The NHL released the full regular-season schedule for the 2025-26 campaign on Wednesday.
As was previously announced, the 2025-26 season will start on Oct. 7, but now the Opening Night games are official. The reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers will host the Chicago Blackhawks at 5 p.m. ET, the Pittsburgh Penguins will go on the road to face the New York Rangers at 8 p.m. ET and the puck will drop for the Colorado Avalanche at the Los Angeles Kings at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Other notable home openers include the Toronto Maples Leafs hosting the Montreal Canadiens, the Washington Capitals hosting the Boston Bruins, the Edmonton Oilers hosting the Calgary Flames and the Vegas Golden Knights hosting the Kings on Oct. 8.
The full 2025-26 schedule for all 32 NHL teams can be found at the following links:
The Panthers are coming off their second consecutive Stanley Cup triumph, and Opening Night will represent the raising of their latest Stanley Cup banner, as well as the start of their push for a three-peat.
If Florida is able to win three Cups in a row, it will become the first team to accomplish that feat since the New York Islanders won four straight from 1980 to 1983.
The Panthers have beaten the Oilers in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, and the regular-season rematches of the past two Cup Finals between the Panthers and Oilers are set for Nov. 22 in Florida and March 19 in Edmonton.
There will also be a healthy dose of “revenge games” during the 2025-26 season with players facing off against their former teams.
Chief among them are Golden Knights superstar forward Mitch Marner’s first road game against the Maple Leafs on Jan. 23 and Panthers forward Brad Marchand’s first road game against the Bruins on Oct. 21.
Also, Anaheim Ducks forward Chris Kreider will return to New York to face the Rangers on Dec. 15, Philadelphia Flyers forward Trevor Zegras will have his first road game against the Ducks on March 18 and Carolina Hurricanes forward Nikolaj Ehlers will return to his old stomping grounds in Winnipeg on Nov. 21.
On Nov. 6, legendary forwards and future Hall of Famers Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby will have their first meeting of the 2025-26 season when the Caps face the Pens in what could potentially be the final NHL campaign in which they are both still active players.
Two outdoor games are on tap for the 2025-26 season, starting with the Winter Classic on Jan. 2, 2026, between the Panthers and Rangers at the Miami Marlins’ LoanDepot Park.
That will mark the first Winter Classic ever held in Florida, and the southernmost Winter Classic to date.
About one month after the Winter Classic, the Tampa Bay Lightning will host the Bruins at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Raymond James Stadium for a Stadium Series game on Feb. 1, 2026.
As has become customary, the 2025-26 schedule will also feature some international games with the Penguins and Nashville Predators traveling overseas to play a pair of contests in Stockholm, Sweden, on Nov. 14 and Nov. 16, 2025.
While every team has off on Thanksgiving on Nov. 27, there will be nearly a full slate of games on Black Friday on Nov. 28 with 30 of the NHL’s 32 teams in action.
The Black Friday lineup will be headlined by a pair of 1 p.m. ET games with the Bruins hosting the Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings hosting the Lightning.
For the second straight year, there will be no NHL All-Star Game in 2026.
The 2025 NHL All-Star Game was dropped in favor of the highly entertaining and successful 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, which saw Canada defeat the United States in an overtime thriller in the finals.
While plans were in place for the 2026 NHL All-Star Game to be held at the Islanders’ UBS Arena, those plans changed after an official agreement was made to allow NHL players to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Instead, UBS Arena will host an Olympic kickoff event on a yet-to-be-announced date.
To accommodate the Olympics, there will be a 20-day break with no NHL games being played between Feb. 5 and Feb. 25, 2026.
The final day of the 2025-26 regular season is set for April 16, featuring six games, including the Kings at Flames, Vancouver Canucks at Oilers and Seattle Kraken at Avalanche.
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