2021-22 AHL season

This is the 2021-22 American Hockey League season. This is the league's 86th season.

Scheduling
On June 7, 2021 the league issued a statement saying that they AHL Board of Governors approved the alignment for the 2021-22 season.

Teams will play an unequal number of games for 2021-22:
 * Chicago, Cleveland, Grand Rapids, Hershey, Lehigh Valley, Milwaukee, Rochester, Springfield, Syracuse, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will play 76 games
 * Belleville, Bridgeport, Charlotte, Hartford, Iowa, Laval, Manitoba, Providence, Rockford, Texas, Toronto, Utica will play 72 games
 * Abbotsford, Bakersfield, Colorado, Henderson, Ontario, San Diego, San Jose, Stockton, Tucson (the Pacific Division) will play 68 games.

The season commences on October 15th.

The playoff format will be announced in the summer of 2021. As part of the announcement for the 2021-22 season it was stated that there will be an increase in the number of teams qualifying for the playoffs over each of the next two seasons.

As part of the announcement, the league announced that all teams will play 72 games starting with the 2022-23 season with the expected addition of the Palm Springs AHL team which had their arena construction begin on June 3, 2021.

Membership Changes

 * The Henderson Silver Knights are due to move out of the Orleans Arena in Summerlin, Nevada after temporarily playing there for the 2020-21 season and will relocate to the Lifeguard Arena sometime during the 2021-22 season pending completion of the new arena.


 * The Charlotte Checkers, Milwaukee Admirals, and Springfield Thunderbirds who were announced as having opted out of playing for the 2020-21 playing season due to restrictions on spectators for the season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic return to play.


 * All of the teams that made temporary relocations due to local restrictions involving the AHL team's home area or even the NHL team's home arena will return to their previous home except for the Binghamton Devils who relocated to Utica, New York for the 2021-22 season:
 * The Providence Bruins had relocated to the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
 * The Binghamton Devils relocated to the RWJ Barnabas Health Hockey House and the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
 * The Ontario Reign relocate to the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, California.
 * The San Diego Gulls relocated to the Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena in Irvine, California.
 * The Stockton Heat would be temporarily relocated for the 2020-21 season to Calgary, Alberta playing out of the Scotiabank Saddledome to avoid quarantine restrictions with crossing the US-Canada border for call-ups and joined the Canadian Division.
 * The Laval Rocket had moved their home games to the Bell Centre in Montreal for the season.
 * The Belleville Senators had moved their games to the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa for the season.
 * The San Jose Barracuda would start their season based out of Tucson, Arizona due to restrictions in their hometown San Jose, California.


 * On May 6th, 2021 the AHL Board of Governors approved the relocation of the Utica Comets to Abbotsford, British Columbia and the Binghamton Devils to Utica, New York where they will still be called the Utica Comets for the 2021-22 season. On July 14, the name, logo, and colours were released as the team will be called the Abbotsford Canucks using the NHL team's colors and using the "Johnny Canuck" skating lumberjack logo as their primary logo.


 * On May 11, 2021 the Bridgeport Sound Tigers announced they would be renamed the Bridgeport Islanders for the 2021-22 season.

Standings
To be added upon completion of the regular season

Calder Cup Playoffs
The league revised the format for the Calder Cup Playoffs.In each division the all but the bottom two teams will qualify for the playoffs. The first round will be a best-of-three series with six teams in the Atlantic Division, five in the North Division, five in the Central Division and seven in the Pacific Division. Teams will be ranked by points percentage as teams are playing an unequal number of games.