(WGR 550) - The National Hockey League is gearing up to play its first full 82-game regular season since the 2018-19 campaign after two shortened seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the 2021-22 regular season is almost a return to normalcy, the league is starting the year nearly a week behind the normal routine for a regular season due to the 2020-21 season wrapping up this past July.
Not to mention, the NHL will be taking a three-week break in February as some of the league's best players will be heading to Beijing, China to play for their countries in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
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Once the NHL resumes the regular season on Wednesday, Feb. 23, the push for the Stanley Cup Playoffs will officially begin for a number of teams around the league. For other teams, it may be the time to start focusing on the upcoming NHL offseason, which starts with the NHL Trade Deadline, followed by the NHL Draft and NHL Free Agency after the Stanley Cup Final.
The league on Wednesday officially released some of the key dates for the upcoming 2021-22 regular season, as well as the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs and 2022 offseason:
- Monday, March 21 - NHL Trade Deadline (3 p.m. ET)
- Friday, April 29 - Last day of the NHL regular season
- Monday, May 2 - Start of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs
- Thursday, June 30 - Last possible day of the Stanley Cup Final
- Thursday, July 7 - Round 1 of the 2022 NHL Draft
- Friday, July 8 - Rounds 2-7 of the 2022 NHL Draft
- Wednesday, July 13 - Opening of NHL Free Agency (12 p.m. ET)
The NHL has already announced that the 2022 NHL Draft will take place at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec - home of the Montreal Canadiens. It will mark the first in person draft the NHL has held since the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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The 2021-22 regular season will officially get underway on Tuesday, Oct. 12 with two games on the slate. Game 1 will feature the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning facing the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins at Amalie Arena.
Meanwhile, Game 2 will see the NHL's newest franchise, the Seattle Kraken, take on the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Vegas became a franchise in the 2017-18 season and ended up playing for the Stanley Cup in 2018, eventually losing to the Washington Capitals.
