2021-22 NHL season kicks off October 12th; includes potential break for Olympics

The NHL dropped its schedule for the 2021-22 season Thursday night.

The season kicks off on Oct. 12th with the defending Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning playing host to the Pittsburgh Penguins. A few hours later, the Seattle Kraken play its first game in club history with a road game against the Vegas Golden Knights, the most recent previous expansion team to enter the league.

The NHL Winter Classic will be played on Jan. 1, 2022 at Target Field in Minneapolis with the Minnesota Wild playing host to the St. Louis Blues. All-Star Weekend is set to take place in Las Vegas between Feb. 4-5.

While no final agreement has been reached, the NHL’s tentative schedule has a placeholder break in the season between Feb. 7-22, 2022 to accommodate the potential of players playing in the Olympic Games set to take place in Beijing.

Here’s the breakdown of how each team’s schedule will play out:

Each Division Has Eight Teams

Games Within Division

5 teams x 2 home / 2 away (Subtotal 10 home / 10 away)

1 team x 2 home / 1 away (Subtotal 2 home / 1 away)

1 team x 1 home / 2 away (Subtotal 1 home / 2 away)

Games Within Conference (Non-Division)

4 teams x 2 home / 1 away (Subtotal 8 home / 4 away)

4 teams x 1 home / 2 away (Subtotal 4 home / 8 away)

Non-Conference Games

16 teams x 1 home / 1 away (Subtotal 16 home / 16 away)

Grand Total – 82 Games

41 home / 41 away

You can read more and view the full schedule here.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.