The upcoming AHL season is somewhat of a mess. Not only was the season pushed back from its normal early October start date to Feb. 5, but the divisions were blown up in order to accommodate less travel.

To further limit travel, teams will play games only against teams in their division and in some cases, won’t even see all of their division rivals. Oh, and some teams won’t even play at all - welcome to sports in the COVID era.

The season schedule has a different number of games for each team, with the schedule consisting only of games against teams in their own, newly aligned division. The Atlantic Division consists of just three teams - Bridgeport (New York Islanders affiliate), Hartford (New York Rangers) and Providence (Boston Bruins) - who will play a total of 24 games, all against the other two teams in the division.

Meanwhile, the Pacific Division has eight teams and will play a total of 40 games.

The Phantoms are part of the seven-team North Division and will play 40 games, but will see just three other division teams - Binghamton (New Jersey Devils), Hershey (Washington Capitals) and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Pittsburgh Penguins). The remaining three teams - Rochester, Syracuse and Utica - will play only each other during the season.

The normal list of 31 AHL teams has been cut to 28, with Charlotte (Florida Panthers), Milwaukee (Nashville Predators) and Springfield (St. Louis Blues) all opting out for the season. The Blues have worked out an agreement to have some of their players play for Utica, the AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks, while the Predators and Panthers haven’t made other arrangements for their players. All three teams are expected to return for the 2021-2022 season.

In addition, four teams are playing in alternate cities with San Diego playing in Irvine California., Ontario will play in El Segundo, California, Providence will play in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and Binghamton will have their home games hosted by Newark, New Jersey.

The Phantoms were set to open a two-game exhibition schedule Friday night against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but that game has been moved back to Feb. 2 because the Penguins got their training camp off to a late start. With that change, the exhibition schedule opens Sunday in Hershey. The regular season opener for Lehigh Valley comes on Feb. 6 at Hershey, and with three road games after that, it won’t play at the PPL Center until Feb. 20 when they host Binghamton.

Fans won’t be allowed to attend games at the PPL Center because of COVID-19 restrictions. There is hope that at some point during the season, which ends on May 16, at least a limited number of fans will be allowed to attend.

On the Phantoms roster are eight players who played for the team last season. They also have a little local flavor with goalie Eamon McAdam, 26, who is from Perkasie and played college hockey at Penn State. Right-winger Tyson Foerster, the first-round pick of the Flyers in the 2020 Draft will also be on the roster for the Phantoms this season. Foerster, 18, is one of six pro-hockey rookies who are on the Lehigh Valley roster for the abbreviated season.

Plans for any possible postseason have not been announced by the AHL.