The 15^th annual Fantasy Hockey Guide is out and ready for download! Draft List too! Updated up to the Anthony Duclair news!

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There really is a lot to digest these past few days. I think Elliotte Friedman, Pierre Lebrun, Cap Friendly, NHL.com, Chris Johnston and Frank Seravalli had the most comprehensive information on that stuff and I have gathered it all up and pulled out the nuggets for you here. Hockey's back, time to set your fantasy league's draft date!

The NHL and NHL Players' Association reached an agreement Sunday to play a 56-game regular season starting Jan. 13, 2021, and ending May 8. The Stanley Cup Playoffs will include 16 teams in a best-of-7, four-round format and conclude around mid-July.https://t.co/mTIdfK5w6s

— NHL.com (@NHLdotcom) December 20, 2020

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NHL Schedule of Events:

Jan 03 – Training Camps Open

Jan. 13 – 2020-21 NHL Season begins (official)

Apr. 12 – NHL Trade Deadline

May 08 – Regular Season ends

July 15 – Latest date of Cup game

July 17 – Submit expansion protected lists

July 21 – Expansion Draft (Kraken)

July 28 – UFA opens/Free Agent Frenzy

So everything is wrapped up in mid-July. The trade deadline happens with 26 days left in the season, which shaves about a week off. The seven non-playoff teams from last season can open training camps on December 31.

Players need to opt out one week before their respective training camp opens, if they plan to opt out for this season. I don't anticipate many, if any, players to opt out.

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The one-year Divisions will be as follows:

North – Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg

West – Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado, Los Angeles, Minnesota, San Jose, St. Louis, Vegas

Central – Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Nashville, Tampa Bay

East – Boston, Buffalo, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington

All games will be played within the division. This means that each team in the West, Central and East divisions will play each other eight times. Teams in Canada will play each other nine times (with each team playing two teams 10 times).

I don't see this being advantageous for any one particular team in terms of the regular season. Playoffs are another matter, more on that below. But as far as the regular season goes and fantasy leagues, each division has a couple of powerhouses. Three divisions have a weak link. A supposed "gimme game". The East division has no horrible teams, as the Devils and Sabres will be much improved. The other divisions have an Ottawa, Detroit or Los Angeles. The West may be a little advantageous for the stronger teams, since San Jose and Anaheim are expected to be weaker as well. But in the end it's about goals, and there is a real good chance that those cities just tighten up defensively and lose 2-1 instead of 5-2.

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Not all teams have permission to play in their old buildings yet. In fact, most don't as of yet. I suspect most will, but details need to be ironed out. While teams such as Dallas and Tampa are not only playing at home, but will see a small crowd of 3000-5000 fans in attendance, other teams such as San Jose are not allowed to play at all. The Sharks plan to hold training camp in Arizona. The NHL is still negotiating with governments in BC, Ontario and Quebec to get the go-ahead in cities there.

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A big rule change put in place is the contracts involving junior-aged rookies kicking in at the 10^th game. That is going to become the seventh game, for this season. So that "nine-game trial" we're used to will now be a "six-game trial". I will be adjusting these rookies in my Fantasy Guide over the next day or so. I will also be working on my projected standings, projected team goals-for, and my Calder picks this week as well. So I may delay a couple of days for the update and just have one giant update.

The IR (seven days) and LTIR (10 games/24 days) remain the same. Waivers (10 games/30 days) as well.

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There will be a "taxi squad" of up to six players that will travel with the teams and be paid their minor-league salary

Teams are required to carry three goalies at minimum, between the Taxi Squad and the active roster. This makes teams with top No.3 goaltenders (such as Aaron Dell, Toronto) in great shape.

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As of Monday, teams have 23 days to become cap compliant. As of now, 10 teams are over the cap.

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The playoffs will be played within their divisions. The top four teams from each division make the postseason and the winner coming out of each division will be in the semi-finals. So yes, a Canadian team is guaranteed to be in the final four. If Toronto is looking for a way to get past Boston, Columbus and Tampa Bay – this is their best shot. Not that they couldn't do with their play, I'm just saying that it's even easier to just not play them at all. This could be their ticket out of the first round.

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The 2021-22 NHL season will start in October and run for 82 games, back to normal as far as scheduling is concerned. We expected this news, but nice to see it as official. Free Agent Frenzy is going to happen on July 28, which will likely mean that my Fantasy Guide (16^th annual!) will come out in mid-August instead of the usual August 1.

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Notes from other leagues, for your reference:

– The latest AHL news has that league's regular season beginning February 5

– The ECHL has already started playing again and are three or four games in. Nine teams have suspended operations for the year, leaving 13 teams to play it out.

– The latest OHL news has that league's regular season beginning February 4

– The WHL had planned to start on January 8, but last week announced that they could not meet that start time and did not set a start date. I suspect it will be into February, if it happens at all.

– The QMJHL already started their season but after several postponed games early on, have shut the league down until January 3. I suspect that this will also get extended into February. That month seems to be the month of hockey's return across the board.

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Talks with unrestricted free agents have picked up again, with a reported six teams speaking with Mike Hoffman. I'm starting to think Nashville is a leading candidate here. And if Pierre-Luc Dubois gives Columbus a discount, then perhaps they have enough left over to chase Hoffman as well. Maybe they'll use that as a selling feature in negotiations. No matter how this shakes out, I think Hoffman is going to be underpaid. His mistake was not jumping on offers immediately when free agency opened.

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Ilya Kovalchuk has signed to play next season in the KHL. So that closes the chapter on his NHL career, in case anyone wondered if he'd give it one more crack.

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Leon Draisaitl was named Germany's sportsman of the year, becoming the first hockey player to win that award and second team-sport athlete to win it.

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In dynasty leagues, my interest in Vitek Vanecek just spiked tremendously. I think he's a good goalie and a solid prospect and on any other team I might have even christened him a Golden Boy. But in Washington, home of Ilya Samsonov, I had written him off. He has to clear waivers to be sent down, so he would have been the third goalie. But now with the Henrik Lundqvist news (out for the season), Vanecek is the backup! And given that Samsonov has never played 38 games in a season before, I think Vanecek gets some starts. What if he does better than Samsonov? Odds of that are low, but they are certainly possible. Prospect goalies are tough to project as it is, and the odds of Prospect Goalie X becoming an NHL success are pretty slim. The odds of circumstances making Vanecek a better fantasy own than Samsonov can't be slimmer than that, can they? Anyway, in my deep dynasty I didn't even have him on my list. Now he's on there as a late pick. I won't mind sitting on him for two seasons to see what happens. If he performs well, perhaps he moves to another team. Seattle?

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See you next Monday.