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 2nd consecutive year and Mike Sullivan making his New York Rangers coaching debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins group he spent much of the past years with.


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


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


The Panthers are wanting to become the very first NHL group 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 surgery to fix torn ligaments in his best knee from a noncontact injury throughout training camp.


NHL players are back in the Olympics for the very first time because 2014 when Canada won its 2nd successive gold medal. It's the first full-fledged worldwide tournament featuring the world's finest because 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 speed that can be expected.


Connor McDavid, extensively considered the game's finest player, is still going after the Stanley Cup in his 11th season in the league. After his future was the talk of the sport, McDavid signed an agreement extension with the Edmonton Oilers on the eve of the season at a deal rate of $12.5 million every year over 2 years.


Lights light up the ice before an NHL hockey game 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 video 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 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 video games, consisting of Washington's season opener with Alex Ovechkin 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 Big league Baseball's Miami Marlins.


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


The males's hockey tournament in Milan starts Feb. 11 with Finland vs. Slovakia and Sweden versus host Italy. The gold-medal game is set for Feb. 22.


NHL play resumes on Feb. 25. The trade deadline is March 6 and the final day of the regular season is April 16. The playoffs begin 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