on a return to play plan and a CBA that adds four years to the current agreement. This is now subject to approval by both parties: https://t.co/YsqsiiIrkW pic.twitter.com/8QQT4SgLRK
— NHLPA (@NHLPA) July 6, 2020
One of the greater things to come from this was the NHL and NHLPA were able to reach a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The current one has two more years left, while the new CBA will last until 2026. And to make it even better, Olympic Participation will be part of it.
The dates haven’t changed from that initial tweet thread from Bob McKenzie. Training camp will begin on the July 13th, teams will head to their respective hub cities on July 26th while the Stanley Cup Qualifier starts on August 1st.
During training camp, teams can have 30 players and an unlimited amount of goaltenders while the season resume will only allow a maximum of 31 players, including goaltenders.
All those decisions of who goes and who stays are going to be ongoing for the next week, and it’ll be interesting to see who the Montreal Canadiens bring along. But the wait won’t be too long as we’re a little over three weeks away from training camp.
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