NHL Reveals Full Schedule for the 2025-26 Season
The NHL has released the full schedule for the 2025-26 season, the last with a duration of 82 games before the new collective bargaining agreement extends it to 84.
The league’s 32 franchises will face each other in a total of 1,312 games between October 7th and April 16th, with the playoffs beginning the following weekend and extending into much of June. Starting with the 2026-27 season, 1,344 games will be played, the most in NHL history.
Alex Ovechkin will begin his twenty-first season on October 8, when he and the Washington Capitals host Boston. Ovechkin, with 897 career goals, will seek to increase his tally at 40 years old, after surpassing Wayne Gretzky’s record.
It is possible that Ovechkin will reach 900 goals on the same Long Island stage where he scored his 895th goal, surpassing Gretzky. The Capitals will visit the New York Islanders in their second game on October 11, before facing the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on October 12.
After raising their second consecutive Stanley Cup banner on opening night, October 7th against Chicago, the reigning champions, the Florida Panthers, will seek their third consecutive championship two days later, hosting Philadelphia.
Utah will play its first game as the Mammoth on October 9 in Colorado. During their first year in Salt Lake City, following the relocation from Arizona, they were known as the Utah Hockey Club.
For the first time in over a decade, the league will stop in winter to send players to the Olympics. Milan’s break will extend from February 6 to 24, with the game resuming on February 25.
The NHL’s last participation in the Games was in 2014 in Sochi, although the new collective bargaining agreement provides that players can also participate in 2030, subject to another agreement with the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation.
