The National Hockey League (NHL) announced today that the 2026-27 regular season, expanded to 84 games with the addition of two more divisional games per team, will open on Tuesday, Sept. 29, with an opening-night tripleheader broadcast on ESPN in the U.S. and a doubleheader on Sportsnet in Canada.
The first night of 2026-27 action on TNT will be the following night, Wednesday, Sept. 30, a doubleheader featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Philadelphia Flyers at 7:30 p.m. ET and the Los Angeles Kings visiting the Colorado Avalanche at 10 p.m. ET.
The complete 2026-27 NHL regular-season schedule is set to be announced on Thursday, July 16, at 1 p.m. ET. Also at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, NHL Network will air a one-hour special edition of NHL Tonight covering the schedule release, which will be hosted by Jamison Coyle, Thomas Hickey and E.J. Hradek. The special edition programming will also stream on NHL.com. NHL Network will continue to break down the schedule during its regularly scheduled NHL Tonight show on Friday, July 17 at 6 p.m. ET.
