2023–24 NHL Season

The 2023–24 NHL season is the 107th season of operation (106th season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). The regular season began on October 10, 2023, and will end on April 18, 2024. The Stanley Cup playoffs are then planned to begin shortly afterwards, ending with the Stanley Cup Finals in June.

League business

Entry draft

The 2023 NHL Entry Draft was held on June 28–29, 2023, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Connor Bedard was selected first overall by the Chicago Blackhawks.

Preseason games in Australia

The NHL held games in Australia for the first time in league history. The Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings played on September 23 and 24 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, best known as the main venue for the Australian Open. Since the arena was not designed for ice hockey, the league built a temporary rink akin to other NHL outdoor games, though the arena's retractable roof was closed for the game.

Coaching changes

(*) Indicates interim.

Front office changes

(*) Indicates interim.

Arena changes

* The Florida Panthers' home arena, FLA Live Arena, was renamed Amerant Bank Arena on September 19, 2023, as part of a naming rights agreement with Amerant Bank.

Regular season

International games

The league held four regular season games on four consecutive days at Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. The Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators faced each other on November 16. The Red Wings then played the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 17. The Minnesota Wild took on the Senators on November 18. Finally, the Wild played the Maple Leafs on November 19.

Outdoor games

The league has scheduled the following outdoor games:
* The 2023 Heritage Classic was held on October 29, at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, with the Edmonton Oilers hosting the Calgary Flames. This was the seventh game in the Heritage Classic series, and the first outdoor game in the Battle of Alberta rivalry.
* The 2024 NHL Winter Classic is scheduled for January 1, at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, with the Seattle Kraken hosting the Vegas Golden Knights in a battle between the league's two youngest expansion teams.
* Two Stadium Series games are scheduled this season for the first time since 2016. Both will be held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Philadelphia Flyers will face the New Jersey Devils on February 17, and then the New York Rangers will play the New York Islanders on February 18.

All-Star Game

The 2024 All-Star Game is scheduled for February 3 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Standings

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Statistics

Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in regular season points at the completion of games played on November 20, 2023.

Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders led the league in regular season goals against average at the completion of games played on November 20, 2023, while playing at least 480 minutes.

Uniforms

* This is the final season for Adidas as the official apparel provider of the NHL. Starting with the 2024–25 season, Fanatics will become the official apparel provider on a 10-year contract.

Wholesale team changes

* The Anaheim Ducks unveiled their 30th anniversary alternate uniform, featuring the original 1993 to 2006 colors of eggplant base and jade, white and silver stripes. The updated "Wild Wing" roundel crest with the current team name is emblazoned in front.
* The Boston Bruins unveiled the new logo and centennial patch for this upcoming season, keeping with the spoke "B" instead of black lettering and instead going with a yellow lettering with black spokes. The Bruins also unveiled special uniforms for the season, with the primary black and white uniforms sporting a metallic gold shade called "Centennial gold" and the alternate beige uniform using the 1970s uniform template albeit in the original brown and gold colors.
* The Calgary Flames unveiled a new uniform for the 2023 Heritage Classic, which was inspired by the Calgary Stampeders.
* The Edmonton Oilers unveiled a new uniform for the 2023 Heritage Classic, which was inspired by the Edmonton Mercurys.
* The Minnesota Wild introduced a new "78's" alternate uniform based off of their green Minnesota North Stars-influenced 2022–23 Reverse Retro jersey, but with the addition of Minnesota-shaped captain patches and a "State of Hockey" shoulder patch.
* The Philadelphia Flyers unveiled new uniforms, returning to the burnt orange shade they wore from 1982 to 2007 and featured visual cues from previous uniforms. The black alternate was retained.
* The Winnipeg Jets unveiled a new powder-blue specialty alternate uniform commemorating the centennial of the Royal Canadian Air Force, with a design based off of those worn by the RCAF Flyers at the 1948 Winter Olympics. The previous heritage alternates will be retained as the full-time third jerseys.

Milestones

First games

The following is a list of notable players who played their first NHL game during the 2023–24 season, listed with their first team.

Major milestones reached

* On October 10, 2023, Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang played their first game of the season as a trio, setting a new record for most seasons (18) as a trio in North American " big 4" sports history, and surpassing the record previously held by the New York Yankees' trio of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera.
* On October 14, 2023, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews recorded a second consecutive hat trick in Toronto's second game of the season, becoming the fifth player in NHL history to open a season with consecutive hat tricks, and the second since 1917–18.
* On October 19, 2023, the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Winnipeg Jets, becoming the third defending Stanley Cup champion to begin the following season with five consecutive wins, joining both the 1985–86 Edmonton Oilers and 1920–21 Ottawa Senators. After subsequently defeating the Chicago Blackhawks on October 22 for their sixth consecutive victory, Vegas set a new record for the longest season-opening winning streak of a defending Stanley Cup champion.
* On October 24, 2023, Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin scored his 300th power play goal, becoming the first player in NHL history to reach the mark.
* On October 24, 2023, the Colorado Avalanche defeated the New York Islanders for their 15th consecutive road victory in the regular season (dating back to the 2022–23 season), setting a new record for the longest winning streak on the road, and surpassing the record previously held by the Buffalo Sabres (14 consecutive road wins between the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons).
* On October 31, 2023, Nashville Predators forward Ryan O'Reilly played his 1,000th NHL game, becoming the 383rd player to reach the mark.
* On November 4, 2023, the Washington Capitals won their 1,000th home game in franchise history.
* On November 4, 2023, the San Jose Sharks allowed 10 goals against for the second consecutive game, becoming the first team to allow 10 goals in consecutive games since the 1965–66 Boston Bruins. Additionally, the Sharks lost their 11th consecutive game to begin the season, tying the 1943–44 New York Rangers, 2017–18 Arizona Coyotes, and 2021–22 Arizona Coyotes for the longest season-opening losing streak.
* On November 14, 2023, Buffalo Sabres forward Kyle Okposo played his 1,000th NHL game, becoming the 384th player to reach the mark.

Broadcast rights

Canada

National

This will be the tenth season of the league's 12-year Canadian national broadcast rights deal with Sportsnet. This includes Sportsnet's sub-licensing agreements to air Saturday ''Hockey Night in Canada'' games on CBC Television and French-language broadcasts on TVA Sports. Sportsnet's national schedule also includes ''Monday Night Hockey'', ''Wednesday Night Hockey'', this season's four outdoor games, the Hockey Day in Canada games on January 20, and All-Star Weekend. Games will be streamed on Sportsnet+, with national games available on the Standard level, out-of-market games on the Premium tier, and via authenticated streaming on participating

Personnel

Longtime commentator John Garrett retired from Vancouver Canucks broadcasts prior to the season. He will continue to provide analysis on select national broadcasts throughout the season. Sportsnet later announced that Dave Tomlinson, formerly a radio analyst for the Seattle Kraken, would take over as the primary TV analyst for Canucks regional broadcasts, with ESPN lead analyst Ray Ferraro working as a substitute for select games.

United States

National

This will be the third season of the league's seven-year U.S. national broadcast rights deals with the ESPN family of networks and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD).

Regular season games are aired exclusively on ESPN on selected Tuesdays, Thursdays, and weekends; and ABC on selected Saturdays between mid-January and mid-April. ESPN+ and Hulu exclusively streams games primarily on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and weekends throughout the season. During All-Star Weekend, ESPN will have the All-Star skills competition while ABC will air the All-Star Game. Both Stadium Series games will then be broadcast by ABC. A Presidents' Day doubleheader on February 19 is also scheduled on ESPN this season. Under the "NHL Power Play on ESPN+" branding, the streaming service will also stream ABC games, selected ESPN games, as well out-of-market games.

WBD's regular season coverage is primary on TNT. TBS, truTV, and HLN would be used as overflow channels. TNT has games on Wednesday nights throughout the season, along with the Thanksgiving Showdown on November 24, Winter Classic, and selected Sunday games between late February and near the end of the regular season in mid-April. This season's Heritage Classic instead aired on TBS due to TNT's soccer coverage of U.S. women's national soccer team. Not all of TNT's regular season games are exclusive broadcasts, and are thus subject to blackout in local markets. Warner Bros. Discovery invoked its over-the-top streaming rights for Max, adding live sports telecasts from WBD channels; these broadcasts will be available at no additional charge until February 2024, after which viewers must subscribe to the Bleacher Report Sports add-on.

NHL Network continues to also nationally televise selected regular season games, including Saturday and Sunday afternoon games as part of the ''NHL Network Showcase'' series.

Local

The Washington Capitals' broadcaster NBC Sports Washington rebranded as Monumental Sports Network prior to the start of the season. In September 2022, Ted Leonsis's Monumental Sports & Entertainment bought out NBCUniversal's ownership stake in the channel.

=Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy

=

The 12 NHL teams who had deals with the Bally Sports regional sports networks may be affected by its operator Diamond Sports Group's March 14, 2023 decision to file for bankruptcy. Diamond plans to continue broadcasting regional games while it seeks to separate from majority parent Sinclair Broadcast Group as part of the reorganization. However, if the reorganization continues into mid-to-late September, the NHL may seek an emergency motion asking the bankruptcy judge to order Diamond to pay the teams on time, or give the media rights back to the league. This would be similar to the emergency motion Major League Baseball filed for its teams in April at the start of its season.

The Los Angeles Kings renewed their contract with Bally Sports West despite Diamond's bankruptcy. The Kings also reached an agreement with KCAL-TV for the rights to six games and select half-hour specials.

On October 4, 2023, Diamond announced that it intended to reject its Bally Sports Arizona contract with the Arizona Coyotes. The next day, the Coyotes announced a new television agreement with the E. W. Scripps Company's sports division Scripps Sports, under which it will carry games on a subchannel of its Phoenix broadcast station and ABC affiliate KNXV-TV, and syndicate them to sister stations in the team's broadcast territory, including KGUN-TV in Tucson, Arizona, and KUPX-TV and KSTU-DT2 in Salt Lake City. The Coyotes will air non-game programs on KNXV and sister The CW affiliate KASW. With Bally Sports Arizona already previously losing airing rights to the Phoenix Suns to Gray Television and the Arizona Diamondbacks to the MLB itself earlier in the year, they decided to wind down services for the rest of the month before concluding on October 21, 2023.

=AT&T SportsNet closure

=
In February 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it was winding down its AT&T SportsNet regional sports network business, affecting the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Vegas Golden Knights' broadcasters, AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh and AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, respectively. The Seattle Kraken's deal with Root Sports Northwest was not affected because Warner Bros. Discovery only has minority control of that network.

On May 4, 2023, the Golden Knights signed a multi-year agreement with Scripps Sports to start airing games on Scripps' Las Vegas broadcast station KMCC, and syndicate the telecasts to other stations across the team's broadcast territory; both KMCC and Salt Lake City's KUPX-TV were converted from Ion Television stations to independents to accommodate the team's broadcasts, along with Scripps's Montana Television Network, whose second digital subchannels previously carried The CW.

On August 30, 2023, the Penguins announced that they would acquire AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, which rebranded on October 2 as SportsNet Pittsburgh. The channel is operated by NESN—the regional broadcaster of the Boston Bruins—which is majority-owned by the Penguins' parent company Fenway Sports Group.

Personnel

ESPN studio analyst Chris Chelios, who served in the role for two seasons, left the network as part of its June 2023 cost-cutting measures. In October, studio analyst Barry Melrose resigned after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

TNT color commentator Keith Jones left the network to become president of hockey operations with the Philadelphia Flyers. Prior to joining the Flyers' front office, Jones also worked as the team's TV color analyst for 23 seasons, while also working as a studio and game analyst with NBC and later TNT. To replace Jones, TNT hired Brian Boucher away from ESPN, serving the same role as he previously had with the latter network. Boucher also replaced Jones as a primary analyst on the Flyers' television broadcasts.

The Chicago Blackhawks hired Darren Pang to be their lead TV color commentator. Pang, who spent 14 years in the same role with the St. Louis Blues and is also a color commentator on TNT, replaces both Colby Cohen, whose contract with the team was not renewed and Patrick Sharp, who left to also join the Flyers front office, along with Keith Jones. The Blues replaced Pang with Jamie Rivers, who had been the backup color commentator whenever Pang worked for TNT prior to the announcement.

The Los Angeles Kings plan to start using TV/radio simulcasts, keeping radio announcers Nick Nickson and Daryl Evans, and TV analyst Jim Fox. However, they did not renew the TV play-by-play announcer Alex Faust's contract.

The Pittsburgh Penguins' play-by-play announcers swapped roles, with Josh Getzoff moving from radio to TV, and Steve Mears moving from TV to radio. However, the team let go Bob Errey, their TV color commentator. To replace him, a rotation of Colby Armstrong, Mike Rupp, and Phil Bourque, who also provides color commentary on radio, is used.

The Seattle Kraken hired Al Kinisky as their radio analyst, replacing Dave Tomlinson, who moved to the Vancouver Canucks television booth.

Columbus Blue Jackets TV play-by-play announcer Jeff Rimer announced his retirement at the end of this season. Rimer, the TV voice of the Blue Jackets starting in the 2005–06 season, also had stints with the Washington Capitals and the Florida Panthers.

See also

*2023–24 NHL transactions
*2023–24 NHL suspensions and fines
*List of 2023–24 NHL Three Star Awards
*2023 in sports
*2024 in sports

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2023-24 NHL season
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National Hockey League seasons
2023–24 in American ice hockey by league
2023–24 in Canadian ice hockey by league
NHL