The 2022–23 AHL season is the 87th season of the American Hockey League. The regular season began on October 14, 2022, and will end on April 16, 2023. The

2023 Calder Cup playoffs 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

will follow after the conclusion of the regular season.

League changes

After the previous regular season where teams played an imbalanced schedule consisting of 76, 72, or 68 games, all teams will now play an equal amount of games at 72. Standings will also be in order of points rather than points percentage (points percentage was used in the previous season, due to an imbalanced amount of games played per team). This also means the

Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy The Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy is presented annually to the AHL team that finishes the regular season with the most points or highest points percentage. The award is named after late former AHL board member Macgregor Kilpatrick. The award was fir ...

for the regular season champion will no longer be awarded based on points percentage, but rather total points. For the first time since

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, the league will be expanding, adding the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The

Stockton Heat The Stockton Heat were a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) that played from 2015 to 2022. The team was based in Stockton, California, and was affiliated with the National Hockey League (NHL) Calgary Flames. The Hea ...

have been announced to be moving to

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

in order to be closer to their NHL affiliate, the Calgary Flames.

Team and NHL affiliation changes

After the National Hockey League (NHL) added the Seattle Kraken for the 2021–22 season, the Kraken took a different approach than the 2017 expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights. Seattle wanted to add an AHL expansion team for their first season, unlike Vegas. The Kraken had discussed the possibility of promoting the Idaho Steelheads from the ECHL, similar to what the league decided to do with the

expansion team Colorado Eagles. However, Seattle chose to create their own expansion team in Palm Desert, California. The team, named the Coachella Valley Firebirds, was originally scheduled to begin play during the 2021–22 AHL season, however the debut of the Firebirds was delayed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the construction of their arena. With Seattle having no AHL affiliate for their debut season, they decided to affiliate with the Charlotte Checkers as the secondary affiliate to the

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...

. The Firebirds organization will be taking the spot of the

in the Pacific Division. The Firebirds join other successful AHL franchises in the Southern California market, such as San Diego, Bakersfield, and Ontario. The Panthers will become the sole affiliate of the Checkers.

Relocations

*The

franchise was relocated to

beginning with the 2022–23 season. The Heat had played the entire 2020–21 season at the

Scotiabank Saddledome Scotiabank Saddledome is a multi-use indoor arena in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Located in Stampede Park in the southeast end of downtown Calgary, the Saddledome was built in 1983 to replace the Stampede Corral as the home of the Calgary Flames ...

in Calgary due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with cross-border travel being restricted. On August 2, 2022, the team announced its name, bringing back the " Wranglers" moniker.

Affiliation changes

Coaching changes

Standings

Standings as of November 16, 2022

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Statistical leaders

Leading skaters

The following players are sorted by points, then goals. As of November 16, 2022. ''GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts =

Points Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

; +/– = Plus-minus; PIM =

Penalty minutes A penalty in ice hockey is a punishment for an infringement of the rules. Most penalties are enforced by sending the offending player to a penalty box for a set number of minutes. During the penalty the player may not participate in play. Penaltie ...

Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders with a minimum 240 minutes played lead the league in goals against average. As of November 15, 2022. ''GP = Games played; TOI = Time on ice (in minutes); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average; SV% = Save percentage; W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime/ shootout loss''

Calder Cup playoffs

Playoff format

The AHL will continue to use the same playoff format used in the previous playoffs. The playoff field will include the top six finishers in the eight-team Atlantic Division, the top five finishers each in the seven-team North and Central Divisions, and the top seven teams in the 10-team Pacific Division. First Round match-ups will be 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.

AHL awards

All-Star Teams

References

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