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

The NHL season begins 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 launching against the Pittsburgh Penguins group he spent much of the previous years with.


This is the final 82-game season before the schedule broadens to 84 each 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 compete at the Olympics in Milan.


The Panthers are seeking to end up being the first NHL team to threepeat considering that the New york city Islanders won 4 championships in a row from 1980-83. They likely won't have captain and leading center Aleksander Barkov all season after surgery to fix split ligaments in his best knee from a noncontact injury throughout training camp.


NHL players are back in the Olympics for the first time because 2014 when Canada won its 2nd consecutive gold medal. It's the very first full-fledged global competition featuring the world's finest given 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 sort of quality and rate that can be expected.


Connor McDavid, extensively considered the video game's finest player, 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 yearly over 2 years.


Lights illuminate 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 rebuilding 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 games between ESPN, ABC, ESPN+ and Hulu, including all three on opening night and the Stadium Series when Tampa Bay hosts Boston outdoors at the home of the NFL's Buccaneers. ESPN also has the Stanley Cup Final in June.


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


More than 900 video games will occur in between October and Feb. 4, consisting of Pittsburgh and Nashville playing twice in Sweden in November. The league will then stop briefly 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 video game is set for Feb. 22.


NHL play resumes on Feb. 25. The trade due date is March 6 and the last 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 firm begins July 1.


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