from Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star,

If there is a motivating factor for both the NHL and its players to get this season underway, it’s money.

The NHL is heading into the final season of a 10-year contract that gave NBC and its cable partners national broadcasting and digital rights in the United States. It amounted to $200 million (U.S.) a year.

There’s a pot of broadcast gold waiting at the expiration of this contract. If the season is played, the NHL could enter into new lucrative deals with a diverse group of broadcasters and/or streamers in time for the 2021-22 season.

“From that perspective alone, there should be real appetite to play. That’s not just the owners, the players, too,” said John Shannon, a former broadcast executive who has worked for CBC, NBC, Rogers and the NHL.

Of course, it remains to be seen just how much the NHL is worth in a bidding war that would include over-the-air networks like NBC, cable networks like ESPN and FOX and such streaming services as DAZN and Amazon Prime.

continued