Montreal Canadiens: Will the NHL 2020-21 season be cancelled?
By Omar L
Fans are waiting for the return of the Montreal Canadiens for the 2020-21 season, but there’s talk of a possible cancellation if certain measures aren’t met.
Optimism is all we wanted. Optimism is all we needed. When the league initially announced its target date for the 2020/21 season, we imagined that Montreal Canadiens would be gearing up for training camp by this time. Unfortunately, all fans have gotten is instead maybes and financial talk, which sounds eerily like what was floating around the last time the NHL locked out its players.
Gary Bettman has shared his desire to have the NHL play an 82-game season that started on January 1st. Despite those desires, nothing has taken place to prove it’s within the same galaxy of possibility. Even a February 1st start looks to be tough with all the disputes that are currently taking place between the NHL and the NHLPA.
Does that sound weird? Good, because it should.
Both sides literally came together to agree on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, but the league wants the players to reframe it, sending more money the way of the owners. Players are rightfully and fairly frustrated, and it looks like it’s getting worse.
According to Allan Walsh, who is the most vocal player agent on Twitter, there is talk of a potential cancellation of the entire 2020/21 season.
The NHL is soft floating the idea with media if no deal with the NHLPA is reached on the Return to Play, it can unilaterally invoke Force Majeure and cancel the 2020-21 season. 1/
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) December 2, 2020
The term “Force Majeure” is a legal term that applies when circumstances prevent someone from fulfilling a contract. On the other hand, and Walsh brings this up in the second last tweet of his thread, cancelling the season in this manner is technically a lockout that goes against the current CBA as there is one in place.
Either way, this could be very messy. Owners could try to cancel the season as players refuse to offer more money -$300 million to be exact – while the NHLPA could fire back at the attempt to cancel the season.
Now we did get a sigh of relief as Darren Dreger mentioned that this only speculation at this point.
If this is in response to the item in Insider Trading, Force Majeure could be applied if the NHLPA legally challenged a cancelled season by trying to establish an illegal lockout. Neither side wants to cancel the season. This was purely in response to speculation on PA strategy. https://t.co/lsLpJi4iHU
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 2, 2020
It doesn’t make any sense for either side to try to force a cancellation of the 2020/21 season. If this is all about making the most money, not playing any games does nothing for that.
However, it is frustrating to see the NBA gearing for training camp next week while the NHL sits on its hands, not even knowing what the plan is. There could be a secret plan in the works that the public doesn’t know about, but for the time being, there’s no way to properly predict when we’ll see the Montreal Canadiens play.