New info and key dates for the Rangers 2021 season

The latest on the 2021 Return to Play  and key dates for the New York Rangers

With an agreement in place, details are being worked out about the 2021 NHL season.  Here are some of the late breaking developments.

Some teams won’t play at home

Right now, it looks like the Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose Sharks will be looking for a new home for the 2021 season.  While the Canucks are being allowed to practice in Vancouver, it’s possible that they may be forced to play their games at another location, based on local regulations.

The Sharks are going to holding their training camp in Arizona pending a decision as to whether they can play in Santa Clara County. If they are not permitted to play in San Jose, the team will have to play their home games in another city.

Permission for Canadian provinces remains a sticking point for the NHL.  Ontario has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases and if several provinces don’t give approval one contingency is for teams to play in the Edmonton bubble, but it would be on a part time basis. A team like Vancouver would play several games in Edmonton, then leave for a few days before returning to play again.

Some teams will play in front of fans

The Dallas Stars have announced that they expect to play in front of as many as 5,000 fans. The Coyotes followed with a similar announcement. It’s also expected that the Florida Panthers will have fans in the seats.  While this could be seen as an advantage for home teams, it’s hard to prevent teams from generating badly needed revenue.

The  fact is that it is extremely doubtful that any team in the new Northeast Division will be in a position to have fans attend games for at least several months if at all.

Free agent marketplace heating up

With a definite date set for training camp and the start of the season, teams will be scrambling to get their rosters set and many teams still have to get under the salary cap. According to capfriendly.com, there are 10 teams over the salary cap ceiling.  An additional six teams have less than $2 million in cap space.

There are some teams that will be working with Long Term Injured Reserve to clear cap space.  The latest is that  Nikita Kucherov has an illness and may begin the season on LTIR,  enabling the Lightning to sign Anthony Cirelli and Eric Cernak.

Six teams have over $9 million in cap space and there are a number of free agents still available including Mike Hoffman, Erik Haula, Sami Vatanen, Mikael Granlund, Carl Soderberg, Andreas Athanasaiou, Derick Brassard and Conor Sheary.

Ads on helmets

It appears that the NHL will allow teams to sell ad space on hockey helmets, but not on jerseys or hockey pants.  Specifics about size and placement need to be worked out.

Key dates

Here are the key dates for the Rangers’ 2021 season:

• December 24: Deadline for players to opt out of the 2021 season.
• December 31: Non-playoff teams training camps open.
• January 3:  Rangers training camp open. 36 skaters can be invited with unlimited number of goalies.
• January 13: Rangers 2021 season starts.
• February 1: Deadline for players to waive no movement clauses for the expansion draft. The only Rangers affected are Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Jacob Trouba.
• February 5: AHL season starts.
• April 12:  NHL trade deadline.  This could be the strangest deadline in NHL history as teams will have to consider quarantine issues for players changing teams especially players going from US based teams to Canada based teams.
• May 8: End of regular season.  Teams must play 56 games in 116 days.
• May 11:  Stanley Cup Playoffs begin.  The idea that there would be time in between the regular season and the playoffs for making up postponed games is not in effect.
• July 15: Last possible playoff date. It’s worth noting that the last possible date for the 2020 Playoffs was projected as October 4 and the last game was played on September 28. .
• 24 hours later: Buyout period opens
• July 17: Rangers must submit their protected list for the Seattle expansion draft.
• July 21:  Seattle expansion draft. The Rangers can lose one player.
• July 23-24:  NHL Entry draft.
• July 28:  First day of free agency.