With the release of the NHL schedule, we can start breaking down a lot of the numbers, data, and trends that we get from it.

Stick taps to Eric Daoust who had the schedule loaded up into Frozentools within hours, where it's downloadable in its entirety as an Excel sheet.

Andrew Santillo does the schedule write up for the Fantasy Guide, which covers the major fantasy implications. What I like to get into with this break down are the week-to-week implications, specifically geared towards H2H leagues.

Those H2H leagues function because the last few weeks of the season (either weeks 23-25 or 24-26 of the NHL season this year) where the top teams face off and the winner advances towards a championship. Those three win-or-go-home weeks are critical, and finding any advantage that you can is a must for competing. Having more man-games than your opponent is one way to get an edge, and it's one of the easiest ones that requires the least amount of actual hockey knowledge or research. Simply get productive players from the teams with schedules, and trade away the players from teams with bad schedules. Easier said than done sometimes in evaluating how to balance making sure you make the playoffs, does a slightly better player with less games have less value than a worse player with more games, and with the possibility that NHL players are traded within the season just to add some complexity. I'll leave those nuances to you as the manager, as they are the fun part about fantasy hockey, but I will share with you the teams to target.

First, one preface to this, is that sometimes it is better not to draft these players, because if you do then you miss out on more games in-season, and that can cause you to finish further down the standings than you might otherwise. Just something to consider.

Now, depending on which weeks your H2H finals run, you will either want the first list here, or the second. Make sure you double and triple check which is which, and ensure that your commissioner doesn't change any of the scheduling part-way through the season. Any changes that need to address things like this should begin the following year, as managers like you could have already started making decisions based on the previous information.

One other preface, is that week numbers may differ based on how service providers or custom schedules lay out weeks around the beginning of the year, the Christmas & All Star beaks, etc. To be safe and avoid confusion, try to use dates rather than week numbers where possible.

Fantasy Weeks 23-25 (March 17^th to April 6^th)

Teams with the maximum 11 games: BUF, CGY, DAL, LA, MIN, MTL, NSH, OTT,

Teams with the minimum eight games: NYR, SJ

Fantasy Weeks 24-26 (March 24^th to April 17^th – with the longer final week)

Teams with the maximum 13 games: BUF, CLB, DAL, DET, MTL, NYI, OTT

Teams with the minimum 10 games: BOS, PHI, PIT, STL

Other specific week to week notes during the playoff weeks.

-New Jersey has an amazing week from March 24^th to March 30^th with four games and three on off-nights. However, their following week is terrible with only two total games and one coming on a busy Saturday.

-The New York Islanders might have the best overall playoff schedule between a high total number of games, and many of them coming on off nights.

-Vancouver's week of March 24^th and Minnesota's week of Apr 1^st each have four games, all of which are on off-nights.

-March 20^th & 22^nd and April 5^th are the only three days with more than 11 NHL games on the schedule within the H2H playoff weeks. Last year there were many more days with heavier schedules, and finding those off-night games mattered more. This year, outside of the March 17^th week, they will matter less.

A quick look at the overall schedule, the B2Bs are fairly irrelevant this year with 28 teams falling between 10 and 14 – just Winnipeg as a low outlier with eight, while Toronto (16), Carolina (16), and Montreal (15) are on the higher end.

The schedule as a whole is pretty bland. There are no five-game weeks, and there are no full seven-day weeks with a team having only one game, very uniform all the way across.

Anaheim (41), Chicago (37), and the New York Rangers (36) have the biggest advantage with off-nights. St. Louis has the least (20) with all of San Jose, Columbus, and Boston having 21. 

Based on last year's winning percentage, Columbus, Chicago, and San Jose have the toughest schedules. That doesn't bode well for the Jackets climbing out of the basement, in spite of their moves. The easiest schedules are Dallas, Edmonton, and Vancouver.

Notes on individual weeks during the season, in chronological order of occurrence:

-Buffalo and New Jersey have four games each in the first fantasy week thanks in part due to the Prague double-header that opens up the year days earlier than anyone else.

-Washington start the year with only one game by the first real Sunday of the season.

-St. Louis plays three games early in week 1 and then has the day off on the first busy Saturday of the year – no wasted games that week.

-Tuesday Oct 22 has all 32 teams play. Only one game on either end of that (Tampa Bay/Toronto – Monday & Philadelphia/Washington – Wednesday).

-Nov 25 – Dec 1 has about 20% more games than a usual week, despite no games on Thanksgiving Thursday. Four busy days (11 games or more) on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday that week – that means a lot of back-to-backs on the Friday/Saturday.

-Christmas break is Tuesday-Thursday this year, with the majority of teams playing three games that week around it. Seattle and Colorado though only have one each.

-There is a 12-day break in Feb for the Four-Nations tournament. Nashville, Pittsburgh, St. Louis have six games in the nine games post-break, Ottawa only has three games in those same nine days.

-Week of Mar 17, Thursday/Saturday have 14 games each, with only one (Pittsburgh/Columbus) on Friday.

Best of luck!