Gary Bettman reveals the options being looked at for the 2020-21 NHL season

Since the Tampa Bay Lightning won the 2020 Stanley Cup inside the NHL bubble near the end of September, there's been plenty of speculation on what next season could look like amidst a global pandemic. For the first time, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is publicly discussing what options are being considered.

In an interview with NHL.com, Bettman said the idea of temporary hubs is being explored.

"You'll play for 10 to 12 days. You'll play a bunch of games without traveling. You'll go back, go home for a week, be with your family. We'll have our testing protocols and all the other things you need," said Bettman.

"It's not going to be quite as effective as a bubble, but we think we can, if we go this route, minimize the risks to the extent practical and sensible. And so that's one of the things that we're talking about."

Unfortunately, Bettman admitted the ban on non-essential travel between Canada and the U.S. will pose a problem.

Obviously, we're not going to move all seven Canadian franchises south of the 49th Parallel, and so we have to look at alternative ways to play," Bettman said. "And while crossing the U.S.-Canadian border is an issue, we're also seeing within the United States limitations in terms of quarantining when you go from certain states to other states. It's again part of having to be flexible."

The Commissioner also stated the realignment of divisions in on the table.

"It may be that we're better off, particularly if we're playing a reduced schedule, which we're contemplating, keeping it geographically centric, more divisional based, and realigning, again on a temporary basis, to deal with the travel issues."

Bettman insisted the NHL is still targeting January 1st for the start of the 2020-21 season. He also stressed that how the season starts is not necessarily how it will finish, and everything depends on how the COVID-19 situation evolves.

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