/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67674129/1272708413.jpg.0.jpg)
The NHL announced on Thursday it is officially postponing the 2021 Winter Classic and the 2021 All Star Game due to uncertainty related to Covid-19. The Winter Classic was originally scheduled for January 1, 2021 and was going to feature the Minnesota Wild hosting the St. Louis Blues at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minn. The 2021 All-Star Weekend was slated for January 29-30 at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla.
The news was expected and thus not surprising. The league announced in October in a joint declaration with the NHL Players’ Association that they were targeting a start date of approximately January 1 for the start of the upcoming NHL season.
The NHL wrapped up its 2019-2020 season with a bubble playoff in Edmonton and Toronto. The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup Finals, which wrapped on September 17th. The NHL followed up with its annual draft on October 6-7 and free agency is officially underway. Now they just need to figure out a start date.