The 2022-23 American Hockey League regular season begins on October 14.

There will be ten games on opening night and twenty-nine games across the weekend of October 14-16.

The Stockton Heat have been replaced by a yet unnamed team from Calgary, who will play out of the Scotiabank Saddledome.

‘Calgary’ begin their campaign with a two-game set against the new kids on the block, Coachella.
The brand new affiliate of the Seattle Kraken, Coachella Valley Firebirds kicks off their inaugural season on the road and will do so until December due to the late opening of their brand new home.

The Acrisure Arena in Thousand Palms, California will officially welcome the Firebirds on December 18, entertaining the Tucson Roadrunners as visitors.

A team departing an NHL building and moving into a new home will be the San Jose Barracuda.
The Tech CU Arena will host its first game on October 22 as the Henderson Knights head to town.

Games scheduled by day of the week: Monday (16), Tuesday (70), Wednesday (203), Thursday (28), Friday (321), Saturday (369), and Sunday (145).

There are two days this season on which all 32 of the league’s teams are in action.
Saturday, October 29 and Saturday, November 19, 2022.

The one huge plus of the 2022-23 season is that points percentage will no longer exist!
Every team plays a 72-game schedule which is now locked in to stay.

The North, Central and Atlantic Divisions remain unaltered.

‘Calgary’ replaces Stockton Heat in the Pacific Division and is joined by the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

It makes for a very lopsided American Hockey League.
The North and Central Divisions have seven teams a piece, the Atlantic hosts eight teams and the Pacific is now comprised of ten teams.

There were feasible options to avoid such a lopsided configuration. Having veered away from that, the AHL has set its stall out for the foreseeable future.

It’s a set-up that leads to 23, yes 23, teams qualifying for post-season hockey and in turn, a terrible playoff format.

Playoff qualification will include:
Top six finishers in the eight-team Atlantic Division.
Top five finishers in the seven-team North and Central Divisions.
Top seven teams in the ten-team Pacific Division.

There will be five rounds of playoffs with First Round match-ups as best-of-three series.

The two highest seeds in the Atlantic, the three highest seeds in each of the North and Central, and the first-place team in the Pacific will receive byes into the best-of-five Division Semifinals, with the First Round winners re-seeded in each division.

The Division Finals will also be best-of-five series, followed by best-of-seven Conference Finals and a best-of-seven Calder Cup Finals series.

Imagine trying to explain that format to somehow who doesn’t follow the AHL, let alone anyone on the fringes of the sport.

My biggest issue is that this system devalues the regular season. With over 70% of the league qualifying for the playoffs, it’s viable that team/s will be rewarded for ‘poor’ seasons.

A three-game series is a farce in hockey and won’t allow for the variety of ebbs and flows under the five or seven games format.
It also has the potential to be disadvantageous to those given a bye.

Teams sitting by and watching might benefit from a rest but potentially also be compromised by a lack of competitive action.

The American Hockey League will throw out statistics about how many more players will receive a taste of playoff action.

If that is just two games in a convoluted series, is it benefitting anyone to the point where devaluing regular season play is considered a fair trade-off?

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