OHL reportedly has a start date for the 2020-21 season

According to Darren Dreger of TSN, the Ontario Hockey League will be starting up again within the next few months. The league's 20 general managers will meet virtually today to discuss the current state of affairs. It is expected that the OHL will announce they will begin the 2020-21 season on February 4th, with training camps opening on January 25th. The playoffs will be cut in half from 16 teams to 8 teams, with 4 from each conference qualifying.

OHL GM's will virtually meet tomorrow. It's expected the league will announce a Feb 4th season start. Training camps are expected to open Jan 25th. Eight team playoff also expected to be unveiled.— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) October 27, 2020

Jeff Marek of Sportsnet also released some of the details regarding the upcoming season on Twitter earlier this afternoon. In addition to the dates for training camp and opening night of the regular season, other dates have been confirmed. European and American players will arrive on January 8th (three days after the World Junior gold medal game) and self-isolate for two weeks. There will be one to two exhibition games per team and those games will be played between January 29th and 31st. The season will consist of 40 games, rather than the usual 68. The season will conclude on May 16th, with the Memorial Cup set for June 17th to 27th being played in either Sault Ste. Marie, or Oshawa.

OHL GM's meeting has concluded. Some details...
- Season starts Feb 4th
- Training camps start Jan 23rd
- European + American players arrive Jan 8 + quarantine
- 40 game season
- 4 teams from each conference make playoffs, so 8 teams total.— Jeff Marek (@JeffMarek) October 28, 2020

One major thing the OHL will need to figure out regarding next season, and even before they can release a schedule, is what will happen with the Canada/US border come February? The OHL currently has three teams based in the United States, the Erie Otters in Pennsylvania, the Saginaw Spirit, and Flint Firebirds who are both located in Michigan.

One possibility if the boarder is still closed is for those three teams to be based in a city within Ontario. To avoid two teams sharing the same venue, and to lower the chances of a COVID-19 outbreak, those teams could be placed in cities or arenas within current OHL cities that don't already host an OHL team.

For example, Brantford has a 1000+ seat arena where the OJHL's Brantford 99ers play, Oakville has a 1500 seat arena where the OJHL's Oakville Blades play, and Chatham has a 2500 seat arena where the GOJHL's Chatham Maroons play.

With plenty of options for the American teams, the focus will shift to the schedule, and how the season will work. For Ontario Hockey League fans, this is exciting news, and something they have been waiting for since the remainder of the 2019-20 season was cancelled way back in March.

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