The 2025–26 NHL season is the upcoming 109th season of operation (108th season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). The regular season is scheduled to begin on October 7, 2025. The Stanley Cup playoffs are then planned to begin in April 2026, ending with the Stanley Cup Finals in June.
League business
Collective bargaining agreement
The 2020 extension of the 2013 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is set to expire at the end of the 2025–26 NHL season.
Entry draft
The 2025 NHL entry draft is scheduled for June 27–28, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Coaching changes
(*) Indicates interim
Arena changes
- The Wells Fargo Center, the home of the Philadelphia Flyers, will be renamed prior to the season. Wells Fargo declined to renew its naming rights deal when it expires in August 2025.
Regular season
The regular season is planned to be held from October 7, 2025 to April 2026, with all specific dates and start times to be announced at a later date in June or July 2025.
International games
The Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins are scheduled to play against each other on November 14 and 16, 2025, at Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
Outdoor games
The league has scheduled two outdoor games this season, both planned to be held in Florida:
- The 2026 Winter Classic is scheduled for January 2, 2026, at LoanDepot Park in Miami, with the Florida Panthers hosting the New York Rangers.
- The 2026 Stadium Series is scheduled for February 1, 2026, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, with the Tampa Bay Lightning hosting the Boston Bruins.
All-Star Game and Olympics break
The 2026 All-Star Game is planned to be held in early February 2026, at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, the home of the New York Islanders. The league intends to use the game as a "send-off" for the league's players participation at the 2026 Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy; players who will be competing in both are planned to leave directly from New York to Italy. This would be first time that the league participated in the Olympics since 2014, and the first time the All-Star Game was held in the same year as Olympic participation since 2002.
Uniforms
- The New York Rangers unveiled a centennial logo to commemorate their 100th year.
Media rights
Canada
National
This will be the 12th and final season of the Canadian national broadcast rights deal with Sportsnet, before a new 12-year contract begins in 2026–27. The original deal expiring this 2025–26 season includes Sportsnet's sub-licensing agreements to air Saturday Hockey Night in Canada games on CBC Television, French-language broadcasts on TVA Sports, and the final year of Amazon Prime Video's two-year streaming deal.
- Linear television
- Saturday Hockey Night in Canada games air on CBC, one or more of the four Sportsnet feeds, Sportsnet One, Sportsnet 360, or Citytv. Decisions on network assignments are made on a week-by-week basis, and select games may simulcast on multiple networks.
- Sportsnet airs Wednesday Night Hockey, the Winter Classic, Stadium Series, and All-Star Game.
- TVA Sports' schedule includes Saturday La super soirée LNH (lit. 'NHL Super Evening') games, as well as French-language broadcasts of the Winter Classic, Stadium Series, All-Star Game, among others.
- Streaming
- Sportsnet will stream games depending on tier, with national games available on the Standard level, out-of-market games on the Premium tier, and via authenticated streaming on participating teams.
- This will be the final season of a two-year sub-license for Amazon Prime Video to stream Monday Night Hockey.
United States
National
This will be the fifth season of the league's seven-year U.S. national broadcast rights deals with the ESPN family of networks and TNT Sports.
- Linear television
- ESPN broadcasts opening night games and then select Tuesday and Thursday–Sunday night games throughout the rest of the season. ABC's schedule includes Hockey Saturday on select weekends between January and April. Games may also air on ESPN2. ESPN and ABC has the All-Star skills competition and the All-Star Game, respectively. The ESPN networks also have the rights to the Stadium Series. As per the rotation, ABC holds the rights to the Stanley Cup Finals this season.
- TNT has games on Wednesday nights during the season, select Sunday games, the Thanksgiving Showdown, and the Winter Classic. Some of TNT's games may be simulcast on TruTV. Not all of TNT Sports' regular season games will be exclusive broadcasts and are thus subject to blackout in local markets.
- Streaming
- ESPN and Hulu exclusive streams games on select days throughout the season, mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. ESPN also streams all of ABC's games, selected ESPN's games, and the NHL Power Play on ESPN out-of-market package. Disney may also stream select ESPN-produced games.
- Max streams all TNT Sports-produced games.
Personnel
- The New York Rangers will have a new TV play-by-play announcer this season following the retirement of Sam Rosen.
References
