BREAKING NEWS: NHL releases its 2025-26 regular-season schedule

therookiereporters
Jul 18
8 min read

Just over a month since the Florida Panthers were crowned back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, the NHL has released its official regular-season schedule for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

(Image Credit to AP Photo/Karl Deblaker.)

While the NHL season may still be three months away, that didn’t stop the league from releasing its 2025-26 regular season schedule.

Throughout this article, I will be breaking down the schedule and conducting instant analysis on the big games and which teams got the best slates.

Opening night - A battle between the young guns and the champs? Or a slaughter in the making? Meanwhile, a head coach looks for early revenge, and the LA Kings look for redemption.

On October 7th, the NHL’s 2025-26 season will officially kick off.

At 5:00 PM EST, the Florida Panthers will lift their second-straight Stanley Cup banner, before taking on the Chicago Blackhawks in their opening game of the season. The Florida Panthers should easily be favoured in this matchup, so the story will be one of whether the Blackhawks can take the challenge to the champs and score an early point, or if the Panthers will be able to run up the score.

Just after the opening game of the season concludes, at 8:00 PM EST, the New York Rangers will play host to the Sidney Crosby-led Pittsburgh Penguins. This matchup has intrigue to it as it will be Mike Sullivan’s first game as the coach of the New York Rangers; in fact, he will be coaching against his former team in this one.

And then, at 10:30 PM EST, the Los Angeles Kings will play host to the Colorado Avalanche. Both of these franchises are coming off of heartbreaking first round playoff exits to the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars, respectively. With both teams still in a position to make noise in the Western Conference, this game could go a long way in determining who gets into the best position to fight for playoff glory.

Early clashes between Canadian teams, rough early slates, and opportunities to get hot early

On October 8th, most of the Canadian teams will get their season underway. In the early evening, the Toronto Maple Leafs will kick off their regular season with a home game against their closest rivals in the form of the Montreal Canadiens, who are looking to keep progressing towards title contention after getting into the playoffs last season for the first time since 2021. Later in the night, the first edition of the Battle of Alberta will take place as the Edmonton Oilers, coming off of a second-straight Stanley Cup Final berth, will take on the Calgary Flames. This game is actually the first of a Western Canada back-to-back; the second of those games takes Calgary to Vancouver.

It’s not just October 8th where we see intra-Canadian clashes. Those same Calgary Flames play host to Winnipeg and Montreal on October 20th and 22nd. Elsewhere, outside of their October 9th opener against Calgary, Vancouver plays Edmonton twice and takes on Montreal at home all before the calendar flips to November. That said, Toronto and Ottawa are relatively safe from the intense domestic rivalries, as they only have to play Canadian teams twice each during October.

Speaking of Ottawa, they’re one of many teams to have tougher slates to kick off the season. After starting on October 9th in Tampa Bay, the Senators travel to play the defending Stanley Cup champs Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena. After four lighter games against Nashville, Buffalo, Seattle, and the New York Islander, Ottawa has to take on Edmonton and Washington in the span of three games, before games against revamped Boston and Chicago teams help in concluding their October slate.

Elsewhere, the New York Islanders travel to Pittsburgh to kick off the Matthew Schaefer era on October 9th. They then take on Washington, Winnipeg, and Edmonton in the span of a week; three more intra-divisional matchups conclude New York’s October slate.

Other teams with tough early slates include the Flyers, who kick off the Rich Tocchet era by travelling to play the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes before playing host to the Florida Panthers and the Winnipeg Jets.

The worst opening slate arguably belongs to the New Jersey Devils, who play Carolina, Tampa Bay, Florida, Edmonton, Toronto, and Colorado (twice) all in the span of one month. One month. The Devils kick off November against a solid Los Angeles Kings team; their next tough matchup is in mid-November against Washington, which precedes games against Tampa Bay and Florida.

With the harder slates out of the way, I’m going to conclude this section by discussing some of the easier slates. That of the Anaheim Ducks is one of them; six of their first seven games are against non-playoff opposition. While they do play both Florida teams in October, they are sandwiched between their opening seven and a Halloween night matchup against Detroit.

The Montreal Canadiens have a light-ish October slate. After their opening game in Toronto, the Canadiens travel to Detroit and Chicago before their home opener against Seattle on October 14th. Their opening homestand continues against Nashville, the New York Rangers, and Buffalo, before a Western trip that takes them to Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Seattle closes out the month of October.

November’s Global Series sees Pittsburgh and Nashville head to Sweden. November also will feature an Original Six matchup and a Stanley Cup Final rematch.

As the schedule progresses deep into November, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators will head to Europe to play against each other in the NHL’s Global Series. That series concludes an early-November slate that sees Pittsburgh play against Winnipeg, Toronto, Washington, New Jersey, and Los Angeles, while Nashville heads into the Global Series off the heels of a more doable early-November; the Predators play Calgary, Vancouver, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Dallas, and the New York Rangers during this time.

Back on the North American continent, American Thanksgiving usually defines many of the sixteen teams that make the playoffs in the next year’s spring; since the 2005-06 season, around 75% of the teams in playoff spots at American Thanksgiving go on to make the playoffs. That could also be a crucial day for the playoff-hopeful New York Rangers, who take on the Boston Bruins on American Thanksgiving.

But before that matchup, the first of two Stanley Cup Final rematches takes place on November 22nd, with the Florida Panthers hosting the Edmonton Oilers. Edmonton will come into this rematch on the heels of November matchups like those against Dallas (who the Oilers played in last season’s Western Conference Final), Colorado, Carolina, Washington, and Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, Florida will enter this rematch after playing Dallas, Los Angeles, Vegas, Washington, Tampa Bay, and Vancouver as part of a nine-game stretch to open November.

The main events of 2026 kick off in Florida, while more major Canadian-focused matchups take place in January.

On January 2nd, the NHL Winter Classic is set to take place at loanDepot Park, which is the home stadium of MLB’s Miami Marlins. The matchup for the big game will feature the Florida Panthers and the New York Rangers. With Florida taking on Colorado and Toronto immediately after this game, and with the Rangers coming into this game after four-straight intra-divisional games and with an easy slate to fill the rest of the month, this Winter Classic could be significant in influencing results later in the season.

Elsewhere, January 17th is scheduled as the annual Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada; all seven Canadian teams are in action on this day. The matchups consist of a date between the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators in the Canadian capital, the New York Islanders heading to Calgary to play the Flames, Toronto heading to Winnipeg to take on the Jets, and a visit to Vancouver by the Edmonton Oilers.

But these aren’t the biggest games implicating Canadian teams in the month of January. Prior to their January 17th game against Winnipeg, the Toronto Maple Leafs travel to Las Vegas to play the Golden Knights, the same team that they traded Mitch Marner to early in the offseason. And then, one week later, they welcome Mitch Marner and the Golden Knights to Toronto for a rematch.

The Olympics split the second-half of the season in two; elsewhere, Florida returns to the spotlight to kick off February.

Another major matchup in the league’s regular-season slate is the Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series. This year’s edition of the game is set to take place on February 1st at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with the Boston Bruins playing the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Just four days later, the NHL concludes play for twenty days to accommodate the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan, Italy; NHL players will be participating in the Olympics for the first time since 2014. And with heavy-hitters like Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States making up a third of the twelve-team slate, hockey fans will still have something to look forward to in the month of February.

Big late-season slates on the docket for many playoff-aspiring teams in the final month of the NHL season.

As the schedule moves into March and April, many teams will be playing out their schedules, looking to secure positioning for the draft and for end-of-season bragging rights.

But elsewhere, the races are just heating up. And many other teams will be looking to either secure a spot in the playoffs or to strengthen their position in the postseason tournament.

In terms of potential playoff contenders, let’s first talk about Nashville. With a star-studded cast like Steven Stamkos, Filip Forsberg, and Juuse Saros, the Predators fell far short of expectations in 2024-25. This season, with the roster set to fully gel together and the young stars set to gain vital experience, Nashville is looking to get back into the playoffs after making it in the 2024-24 season. Their final month of the season could be critical in achieving that aim; three of the Predators’ final nine games come against Western Conference playoff contenders in the form of Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Vegas. In April, Nashville will be set to do battle with other playoff contenders, including Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Utah, with a potential playoff berth on the line.

Remaining in the Central Division, Utah is a team that many are projecting to make it into the playoffs in some form. To conclude March, Utah will be playing six of their seven games in that stretch against fellow Western Conference playoff contenders; these teams are the Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers, Vegas Golden Knights, and the Anaheim Ducks. In April, their run against fellow Western Conference playoff hopefuls continues; of their final eight, six games are against Western opposition.

Last season, the Ottawa Senators made it to the playoffs for the first time since 2017; this playoff run was followed by almost eight years of futility, terrible teams, terrible coaches, and terrible starts to the season. While their opening slate is one thing, their closing slate is another. Six of their final eight games in March come against Eastern Conference playoff contenders, with five of those games taking place away from Ottawa. Five of Ottawa’s eight April games are against such contenders, but they have the advantage of playing four of them at home. In those sixteen games, the Senators play Toronto, Tampa Bay, and Florida twice each. If the Senators are able to at least maintain their place in the Eastern Conference hierarchy from last year, those games could play a big role in determining whether they finish in the Atlantic Division’s top three or if they are condemned to a wild card spot.

Early divisional standings predictions:

While it’s still too early to predict the divisional standings, as trades, buyouts, and other contract moves can still take place, here’s what I think the divisional standings will look like after the 2025-26 regular season with the schedule and offseason moves to this point in mind:

Atlantic Division: