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 Jan. 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 Feb. 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 Jan. 1, 2021, but it was postponed because the NHL season didn’t begin until Jan. 13.
It will be the second regular-season outdoor game for each team since the NHL began its annual outdoor-game tradition in 2008.
“We are just really happy to be back in this place after all that we’ve all been through,” Wild president Matt Majka said. “I cannot begin to diminish the difficulty that so many of us have experienced over this past year with the pandemic, and I feel like there’s reason for optimism that we are moving forward and this is, I think, another indication of that. We’re really thrilled with that. I’d like to start quickly by thanking the NHL for granting us this event and a second chance at it. I definitely want to thank Dave St. Peter and his staff and the Minnesota Twins who have been good friends through the years and great partners in this event so far, and we have every confidence that we’ll have a great event together.”
Target Field will be the 10th MLB stadium to host an NHL outdoor game.
“I don’t want to be dramatic here, but I think, for me, it will be emotional to get there and to see that building full, which I really do believe it will,” Majka said. “I want to respect that there are people still getting back to a comfort level of being in larger crowds, I do respect that, but we’re seeing it throughout the country here, we’re starting to see it and when I see that, I think and dream about Target Field on January 1st and how great that would be for all of us. I am really, really excited about the possibility that that presents. We have some work to do to get there, but I believe that with the folks we’re working alongside to make this happen, we’ll get there and it’s just going to be a great day for the State of Hockey.”
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.”
