Guide To The 2026-26 NHL Season And Milan Olympics: How To Watch

The NHL season starts Tuesday night with a tripleheader that includes the Florida Panthers raising a Stanley Cup banner for a second consecutive year and Mike Sullivan making his New York Rangers training debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins group he invested much of the previous decade with.


This is the final 82-game season before the schedule expands to 84 apiece for each of the league's 32 teams beginning in 2026-27. It's likewise anticipated to be the last October start before training school and exhibit play diminish and opening night gets gone up to late September.


The league will take a two-week break in February so players can contend at the Olympics in Milan.


The Panthers are wanting to end up being the very first NHL team to threepeat given that the New York Islanders won four championships in a row from 1980-83. They likely won't have captain and top center Aleksander Barkov all season after surgical treatment to fix ripped ligaments in his best knee from a noncontact injury during training school.


NHL players are back in the Olympics for the very first time given that 2014 when Canada won its 2nd successive gold medal. It's the very first full-fledged global tournament including the world's finest considering that the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The 4 Nations Face-Off with the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland supplied a taste of the type of quality and pace that can be expected.


Connor McDavid, extensively considered the game's best gamer, is still chasing the Stanley Cup in his 11th season in the league. After his future was the talk of the sport, McDavid signed a contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers on the eve of the season at a bargain rate of $12.5 million each year over two years.


Lights brighten the ice before an NHL hockey video game in between the Seattle Kraken and the Calgary Flames, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)


Edmonton and Vegas are 8-1 co-favorites at BetMGM Sportsbook to hoist the Cup in June. Carolina and Colorado are 17-2, Dallas is 9-1 and Florida and Tampa Bay are each 14-1. The longest shots on the board are restoring Chicago and San Jose at 500-1.


ESPN and TNT air games nationally in the U.S., with Sportsnet as the rightsholder in Canada.


There are 100 unique video games between ESPN, ABC, ESPN+ and Hulu, consisting of all 3 on opening night and the Stadium Series when Tampa Bay hosts Boston outdoors at the home of the NFL's Buccaneers. ESPN likewise has the Stanley Cup Final in June.


TNT has 72 games, including Washington's season opener with Alex Ovechkin at 897 goals after breaking Wayne Gretzky's record, and the Winter Classic in between the Panthers and Rangers on Jan. 2 at the home of Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins.


More than 900 video games will take place in between October and Feb. 4, consisting of Pittsburgh and Nashville playing two times in Sweden in November. The league will then pause for the Olympic break.


The guys's hockey competition in Milan begins Feb. 11 with Finland vs. Slovakia and Sweden against host Italy. The gold-medal game is set for Feb. 22.


resumes on Feb. 25. The trade deadline is March 6 and the final day of the routine season is April 16. The playoffs start April 18 and the last possible day for the Stanley Cup Final is June 21. Free company starts July 1.


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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl