Important dates for the 2021-22 NHL season

This afternoon, the NHL released announced some important dates on the calendar for the upcoming season, including the trade deadline, NHL Entry Draft, the start of free agency, and everything in between.

If you’re the type of person that likes to set a schedule for NHL events then today’s news is exactly what you’ve been waiting to hear. In a joint announcement by the NHL and NHLPA, the league announced the dates for some key events in the schedule like the last possible day for the Stanley Cup Finals (June 30th), the NHL Entry Draft (July 7-8), the start of free agency (July 12th), and everything else you could possibly imagine.

While some events like the Draft and free agency are a little bit later than usual — this is the second third straight offseason with free agency not landing on Canada Day — we’re getting a lot closer to normal than we were even last year, and it will be interesting to see if any of these dates change as the year progresses. Obviously, we’re all hoping that COVID won’t derail or delay the season at all, but I’ll be keeping my guard up that some unforeseen wrench will be tossed in the mix at some point.

Either way, it is very exciting that the start of the NHL season is just around the corner, and having the calendar fill up with all of the associate dates and events is just another step forward to getting started. I don’t know about you fine folks, but I, for one, and endlessly thrilled to get going.