Wild to begin 2016-17 season Oct. 13 in St. Louis

The NHL announced its 2016-17 regular-season schedule Tuesday and the Minnesota Wild's Bruce Boudreau era will officially open Oct. 13.

The Wild begin the season on the road at St. Louis against the Blues, who made it to the Western Conference final before being ousted by San Jose.

Minnesota fans will get a chance to see Boudreau's coaching in action at home for the first time on Oct. 15, when the Wild will host Winnipeg to begin a three-game homestand.

That is hardly the team's longest stretch at home, though, as this season's schedule features a franchise-record eight-game homestand from Feb. 8-27 in which Minnesota will host Chicago (twice), Tampa Bay, Detroit, Anaheim, Dallas, Nashville and Los Angeles. Minnesota's previous longest homestand was seven games, from Jan. 5-20, 2006.

Minnesota is slated to have two five-game road trips: Nov 26-Dec. 7 and March 9-16.

The Wild's regular season will conclude April 8 in Arizona. The final home game is April 4 vs. Carolina.

The Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins will play the Wild twice and both games will be in November (Nov. 10 in Pittsburgh and Nov. 25 in Minnesota).

Boudreau will face his former team, the Anaheim Ducks, three times: Jan. 8 and Feb. 14 in Minnesota and Jan. 21 in Anaheim.

Minnesota will play 29 games against the Central Division, including five each against Colorado (three home, two road), Dallas (two home, three road), Nashville (two home, three road), St. Louis (three home, two road) and Winnipeg (two home, three road), and four vs. Chicago (two home, two road).

The Wild will have 14 sets of back-to-back games, half of those coming exclusively on the road with just one back-to-back set at home.

The NHL All-Star Game will be played Jan. 29, 2017 in Los Angeles.