Talk:2020–21 NHL season

Rename to 2021 NHL Season
I know this is likely to get denied, since it would be breaking the tradition, but it would make more sense if the page was renamed to 2021 NHL season, rather than being called 2020-21 NHL season. The reason is because the season is not starting until January 13, so no part of the season will be played in 2020. Just a thought.  Chris6d  (talk)  22:58, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
 * The 2012–13 NHL season did not start until January 2013 so everything is as it should be. – Sabbatino (talk) 04:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Keep in mind that both the draft and most of the free agency period did/will take place during 2020 and those are considered to be part of the new season. Also the 1994–95 NHL season did not start until January as well. Deadman137 (talk) 05:31, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Agreed. And prior seasons that started in January should be renamed, as well. Plainsong (talk) 23:51, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
 * In MLB, the free agency period starts immediately after the World Series and continues into the next calendar year. Should we rename 2021 Major League Baseball season? Plainsong (talk) 23:51, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
 * What the baseball project chooses to do is their business, the consensus of the Ice hockey WikiProject is that the new season begins on the day of the NHL draft, whenever that is. Also all supporting documents use 1994–95 and 2012–13 for seasons that began in January. Now if you'd like to make an argument based on the merits of the conversation I'd like to see it. Deadman137 (talk) 05:32, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Both the NHL and the NBA WikiProjects use full year for the season when the lockout happened. So you coming out of nowhere does not affect the outcome of this "discussion" (if we can even call it that). – Sabbatino (talk) 16:04, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I was unaware that the WikiProject had already reached a consensus (and, to be honest, I was unaware of the existence of WikiProjects in general). Clearly you're all much more invested in this than I, so I'll defer to you. I only meant to suggest that we should strive for consistency across articles covering North American sports leagues, where it makes sense. I do apologize for "coming out of nowhere." I'm only a reader trying to offer a constructive suggestion. Plainsong (talk) 01:03, 29 December 2020 (UTC)
 * WP:COMMONNAME and WP:OFFICIALNAME applies here. Right now, both independent and primary sources heavily favor "2020–21 season" (35,000+ hits) over "2021 season" (6,300 hits). This could, of course, change with time. Yosemiter (talk) 16:05, 17 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Oppose - as we have 1994–95 NHL season & 2012–13 NHL season. -- GoodDay (talk) 17:07, 19 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Counterpoint: we should rename those seasons' pages as well (or at least have redirects) for the same reason. 2604:3D09:167F:FDA0:4186:6D0D:A9AE:8FF5 (talk) 08:02, 31 December 2020 (UTC)
 * No. GoodDay (talk) 13:23, 31 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Still no per WP:COMMONNAME. "2020–21 season" now stands at 63,000+ hits over "2021 season" 15,000 hits. Not even close to overtaking the traditional naming of a season. Yosemiter (talk) 17:09, 31 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Comment at any rate 2021 NHL season should redirect here if it is not the name of the article. And as for other NHL seasons, they should also receive such redirects when they are shortened into a single year. A hatnote should be added for the following season. -- 67.70.26.89 (talk) 03:42, 21 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't know about the other two seasons, but a redirect is a reasonable proposal for this topic. Deadman137 (talk) 04:02, 21 December 2020 (UTC)


 * I oppose such a re-direct, unless it's applied to the other seasons-in-question, too. All 'three' or none. GoodDay (talk) 04:44, 25 December 2020 (UTC)

Standings templates for this season
I need your help since it's late for me, but I need new tables build for each of the divisions (I moved Eastern Conference and Western Conference standings templates to East and West divisions, and no North division template page has been made). –Piranha249 02:01, 21 December 2020 (UTC)
 * One more thing, for all the old divisions, do we keep them and move them for use next season, or use speedy deletion. I'd say speedy deletion because there's no guarantee for next year, but I want to hear from you all. –Piranha249 18:59, 21 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Went ahead and used speedy deletion. –Piranha249 21:39, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Milestones
Can we please have a criteria for the milestones. I mean really, 300th goal or 600th assist? We need a limitation here, like 500th, 1,000th etc. GoodDay (talk) 03:43, 29 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Typically, or at least per:


 * for goals it's 500, and for both assists and points it's 1,000. Below that, it can be included on a player's own page but not on the milestones page. The Kip (talk) 20:51, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

Criteria for goalie time?
How exactly are we determining the minimum number of minutes for goalies to be included in league leaders? Can we clarify a legitimate minimum and the interval to change it? The Kip (talk) 18:35, 9 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Does the NHL offer an official filtering of goaltenders with an inadequate TOI? Obviously we need a standard which would likely be followed by established public media organisations. Obviously an NHL club isn't gonna say "Playing 82 minutes, he had the highest save percentage of any goaltender in the league". My suggestion is to calculate the minimum total amount of seconds played by any team, and require 40% of that as the required minimum TOI for any goaltender. Or we simply require 40% of their team's total seconds, which is used in the Swedish leagues. -- Hey mid  (contribs) 17:37, 22 April 2021 (UTC)
 * The 40% threshold would actually raise the standard that has been used in the past. With the 1800 minute standard from the last completed 82 game season in 2018–19, the percentage used was around 36.6% (30 games), which does allow for most backups to be considered for inclusion in the table. So if we prorate it for this season the rounded total would be around 1230 minutes, now if someone wanted to change it to 1200 or 1260 just to base the numbers off of complete games that could work as well. Deadman137 (talk) 00:21, 23 April 2021 (UTC)
 * A regular season game isn't always 60 minutes. It's 60–65 minutes. And different teams may be playing different amounts of overtime, on top of the varying amounts of games played in the middle of the season. If we set a fixed requirement for minimum total TOI then the percentage requirement will depend on how much overtime the team has played. -- Hey mid  (contribs) 05:11, 23 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Regular season overtime play does not make much of a statistical difference once you get past the first few games of the season. Over the course of a full season and assuming that a goaltender never gets injured in a game or pulled for poor performance and that they get to overtime once every three or four games and all of those games go to a shootout. Overtime play only adds around 22-70 minutes to their overall total for the season once you subtract the amount of time that they miss when their team has an extra attacker on the ice (assumed average to be around 30-40 seconds per game). So using a system that ignores overtime play is not going to make much difference.


 * In season statistics will always have some variance. Playing time requirements really shouldn't matter much in the regular season for any starting goaltender as they would be well over the average criteria (as long as they are on the active roster and playing) even if their team had played fewer than average games at most points in the season. Some backups might get knocked off the table during the year, but ultimately if they make it on the table by the end of the season that's all that really matters. Deadman137 (talk) 13:11, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

Awards runners-up
A thought. Do we truly need to list the runners-up for the awards? Wouldn't just listing the winners be suffice? GoodDay (talk) 17:11, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

Conference trophies
In mid-May, the league had announced that with the suspension of conferences, the Campbell and Wales trophies would not be awarded this season. Now that the Semifinals are now known, that the Canadiens will face the Knights and the Islanders will go against the Lightning, the NHL PR dept is now saying that they will be presented after all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Zzyzx11 (talk) 04:27, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

"2021 NHL season" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2021_NHL_season&redirect=no 2021 NHL season] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. TartarTorte 20:52, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

Playoff Bracket
The second round teams do not feed correctly into the semifinals, they are flipped for some reason. Westsider (talk) 02:02, 1 June 2024 (UTC)


 * They're correct. Teams were re-seeded after the second round. Deadman137 (talk) 02:22, 1 June 2024 (UTC)