If it seems to you like the 2020-21 NHL season just ended, you’re not incorrect: The Stanley Cup was awarded on July 7 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. But the league has spun forward to the offseason and preparations for 2021-22 quickly:
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The expansion draft was held Wednesday, in which the Seattle Kraken selected 30 players.
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The entry draft will be held Friday and Saturday, in which 224 players will be selected (and some others might be traded).
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Free agency will begin on July 28.
And if that wasn’t enough, we now have the official 2021-22 regular-season schedule, which was released on Thursday.
It can be a burden to analyze 1,312 games. So here are the matchups we have circled on our calendars, along with the schedule for the All-Star and Olympic breaks, the outdoor games, and the Kraken “Revenge Tour,” i.e. the first game each player exposed to expansion will play against his former team.