TAMPA –The Vegas Golden Knights will host the 2022 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Monday before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning.
All-Star Weekend will be the first in-season NHL event hosted by the city of Las Vegas and the Golden Knights since their inaugural season of 2017-18.
The NHL did not have All-Star Weekend this season because of COVID-19 concerns.
“It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to host the 2022 NHL All-Star Weekend at T-Mobile Arena,” Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz said. “This is one of the League’s premier events of the year and we are thrilled to bring fans from around the world to Las Vegas to celebrate hockey. This event will also help continue our growth of the game in Nevada and our surrounding areas.”
Commissioner Bettman also announced the NHL outdoor games for the 2021-22 season.
The 2022 NHL Winter Classic will be January 1, 2022, at Target Field in Minneapolis, home of the MLB’s Minnesota Twins. The 2022 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series game will be February 26, 2022, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.
Commissioner Bettman also said the NHL is planning to hold a Tim Hortons Heritage Classic in March but had no other details.
The date for the All-Star Game has not yet been announced, but it will be scheduled near the halfway point of the 2021-22 season. All-Star Weekend will feature the NHL All-Star Skills and the Honda All-Star Game, as well as a variety of hockey-themed events and entertainment that will be announced later.
The Minnesota Wild will play the St. Louis Blues in the Winter Classic. This game originally was supposed to take place January 1, 2021, but it was postponed because the NHL season didn’t begin until January 13th.
It will be the second regular-season outdoor game for each team since the NHL began its annual outdoor-game tradition in 2008.
Target Field will be the 10th MLB stadium to host an NHL outdoor game.
The Lightning will play in their first outdoor game when they face the host Nashville Predators in the Stadium Series game.
Tampa Bay will be the 27th NHL team to participate in a regular-season outdoor game.
Nissan Stadium will be the 20th football stadium to host an NHL outdoor game, including the seventh that is home to an NFL team.
It will be the first outdoor game played in Nashville.
The Predators were the road team against the Dallas Stars in the 2020 NHL Winter Classic at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas.
The NHL was originally supposed to hold a Stadium Series game at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina this season, but it was postponed. Commissioner Bettman said the League is still planning to have an outdoor game in Raleigh in the future.
“We’ll be back at some point,” Commissioner Bettman said. “It’s just a question of timing, stadium logistics and the like. But we were very much looking forward to having an outdoor game in Carolina and we will schedule another one at some point.”
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