The Ontario Hockey League has announced that they are pushing their start date back indefinitely due to COVID-19. There is a province-wide shutdown in Ontario starting December 26th that will be preventing them from playing. This will eliminate the previously reported OHL start date of February 4th.
The #OHL has announced a delay to the start of the 2020-21 season.
STATEMENT 📰: https://t.co/mRmduGm3re pic.twitter.com/4CEcvJNNQ4
— OntarioHockeyLeague (@OHLHockey) December 23, 2020
OHL Delays Season Indefinitely
With COVID-19 still surging, the Ontario Hockey League has been forced to move its start date back yet again.
The Impact on Players
The Consequences
This move will prevent many players from playing in real game action for several more months. It will take away time for several prospects to develop their games. Similarly, it will strip away more opportunity for draft-eligible prospects to make a name for themselves. As of now, the only showing some OHL prospects will get is at the World Junior Championship, a very small sample size. This could greatly affect the scouting world as well.
European Loans
With such potential consequences, it is not out of the picture to see some OHL players start playing in Europe. As far as drafted players go, we could potentially see more and more NHL teams loan their OHL prospects to various European professional leagues until the OHL season starts. We could also see some draft-eligible players start to sign their own short deals with European pro teams as well.
The Benefit for Some
While this news is not helping most OHL players, it could provide some benefit to the higher end ones. For players whose NHL teams are contemplating between placing them in the NHL or OHL, this could end up being the deciding factor, especially with the NHL season only being 56 games.
Could We See an AHL Rule Change?
As it stands now, players coming from the CHL are not eligible to play in the American Hockey League until they turn at least 20 years old. With there now being no firm OHL start date, one could think that NHL teams might be pressuring for a rule change to allow their prospects to play somewhere. This is just speculation, however.
Main Photo:
