Red Wings, NHL tentatively to open next regular season Dec. 1

Detroit — The Red Wings know when they’ll open the 2020-21 NHL regular season.

Open, at least, tentatively.

Details released from the NHL and NHL Players Association Collective Bargaining Agreement Memorandum of Understanding show the tentative start to next season is December 1.

That will come after teams open training camps, again tentatively, on November 17.

Another big date for Red Wings fans: The NHL Draft is tentatively set for October 6. But again, that could be slightly altered because it must follow the Stanley Cup Final and before the start of free agency.

The last possible date for the Stanley Cup Finals is slated to be October 2, with free agency beginning seven days after the Cup is handed out.

If this NHL timetable hits its mark, it will be a long time between games for the Red Wings.

The Red Wings last played on March 10, losing 5-2 to Carolina, before the NHL paused its season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As for the upcoming NHL playoffs, the 24 teams competing will travel to the two hubs — Edmonton and Toronto — on July 24, with exhibition games beginning the next day.

The qualifying round begins July 30 — those are best-of-five series — and the first-round of playoffs set to start August 9.

The second-round of the NHL playoffs are scheduled to start August 23, with the conference finals beginning September 6.

The Stanley Cup Finals are scheduled to start September 20.