from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

...there have been and questions about whether players under NHL contract — and that includes those toiling in the AHL or ECHL — might be obligated to accept prorating of their salaries if less than a full slate of games is played in 2020-21. The NHL wouldn’t be expected to start next season until January at the earliest.

(The league, with advise and consent provided by the union, is likely to take as much time as it needs to decipher its best/worst case scenarios as to getting fans in the seats at perhaps severely limited numbers next winter. That might lead to a shortened season.)

There have been murmurs that the league might seek to invoke the force majeure clause (Paragraph 17) of the Standard Player’s Contract in order to prorate pay in the event of a truncated schedule.

The fact is, if the Memo of Understanding (MOU) — crafted by the NHL and NHLPA in wake of their agreement that enabled the league to stage the 2020 Stanley Cup tournament under the twin bubbles in Edmonton and Vancouver — is worth the paper it is written on, the subject has already been adjudicated.

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