The 2021-22 regular season kicks off on October 12, with the Toronto Maple Leafs playing their first game against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, October 13.

The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held February 4-20, with the NHL taking a break from February 3-22 so players can compete for their country after reaching a deal with the NHLPA, IOC and IIHF .

From there, we didn’t have a good idea of ​​the key dates for the rest of the NHL season. Now we know.

The NHL trade deadline is March 21, 2022.

The NHL playoffs will begin on May 2, 2022 and end no later than June 30, 2022.

The 2022 NHL Draft will take place July 7-8, in Montreal.

The free agency of the NHL will open on July 13.

If you count the days, the NHL regular season is active for 200 days (the Olympic break is counted), which means that NHL salaries will be paid daily as a fraction of that. This is important for tweens who receive a limited number of NHL salary days per year, but also for counting the accumulated cap space that can be used on the trade deadline, each salary day or day. ceiling space will be worth less than last year.

Normally, NHL contracts carry over to the following year on July 1, as do their signing bonuses. With those happening again ahead of the first buyout window and the NHL Draft, this opens up the possibility for teams to pay big signing bonuses and make trades (or contract terminations) more lucrative for them.

Without any report, here are some signing bonuses that will be distributed next summer:

• Mitch Marner: $ 7.25 million ($ 16.8 million remaining over three years)
• Auston Matthews: $ 7.2 million ($ 8.725 million remaining over two years)
• John Tavares: $ 7.04 million ($ 16.81 million remaining over three years)

If this season goes like the last, the NHL Draft in Montreal will likely be one hell of a day.