It's the first time the season has kicked off on a Thursday night, and you couldn't come up with a bigger grudge match than Bennett against the Dragons on March 1.
The official NRL draw is still a work in progress and will be released next weekend.
A grand final re-match between Manly Sea Eagles and New Zealand Warriors also remains a week-one possibility.
But no game will be bigger than the Dragons and the Knights, where Test star Darius Boyd will also take on the club he left to follow Bennett to Newcastle.
"We're pretty excited, we've never done this before, starting the competition on a Thursday, and there's no doubt this is a headline match," NRL director of football operations Nathan McGuirk said.
"The match up between St George Illawarra's old mentor Wayne Bennett and the Dragons' new rookie coach Steve Price is going to be a huge talking point in the build up to the game."
The NRL will start their season a week earlier than previous years to accommodate the representative season.
And they will kick off on a Thursday to avoid a clash with the one-day international cricket on Channel Nine. There will be just the one game on the opening Friday night.
The Knights are excited about kicking off the season - and the Nathan Tinkler era - against the Dragons.
"It will be a special event. When the NRL and Channel Nine came to us two months ago with the idea, we thought it was fantastic," Knights CEO Matthew Gidley said.
"It's a massive compliment from the NRL as the Knights enter a new era for the club."
For the first time, the NRL draw will also feature a stand-alone weekend for representative matches.
No NRL matches will be played as the traditional Anzac Test will be played on a Friday night, a Toyota Cup State of Origin match on Saturday night and finally the annual City-Country Origin match in Mudgee will on the Sunday.
Good Friday will also feature a double-header - with one match to played in the afternoon and the other game in the evening.
