NHL schedule release: Most intriguing games, Seattle Kraken revenge tour, key dates, more

Emily Kaplan is ESPN’s national NHL reporter.

Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.

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:

• The expansion draft was held Wednesday, in which the Seattle Kraken selected 30 players.

• The entry draft will be held Friday and Saturday, in which 224 players will be selected (and some others might be traded).

• 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.

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