Bettman Doesn’t Plan On Canceling NHL Season

On Tuesday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters that the NHL will resume its season and crown a Stanley Cup champion at some point in the next several months.

Bettman made the comments during an appearance as a guest at a virtual town hall hosted by the San Jose Sharks.

“I believe that if the right time comes, and the right circumstances, based on all of the options that we’re considering and our ability to execute them, we’ll get this season done,” Bettman said. “I don’t want to sound Pollyanna, but canceling is too easy a solution. That means you stop working hard to do all of the things that we’re doing, and I ultimately believe that there will be an opportunity.

“States are re-opening, cities are re-opening,” Bettman said. “And if we do the right things, I think we’ll be able to finish the season.”

The NHL has crowned a Stanley Cup champion every year since 1893 except for the 1919 season, which was canceled due to the Spanish Flu and the 2005 season when the league locked out the players and canceled the season.

In March, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that even if the league is unable to finish this season until the end of the summer, the NHL does not want to do anything to jeopardize an 82-game regular season in 2020-2021.

The NHL is also hoping that a later start to the 2020-21 season will open the door to allowing fans into games, which is something they won’t be able to do if they are able to resume this season.

“Obviously we hope to be playing in front of fans by next season,” Bettman said. “But if we finish in August or September, there’s no magic to starting in October anymore. We can start in November. We can start in December.

“You’re going to be a little flexible with the schedule, because we want to be able to bring the game back, both to conclude this season on some basis and to have a full regular season next year. If that means we need to be more flexible, then that’s what we’ll do.”