The 2020–21 Deutsche Eishockey Liga season was the 27th season since the founding of the
Deutsche Eishockey Liga
The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (for sponsorship reasons called "PENNY Deutsche Eishockey Liga") (; English: ''German Ice Hockey League'') or DEL, is a German professional ice hockey league and the highest division in German ice hockey. Founded in ...
. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the league announced 13 November 2020 as the start date, which was later postponed to a later date. On 19 November 2020, the DEL announced that the season would start on 17 December 2020.
Eisbären Berlin won their eighth title, after defeating the
Grizzlys Wolfsburg
Grizzlys Wolfsburg are a professional ice hockey club of the Germany, German professional ice hockey league Deutsche Eishockey Liga. They play their games at Eisarena Wolfsburg, Eisarena in Wolfsburg.
History
Wolfsburg earned their first promoti ...
in three games.
Format
The season saw the same 14 teams as last year, as all teams were given a license.
Adler Mannheim
The Adler Mannheim (English: ''Mannheim Eagles'', formerly Mannheimer ERC) is a professional ice hockey team of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the highest-level ice hockey league in Germany. The team is based in Mannheim, a city in the northern pa ...
will be the defending champions from the
2018–19 DEL season
The 2018–19 Deutsche Eishockey Liga season was the 25th season since the founding of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga running from 14 September 2018 to 30 April 2019.
All 14 clubs from the previous year and the Löwen Frankfurt applied for a license ...
as the 2019–20 season was ended after the regular season. At that point,
EHC Red Bull München
Eishockeyclub Red Bull München (or EHC Red Bull München; English: ''Munich Red Bulls Ice Hockey Club'') is a professional ice hockey team based in Munich, Germany. The club is a member of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the highest level of pl ...
, who won three consecutive DEL titles until Mannheim’s 2019 triumph (a 4–1 series win against Munich), were the league leaders and had clinched the first seed for the DEL playoffs.
This season would have marked the return of promotion and relegation, as the last placed team would have been relegated to the second tier
DEL2 and the 2020–21 DEL2 champions would have replaced them for the 2021–22 season DEL. On 23 October 2020, the relegation rule was moved to next season. Still, the DEL2 champion can be promoted at the end of this season, so next season could be played with 15 teams. The 14 teams played the regular season in two groups (North and South). They played the teams from the same group four times and the teams from the other group twice. After that, the top four clubs from both groups advanced to the playoffs. The quarterfinals were played within the group before, from the semifinals on, it was mixed. All playoff rounds were
best of three.
Teams
Regular season
North
Standings
Results
South
Standings
Results
Intra-groups games
Playoffs
All rounds were played in a
best of three format. The first round was played in the regional group.
Bracket
Quarterfinals
The quarterfinals were played between 20 and 24 April 2021 in a
best-of-three mode.
Eisbären Berlin vs Iserlohn Roosters
Fischtown Pinguins vs Grizzlys Wolfsburg
Adler Mannheim vs Straubing Tigers
EHC Red Bull München vs ERC Ingolstadt
Semifinals
The semifinals were played between 26 and 29 April 2021 in a best-of-three format.
Eisbären Berlin vs ERC Ingolstadt
Adler Mannheim vs Grizzlys Wolfsburg
Final
The final was played between 2 and 7 May 2021 in a best-of-three format.
Awards and statistics
Awards
The awards were announced on 2 May 2021.
Scoring leaders
List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.
Leading goaltenders
Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:DEL Season 2020-21
2020–21
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
2020–21 in German ice hockey
DEL