The puck drops on the 2022/23 NHL season this Friday, October 7th with each of the league’s 32 teams playing an 82-game regular season. The campaign wraps up on April 13th with the playoffs beginning a few days later.
This is the 105th season of play for the National Hockey League and it will feature international games for the first time since 2019. The first two contests, October 7th and 8th, will see the San Jose Sharks take on the Nashville Predators overseas at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic. Then on November 4th and 5th, the Columbus Blue Jackets will battle it out with the reigning Stanley Cup champions the Colorado Avalanche at the Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland.
As usual, the league will hold outdoor games during the season as well as its annual All-Star contest. The outdoor NHL Winter Classic will see the Pittsburgh Penguins visiting the Boston Bruins at Fenway Park in Boston on January 2nd, 2023 while the Stadium Series will feature the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals playing on February 18th at Carter–Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. The league’s All-Star Game will be held in Sunrise, Florida at FLA Live Arena on February 4th.
There were several head coaching changes during the off-season as the Boston Bruins replaced Bruce Cassidy with Jim Montgomery; Cassidy was then hired by the Vegas Golden Knights as they fired Peter DeBoer and De Boer ended up with the Dallas Stars to replace Rick Bowness, who had resigned. Boweness then took the coaching job in Winnipeg to replace interim boss Dave Lowry; the Chicago Blackhawks let interim coach Derek King go and hired Luke Richardson as his replacement;
the Detroit Red Wings hired Derek Lalonde to take over from Jeff Blashill; the Florida Panthers replaced interim coach Andrew Brunette with Paul Maurice; the New York Islanders fired Barry Trotz and signed Lane Lambert; the Philadelphia Flyers let interim coach Mike Yeo go and took on John Tortorella while the San Jose Sharks sacked Bob Boughner and brought in David Quinn.
Ten teams changed head coaches but just two brought in a new general manager. The
Colorado Avalanche promoted former GM Joe Sakic to President of Hockey Operations and named former assistant GM Chris MacFarland as his replacement. In addition, the San Jose Sharks replaced interim GM Joe Will with Mike Grier, who became the NHL’s first ever African-American general manager.
One NHL club actually changed its home address as the Arizona Coyotes will be playing at the Mullett Arena for the next few seasons. The rink is located at Arizona State University in the city of Tempe with the move being necessitated when the Desert Diamond Arena in the city of Glendale wouldn’t renew the team’s lease agreement. In the meantime, the Coyotes are hoping to build a new home arena in the near future.
Several star players won’t be taking to the ice this season due to retirement while others changed clubs during the summer thanks to blockbuster trades and free agency.
Notable players who hung up their skates included; Duncan Keith and Kyle Turris of Edmonton; Andrej Sekera of Dallas; Greg Pateryn of Anaheim; Mathieu Perreault of Montreal; Nathan Gerbe of Columbus; Johnny Boychuk of Buffalo; Keith Yandle of Philadelphia; Zdeno Chara of the New York Islanders and P.K. Subban of New Jersey.
Some of the biggest free agent signings included: goaltender Jack Campbell leaving the Toronto for Edmonton; Claude Giroux signing with Ottawa from Florida; goalkeeper Ilya Samsonov signing with Toronto from Washington; Ilya Lyubushkin leaving Toronto for Buffalo; Olli Maatta signing with Detroit from Los Angeles; Andreas Athanasiou joining Chicago from Los Angeles; Max Domi heading to Chicago from Carolina; Ilya Mikheyev leaving Toronto for Vancouver; goaltender Jaroslav Halak joining the New York Rangers from Vancouver; goaltender Thomas Greiss signing with St. Louis from Detroit; goaltender Darcy Kuemper signing with Washington from Colorado; Mason Marchment leaving Florida for Dallas; Jan Rutta joining Pittsburgh from Tampa Bay; Andre Burakovsky leaving Colorado for Seattle; Marc Staal signing with Florida from Detroit; David Perron leaving Detroit for St. Louis; Dominik Kubalik joining Detroit from Chicago; Johnny Gaudreau joining Columbus from Calgary; Ryan Strome signing with Anaheim from the New York Rangers; Ondrej Palat leaving Tampa for New Jersey; goalkeeper Kevin Lankinen joining Nashville from Chicago; Dylan Strome leaving Chicago for Washington; Nino Niederreiter signing with Nashville from Carolina; John Klingberg leaving Dallas for Anaheim; Jack Johnson heading to Chicago from Colorado; Nazem Kadri joining Calgary from Colorado; Paul Stastny leaving Winnipeg for Carolina; Phil Kessel joining Vegas from Arizona and Sam Gagner leaving Detroit for Winnipeg.
The trades that sparked the biggest headlines in the off-season included: the New York Rangers swapping goaltender Alexandar Georgiev to Colorado; Chicago sending Alex DeBrincat to Ottawa; Montreal dealing Alexander Romanov to the New York Islanders; Chicago trading Kirby Dach to Montreal; Toronto sending goaltender Petr Mrazek to Chicago; Edmonton dealing Zack Kassian to Arizona; Carolina trading Tony DeAngelo to Philadelphia; Ottawa dealing goalkeeper Matt Murray to Toronto; Boston dealing Erik Haula to New Jersey for Pavel Zacha; San Jose sending Brent Burns and Lane Pederson to Carolina for Steven Lorentz and Eetu Makiniemi; Vegas swapping Dylan Coghlan
and Max Pacioretty to Carolina; Ottawa dealing Connor Brown to Washington; Pittsburgh dealing Mike Matheson to Montreal for Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling; Columbus sending Oliver Bjorkstrand to Seattle; Florida trading Jonathan Huberdeau, Cole Schwindt and MacKenzie Weegar to Calgary for Matthew Tkachuk; Calgary dealing Sean Monahan to Montreal and the New York Rangers trading Nils Lundkvist to Dallas.
Entering the new season, the oddsmakers at bet365 are listing the Colorado Avalanche to win the Stanley Cup at +425 followed by the Toronto Maple Leafs at +800, the Florida Panthers at +900 and the Tampa Bay Lightning at +1000. Those in the middle of the pack include the Los Angeles Kings at +2800, the Washington Capitals at +3000 and the New York Islanders at +3300. Long shots are the Arizona Coyotes at +30000 with the Chicago Blackhawks, Montreal Canadiens and San Jose Sharks at +12500.
Other popular 2022/23 NHL bets include: to win the division; to win the conference; to make the playoffs; total season points; to win the Presidents’ Trophy; regular-season awards winners; and the worst regular-season record etc. Of course, you can bet in individual NHL games at bet 365 and try out the live betting options.