The 2026-27 NHL regular season starts on Tuesday 29 September 2026, with five games. That ties the earliest start date in league history, and it is only the second time the NHL has opened in September.
Last updated: 24 August 2026 · Countdown to opening night: 36 days.
Below is every date worth knowing, from the first rookie camp session to the last possible day of the Stanley Cup Final — plus a short list of dates that have not been announced yet.
The short answer
- Rookie camps open: from 11 September (varies by club)
- Main training camps open: from 16–17 September (varies by club)
- New CBA takes effect: 16 September
- Preseason: 19–26 September
- Opening night: Tuesday 29 September
- Regular season ends: Saturday 10 April 2027
- Trade deadline: Monday 1 March 2027 (reported, time not set)
Opening night: 29 September
Five games, split across two national broadcasts. All times ET.
| Time | Game | TV |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00 p.m. | Florida Panthers at Carolina Hurricanes | ESPN |
| 7:00 p.m. | Montreal Canadiens at Toronto Maple Leafs | Sportsnet |
| 8:00 p.m. | New York Rangers at Boston Bruins | ESPN |
| 10:00 p.m. | Vancouver Canucks at Edmonton Oilers | Sportsnet |
| 10:30 p.m. | Chicago Blackhawks at Vegas Golden Knights | ESPN |
Carolina raises its Stanley Cup banner before the 5 p.m. opener. Two more games follow on 30 September — Penguins at Flyers and Kings at Avalanche, both on TNT — with the rest of the league joining through early October.
The full 2026-27 calendar
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 11 Sept | Rookie camps begin (earliest clubs) |
| 16 Sept | New collective bargaining agreement takes effect |
| 16–17 Sept | Main training camps open (varies by club) |
| 19–26 Sept | Preseason — 65 games, maximum four per team |
| 29 Sept | Opening night — five games |
| 13 Oct | All 32 teams play, across 16 start times |
| 25 Oct | Heritage Classic — Canadiens at Jets, Princess Auto Stadium, Winnipeg |
| 12 & 14 Nov | Global Series Finland — Hurricanes vs Kraken, Veikkaus Arena, Helsinki |
| 27 Nov | Black Friday matinee — Maple Leafs at Bruins, TD Garden, 1 p.m. ET |
| 18 & 20 Dec | Global Series Germany — Senators vs Blackhawks, PSD Bank Dome, Düsseldorf |
| 19–27 Dec | Holiday roster freeze (standard CBA window, not yet confirmed) |
| 23–25 Dec | Holiday break — no games |
| 26 Dec – 5 Jan | World Juniors — Rogers Place, Edmonton and the Centrium, Red Deer |
| 31 Dec | Winter Classic — Avalanche at Utah Mammoth, Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City |
| 4–7 Feb | All-Star break |
| 5 Feb | Skills Competition — UBS Arena |
| 6 Feb | All-Star Game — UBS Arena, new five-nation format |
| 20 Feb | Stadium Series — Golden Knights at Stars, AT&T Stadium, Arlington |
| 1 Mar | Trade deadline (reported, time not yet set) |
| 10 Apr | Regular season ends — all 32 teams play |
| Mid-Apr | Stanley Cup Playoffs begin (date not yet announced) |
| June 2027 | Stanley Cup Final (window not yet announced) |
Why the season starts in September this year
Because it is longer. The NHL has gone from 82 games to 84 — the first 84-game season since 1993-94, and only the third in league history after 1992-93 and 1993-94. Fitting two more games in without pushing the Stanley Cup Final deeper into June meant starting a week earlier and cutting the preseason down.
The two extra games are not spread randomly. Each team adds one home and one road game against divisional opponents, which makes the new split:
- 28 games inside the division
- 24 games against the rest of the conference
- 32 games against the other conference
- 42 home, 42 away
League-wide that is 1,344 games, an all-time high, played across 185 game days in a 194-day regular season.
Not yet announced
These dates do not exist yet.
- Stanley Cup Playoffs start date. The regular season ends 10 April. The first round has typically begun two days after the final day, which points to around 12 April, but the NHL has not confirmed it.
- Stanley Cup Final window. June 2027, no dates set. TNT carries it in the US, Sportsnet in Canada.
- 2027 NHL Draft. Summer 2027, date and host city both unconfirmed.
- 2027 free agency. Expected 1 July as usual, not formally announced.
- Trade deadline time and holiday roster freeze dates, both of which normally arrive with the league’s Key Dates memo.
Three quirks in this year’s calendar
No Olympic break. Milan-Cortina came and went in February 2026, so 2026-27 is the first uninterrupted NHL calendar in three years. Outside the holiday and All-Star breaks there are only two dark days all season, 20 and 26 November.
The All-Star Game is back. It was shelved for the Four Nations Face-Off in 2025 and the Olympics in 2026, so 6 February will be the first NHL All-Star Game since 2024. The new format runs five teams — Canada, Finland, Sweden, the United States and a “World” side — of 11 players each, playing four five-minute round-robin games with the top two meeting in a ten-minute final. The winning team splits $2 million; the Skills champion takes $1 million. It is only the second time the Islanders have hosted, after 1983.
Hockey on Boxing Day. The break runs 23 to 25 December rather than the usual 24 to 26, which means the NHL plays on 26 December for the first time since 2015. And when the puck drops in Salt Lake City on New Year’s Eve, all 32 franchises will have played an outdoor game — though contrary to what you may read, this is the second Winter Classic staged on 31 December, not the first. Blackhawks and Blues did it at Wrigley Field to close out 2024.
