Avalanche Announces 2026-27 Schedule

DENVER – The National Hockey League today announced its 2026-27 regular season schedule, with the Colorado Avalanche set to open the campaign at home on Sept. 30 vs. Los Angeles. This is the second straight campaign the Avalanche will play the Kings in the season opener as well as the third time in the last four seasons. It’s also the first time ever the Avalanche/Nordiques franchise will play a regular season game in September.

2026-27 begins a new era where each NHL team will play 84 games in the regular season. The League had two previous campaigns of 84 contests per team, both of which took place from 1992-93 through 1993-94 when the Avalanche franchise played in Quebec City. With the exception of lockout-shortened campaigns in 1994-95 and 2012-13, and the pandemic reducing the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, the NHL had played an 82-game regular season every year since 1995-96. 

As a result of this most recent schedule adjustment, the Avs will now play 28 games against Central Division opponents and meet all seven of them four times (two home/two away). Last season, the Avalanche posted a 16-5-5 record against their divisional opponents and 7-4-2 at home. The 16 victories were the second-most that a Central team registered within the division in 2025-26 (Dallas, 17). Colorado will play 24 games versus the Pacific Division (three times against each opponent) and 32 total tilts with teams from the Eastern Conference (one home/one away). 

One of Colorado’s divisional matchups this season is the 2027 Discover NHL Winter Classic, set for Dec. 31, 2026 against the Utah Mammoth at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. This season’s Winter Classic marks the first time the Avalanche will play in the event and will be the fourth ever outdoor game the franchise plays in. Additionally, it’s the first one they’ll compete in as the visiting team. Colorado hosted the Detroit Red Wings at Coors Field in the Stadium Series on Feb. 27, 2016, the Los Angeles Kings for the 2020 Stadium Series at Air Force Academy’s Falcon Stadium on Feb. 15, and were the home team against the Vegas Golden Knights at Edgewood Tahoe Resort for the NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe event on Feb. 20, 2021. The Avalanche are 1-2-0 all-time in outdoor games but captured the most recent one at Lake Tahoe by a 3-2 score.

The season features 10 back-to-back sets of games in 2026-27 for the Avalanche. In the last six seasons, Colorado has posted a combined 86-32-14 (.705) record in back-to-backs. This season, four of the 10 involve one of the contests taking place at Ball Arena.  

The evenly-spread out schedule will have the Avalanche play at least 13 games in four different months and top out at 15 in January and March. January features a season-high nine home contests, their most such games in a January since 2022 (10) and the most home matchups in any calendar month since hosting nine games in December of 2023. 2026-27 has Colorado slated for two different five-game homestand that mark this season’s longest. The first lasts from Dec. 12-20 that leads into the Holiday Break, and the second goes from March 9-17. 

Other notable games include Colorado getting its first chance at facing Vegas since the Western Conference Final twice in a span of three days – Jan. 2 at T-Mobile Arena and Jan. 4 at home – and then once more on Feb. 22 on home ice. The club’s home meetings with its other 2026 playoff opponents are scheduled for Opening Night as well as April 2 against Los Angeles, and will host Minnesota on March 17 and the regular season finale on April 10 for the organization’s annual “Jerseys Off Our Backs” game. 

Additionally, the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes come to Ball Arena on Dec. 18, Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov and the Tampa Bay Lightning are in town on Oct. 23, the Avs square off with reigning Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Feb. 15, and the Toronto Maple Leafs, who held the 2026 No. 1 overall draft pick and selected Gavin McKenna, are Colorado’s third home opponent (Oct. 10). Two former members of the 2022 Stanley Cup championship team that departed this past offseason also return to Denver for the first time as a visitor this season, and that’s Valeri Nichushkin and the Blue Jackets, and former General Manager Chris MacFarland and the Nashville Predators (Nov. 5). 

The League schedule includes a mandatory three-day hiatus from Dec. 24-26 for the NHL’s Holiday Break, but the Avalanche will be idle from Dec. 21-26 which marks the franchise’s longest break ever for Christmas (excluding COVID pauses). The club will also be off for a week-long halt from Jan. 31 – Feb. 8 as the League brings back All-Star Weekend, with the festivities set to take place Feb. 5-6 at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y.

The Avalanche are currently scheduled to play 12 afternoon games in 2025-26 (puck drop before 5:00 p.m. local). The first one will not occur until Nov. 27 at Minnesota, but the club finishes with a matinee for Game 84 when it hosts the Wild. Seven of Colorado’s afternoon tilts are at Ball Arena and five are on the road. Last season, Colorado registered a 13-2-3 clip (.806) in its franchise record 18 afternoon games and come into 2026-27 with a league-best 42-13-5 (.742) in matinees dating back to the 2019-20 campaign.

Individual game tickets for the regular season go on sale on Friday, Aug. 14, at 10:00 a.m. First access to individual game ticket information can be found by subscribing to the Avs Alert Newsletter: www.coloradoavalanche.com/avsalert. Avalanche Memberships are on sale now by visiting www.avalanchetix.com/memberships. Avalanche Memberships begin at just three games. 

All 84 games can be heard on the Altitude Radio Network, Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM or 950 AM, and worldwide on the Altitude Sports Radio App. The Altitude TV broadcast information will be announced at a later date.