A National Hockey League season is long. And hectic. And involves a lot of travel.

Thomas Nestico, a sports data analyst, recently collaborated with B/R Open Ice on a graphic that compiled the amount of travel each NHL club has scheduled in the upcoming 2024-25 regular season.

The short answer? A lot. The clubs will collectively travel over 2.157 million kilometres – the equivalent of circumnavigating the Earth nearly 54 times. The Calgary Flames will travel the 10th-most of any club, flying an estimated 71,440 kilometres (the equivalent of 1.78 trips around the globe).

We were curious, so we dug into some groupings and trends.

The Pacific Division teams travel the most, at 74,316 kilometres on average – Anaheim the most (82,059 km) and Vancouver the least (68,383 km). The Flames’ travel is slightly below the division’s average.

The Central Division travels nearly as much as the Pacific, at 71,922 kilometres on average – Dallas the most (91,920 km) and St. Louis the least (62,268 km).

Next up is the Atlantic Division, with an average of 66,271 kilometres – Florida the most (82,220 km) and Detroit the least (58,085 km).

The Metropolitan Division has the least travel, with an average of 57,220 kilometres – New Jersey the most (64,199 km) and Pittsburgh the least (51,005 km).

In addition to these divisional trends, which seem heavily influenced by geography, the same trends persist between the conferences: the Western Conference teams average 73,119 kilometres of travel, while the Eastern Conference teams average 61,745 kilometres. When players complain about the travel out west: it’s real.

If you were assuming that the league would try to balance things out – perhaps giving teams with heavier travel schedules fewer back-to-back sets – well… that’s not what’s happened this year. Anaheim has the heaviest travel in the Pacific and has 13 back-to-backs on the docket, tied for second-most in the division, while Vancouver has the lightest travel and has 10 back-to-backs, tied for least in the division.