NHL's Deputy Commissioner talks reworking schedule and whether we'll get a full 82-game season

It's been a bit of a whirlwind lately for the NHL as COVID has led to several postponements of games and players no longer being allowed to attend the Olympics in February. For anyone worried that the league may not get a full 82-game season this year due to the postponements, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly says it's not an issue at the moment.

"Again, that's going to depend on some things happening. But, look, a larger and larger percentage of our player population has been affected by COVID this season and that number continues to grow every day," Daly told The Athletic's Pierre Lebrun. "Really, by sheer numbers, if you accept the fact that once you're hit by COVID you're not going to get hit again this year, then I don't foresee an issue in finishing the season."

As for what would have been the Olympics break, Daly says the games that have been postponed so far fit nicely into that stretch.

"We've worked and been working on the revised schedule and filling in February for what would have been the Olympic break. We still have plenty of cushion; plenty being a relative term. We have additional cushion to accommodate additional postponed games. Obviously, it's not endless. At some point we hope to see a normalization of games and cases and I think that'll happen. It's not going to be overnight, it's not going to be next week, it's probably not going to be two weeks from now. But I think by the middle to the end of January we'll start to see a more normalized setting, a more normalized schedule and we'll be in OK shape," he said.


As for when the rescheduled games will be announced, Daly says it's coming, but fans need to be patient.

"Obviously, we'll want to make announcements as soon as we can just so clubs and fans can plan. But you don't want to make announcements too soon where you're just changing them a week later. So, there's a balance."

As for Canadian teams who aren't allowed to have fans in attendance, or have had their capacity greatly reduced, Daly says the NHL is working with them to push games off for when there are fewer restrictions. However, it can't go on forever.

"I don't think we can fully compensate for the problem. If in fact these attendance restrictions carry on for multiple weeks, there's no way we can make up all those games or move or shift all those games. Like everything else, it'll be a balancing act. As I said, the league and the other league partners are willing to be as cooperative as we can possibly be."

In other words, if the need arises, games will be played with no one in attendance.

One interesting tidbit is Daly told LeBrun that should the Olympics get pushed off to next year because of COVID, the league will work with players to ensure they can go.

"And I've committed to the Players' Association that if that were to take place, we would be very cooperative and supportive on the same basis as we tried to be this year."