Progress!

The elephant in the room remains, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association as of Friday morning still hadn’t resolved their financial stalemate over salary deferrals for the 2020-21 season. But in a sign of good faith, both sides keep hammering away at all the non-economic issues to plan a season.

As my TSN colleague Frank Seravalli first reported, the NHL and NHLPA had more meetings Thursday night which produced some interesting developments.

Sources on both sides confirmed the following to me:

• The Jan. 1 start date both sides were clinging to is no longer realistic given where we are on the calendar. On Thursday, for the first time, the NHL asked the NHLPA about a mid-January start to the season.

• A 52-game and 56-game schedule were both discussed as options Thursday night, but a source says the preference for both sides would be 56 games for obvious revenue reasons.

• Training camps for all 31…