2026-27 NHL season to start on Sept. 29 with Carolina-Florida, Toronto-Montreal

The 2026-27 NHL season will get off to a rollicking start on Sept. 29 when the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes host the rival Florida Panthers in an opening night tripleheader on ESPN.

The game in Raleigh (5 p.m. ET; ESPN), which will see the Hurricanes raise their championship banner in front of the Panthers, champs in 2024 and 2025, was announced on Wednesday, along with the home-opening games for all 32 teams.

The ESPN tripleheader will continue with the Boston Bruins hosting the New York Rangers (8 p.m. ET) followed by the Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights hosting the Chicago Blackhawks (10:30 p.m. ET).

That same night, Sportsnet in Canada will host a doubleheader, starting with the Toronto Maple Leafs hosting the rival Montreal Canadiens (7 p.m. ET) in what could be the NHL debut of Gavin McKenna, who was selected by Toronto with the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.

That game will be followed by the Edmonton Oilers and new coach Mike Babcock, hosting the Vancouver Canucks, and new coach Manny Malhotra (10 p.m. ET).

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TNT will follow up the big opening night with a doubleheader of its own on Sept. 30, starting with Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins playing at their instate rivals Philadelphia Flyers (7:30 p.m. ET) in a rematch of the 2026 Eastern Conference First Round, which the Flyers won in six games.

That will be followed by Artemi Panarin and the Los Angeles Kings playing at Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche (10 p.m. ET).

The opening game in Carolina will also be the Panthers debut of Brady Tkachuk, who was traded to Florida by the Ottawa Senators on June 21, joining forces with his brother and Team USA teammate Matthew Tkachuk.

Other home openers of note include:

Alex Ovechkin will play his 22nd and perhaps final home opener for the Washington Capitals against longtime rival Crosby and the Penguins on Oct. 7.

Brady Tkachuk will make his home debut for Florida when it hosts his Team USA teammates Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy, Brock Faber and the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 10.

Matthew Schaefer, who won the Calder Trophy last season as the NHL rookie of the year, and the New York Islanders will open their home season against the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 3.

As previously announced, the 2026-27 season will feature a number of special signature events.

The 2026 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic between the Winnipeg Jets and Canadiens will be held on Oct. 25 at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.

The NHL will go back overseas for the 2026 Global Series Finland, featuring Hurricanes and the Seattle Kraken playing two games at Veikkaus Arena in Helsinki, Nov. 12 and 14.

The NHL will then head to Germany a month later when the Senators and Blackhawks play the 2026 Global Series Germany on Dec. 18 and 20 at PSD Bank Dome in Dusseldorf.

The Discover NHL Winter Classic will be held on Dec. 31 at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium with the Utah Mammoth and Avalanche battling in the shadow of the Greater Rockies.

Honda NHL All-Star Weekend returns Feb. 5-6, at UBS Arena on Long Island. The event will include the 2027 NHL All-Star Skills on Feb. 5, with players ages 25 and under, competing across eight events, and the 2027 Honda NHL All-Star Game Feb. 6, featuring five teams of 11 players each -- Canada,  Finland, Sweden, the United States and a "World" team comprised of international players from countries outside of the other four teams -- competing in a 3-on-3, round-robin exhibition tournament.

The third and final outdoor game of the season will be held on Feb. 20 at AT&T Stadium, home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, when the Dallas Stars host the Golden Knights in the 2027 Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series.

The complete 2026-27 NHL regular-season schedule will be announced on Thursday at 1 p.m. ET, with NHL Network airing a one-hour special edition of "NHL Tonight" hosted by Jamison Coyle, Mike Rupp and E.J. Hradek. The special edition programming will also stream on NHL.com.