2020-21 ECAC Men's Season

This is the 2020-21 ECAC Hockey Men's Season. This is the league's 60th season.

Ivy League members delay start of season
The 6 Ivy League members of the conference (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale) will not be allowing any athletic activity until January at the earliest when the conference announced the cancellation of all fall sports in early July.

On November 12th, the Ivy League member teams of the ECAC Hockey had their seasons cancelled when the Ivy League announced that it was cancelling all winter sports for men and women. This would leave Brown University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University and Yale University] not playing for the season.

Membership changes

 * None

Traditional Format
All twelve teams qualify with the top 4 seeds getting a first round bye. The best-of-three first round matches up 5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, 7 vs 10, and 8 vs 9. The first round winners are re-seeded for the best-of-three quarterfinals and the 1 seed plays the lowest seeded first round winner, 2 plays the second lowest seed first round winner, 3 plays the third lowest first round winner. and 4 plays the highest seeded first round winner. Teams are re-seeded for the semifinals with the highest seeded winner playing the lowest seeded winner and the second and third seeds meet in a single game at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York. The semifinal winners meet at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York for the conference championship and the conference's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

2021 Format
With the majority of ECAC member schools opting out of competition for the 2020–21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the format for the tournament was reduced to just four participating institutions. The format introduced would have the four programs compete in two single-elimination rounds over the course of one championship weekend. The semifinals will take place on March 18, and the championship game on March 20 at the site of the highest remaining seed.

On March 10, ECAC announced that Clarkson would not be participating in the tournament, due to COVID protocols. As a result, the format of the tournament was further reduced to just three teams. Top-seed Quinnipiac was awarded a bye to the Championship game and St. Lawrence will host Colgate in the lone semifinal.

Semifinal

 * St. Lawrence defeated Colgate 5-4 (ot)

Final

 * St. Lawrence defeated Quinnipiac 3-2 (ot)

Bracket
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

St. Lawrence would end up having to withdraw from the NCAA tournament due to COVID-19 protocols. Quinnipac would end up taking their place as the withdrawal was early enough for the team to be replaced.