2020–21 DEL season

The 2020–21 Deutsche Eishockey Liga season was the 27th season since the founding of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. 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 in three games.
==Format==
The season saw the same 14 teams as last year, as all teams were given a license. Adler Mannheim will be the defending champions from the 2018–19 DEL season as the 2019–20 season was ended after the regular season. At that point, EHC Red Bull München, 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==
Team 	City 	Arena 	Capacity
Augsburger Panther 	Augsburg 	Curt Frenzel Stadium 	6,218
Eisbären Berlin 	Berlin 	Mercedes-Benz Arena 	14,200
Fischtown Pinguins 	Bremerhaven 	Eisarena Bremerhaven 	4,674
Düsseldorfer EG 	Düsseldorf 	ISS Dome 	13,400
ERC Ingolstadt 	Ingolstadt 	Saturn Arena 	4,815
Iserlohn Roosters 	Iserlohn 	Eissporthalle Iserlohn 	5,000
Kölner Haie 	Cologne 	Lanxess Arena 	18,500
Krefeld Pinguine 	Krefeld 	König Palast 	9,000
Adler Mannheim 	Mannheim 	SAP Arena 	13,600
EHC Red Bull München 	Munich 	Olympia Eishalle 	6,256
Nürnberg Ice Tigers 	Nuremberg 	Arena Nürnberger Versicherung	7,810
Schwenninger Wild Wings	Villingen-Schwenningen	Helios Arena 	6,215
Straubing Tigers 	Straubing 	Eisstadion am Pulverturm 	6,000
Grizzlys Wolfsburg 	Wolfsburg 	Eis Arena Wolfsburg 	4,660
==Regular season==
===North===
Pos	Team 	Pld	W 	OTW	OTL	L 	GF 	GA 	GD 	PCT 	Qualification
1 	Eisbären Berlin 	38 	23	1 	5 	9 	137	91 	+46	.667	Playoffs
2 	Fischtown Pinguins	38 	21	2 	1 	14	124	105	+19	.596	Playoffs
3 	Grizzlys Wolfsburg	38 	13	8 	3 	14	104	94 	+10	.509	Playoffs
4 	Iserlohn Roosters 	37 	13	5 	7 	12	113	116	−3 	.505	Playoffs
5 	Düsseldorfer EG 	38 	14	4 	5 	15	116	119	−3 	.482	
6 	Kölner Haie 	38 	11	4 	5 	18	114	135	−21	.404	
7 	Krefeld Pinguine 	38 	4 	1 	4 	29	74 	167	−93	.158	
===South===
Pos	Team 	Pld	W 	OTW	OTL	L 	GF 	GA 	GD 	PCT 	Qualification
1 	Adler Mannheim 	38 	23	8 	2 	5 	116	71 	+45	.763	Playoffs
2 	EHC Red Bull München 	38 	24	2 	3 	9 	159	102	+57	.693	Playoffs
3 	ERC Ingolstadt 	38 	15	5 	4 	14	123	109	+14	.518	Playoffs
4 	Straubing Tigers 	37 	15	2 	4 	16	103	102	+1 	.477	Playoffs
5 	Schwenninger Wild Wings	38 	14	5 	2 	17	111	109	+2 	.474	
6 	Augsburger Panther 	38 	11	6 	1 	20	107	134	−27	.404	
7 	Nürnberg Ice Tigers 	38 	10	1 	8 	19	94 	141	−47	.351	
==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.
==References==
==External links==
*Official website
Category:2021 in ice hockey