If you follow more than one league, you’ve probably noticed the hockey calendar never really stops. Something is always either starting, wrapping up, or crowning a champion. Here’s how the major leagues actually line up against each other, month by month.
- The NHL, AHL, and ECHL all run September/October through June, with playoffs stretching well into late spring.
- Major junior (WHL, OHL, QMJHL) and the BCHL wrap their regular seasons in March, earlier than the pros, since their playoffs and the Memorial Cup need to finish before players age out or move on for the summer.
- College hockey and high school hockey both run on the academic calendar, so they start and finish earlier than anything else on this list.
The full calendar, side by side
Approximate, based on recent seasons. Exact dates shift year to year, and high school hockey varies by state athletic association.
Why the calendars don’t match
The pattern isn’t random. The NHL, AHL, and ECHL are all professional leagues without a school calendar to answer to, so they run long, deep into June some years, since a longer season and longer playoffs both mean more games, more tickets, and more broadcast revenue.
Major junior (the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL, together known as the CHL) and the BCHL wrap their regular seasons in March on purpose. Most of their players are teenagers balancing school with hockey, and the whole point of the Memorial Cup, the tournament that crowns a champion across all three CHL leagues, is to wrap up while players are still available before some of them head to their NHL team’s development camp, a pro tryout, or off to college.
College and high school hockey are the earliest to finish, because they’re both built entirely around the academic year. The NCAA tournament, the Frozen Four, lands in late March and early April, right as the spring semester is picking up, and high school state tournaments wrap even earlier so winter sports don’t run into spring ones.
You don’t need to track all of these at once
Most fans follow one or two of these closely and only glance at the rest. Use this as a reference for when to actually pay attention, not a schedule to memorize.
Curious what the different leagues actually are? Check the glossary for a quick explanation of each one.