2025–26 NHL Season

The 2025–26 NHL season is the upcoming 109th season of operation (108th season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). The regular season is scheduled to begin on October 7, 2025. A mid-season break will take place in February due to the NHL's participation in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. The Stanley Cup playoffs are then planned to begin in April 2026, ending with the Stanley Cup Finals in June. After playing the previous season under its temporary identity, the Utah Hockey Club was renamed the Utah Mammoth in the off-season.

League business

Collective bargaining agreement

The 2020 extension of the 2013 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is set to expire at the end of the 2025–26 NHL season.

Entry draft

The 2025 NHL entry draft is scheduled for June 27–28, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

Utah rebranding

After opting to play the 2024–25 season with a temporary identity, the Utah Hockey Club announced on January 29, 2025, that fans attending their following four home games in late January and early February could vote for a permanent identity for the club, with the final three options being the existing Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth, and Utah Wasatch. While the Wasatch name was not one of the six finalists, it was intended to honor the idea of a mythical snow creature similar to the yeti, with a "Utah-centric" approach inspired by the Wasatch Mountains; though originally considered a likely name, "Yeti" or "Yetis" had been ruled out as a choice following trademark disputes with Yeti Holdings. One day later, on January 30, the team announced that "Wasatch" was being removed from the survey, being replaced by previously announced option "Utah Outlaws".

On April 30, 2025, speculation arose that "Mammoth" was the selected name following leaks online that showed the team changing its YouTube handle to "UtahMammoth." This speculation was confirmed on May 7, 2025, when the team officially revealed their permanent name as the "Utah Mammoth." A new logo and uniforms were revealed as well, retaining the same color scheme.

Coaching changes

(*) Indicates interim

Front office changes

(*) Indicates interim

Arena changes

* The Wells Fargo Center, the home of the Philadelphia Flyers, will be renamed to Xfinity Mobile Arena on September 1, 2025, under a new naming rights deal with Xfinity.
* The Xcel Energy Center, the home of the Minnesota Wild, will be renamed prior to the season. Xcel Energy will remain a partner of the team.
* This is the final year on the original 30-year lease on KeyBank Center, the home of the Buffalo Sabres. Erie County, the entity responsible for the lease, announced it would not renew its lease once it expires, and the nominal owner, the city of Buffalo, indicated an inability to afford keeping the arena open. In a statement to the press, Sabres chief operating officer Pete Guelli insisted that the team did not intend to relocate.

Regular season

The regular season is planned to be held from October 7, 2025, to April 2026, with all specific dates and start times to be announced on July 16, 2025.

International games

The Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins are scheduled to play against each other on November 14 and 16, 2025, at Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

Outdoor games

The league has scheduled two outdoor games this season, both planned to be held in Florida:
* The 2026 Winter Classic is scheduled for January 2, 2026, at LoanDepot Park in Miami, with the Florida Panthers hosting the New York Rangers.
* The 2026 Stadium Series is scheduled for February 1, 2026, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, with the Tampa Bay Lightning hosting the Boston Bruins.

Canceled All-Star Game and Olympics break

The 2026 All-Star Game was planned to be held in early February 2026, at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, the home of the New York Islanders. The league intended to use the game as a "send-off" for the league's players participation at the 2026 Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, with players who would have competed in both leaving directly from New York to Italy. This is scheduled to be the first time that the league participated in the Olympics since 2014, and it would have been the first time the All-Star Game was held in the same year as Olympic participation since 2002. However, the league announced on April 30, 2025, that the game had been canceled, with UBS Arena instead hosting an unspecified Olympic kickoff event.

Uniforms

* The Boston Bruins unveiled a new logo and uniforms.
* The Columbus Blue Jackets unveiled a logo to commemorate their 25th season.
* The Minnesota Wild unveiled a logo to commemorate their 25th season.
* The New York Rangers unveiled a centennial logo to commemorate their 100th year.
* The St. Louis Blues unveiled a new logo and uniforms, based on uniforms used in the 2017 and 2022 NHL Winter Classic games.
* The Utah Mammoth will be debuting their first jersey set since rebranding from the Utah Hockey Club.

Media rights

Canada

National

This will be the 12th and final season of the Canadian national broadcast rights deal with Sportsnet, before a new 12-year contract begins in 2026–27. The original deal expiring this 2025–26 season includes Sportsnet's sub-licensing agreements to air Saturday ''Hockey Night in Canada'' games on CBC Television, French-language broadcasts on TVA Sports, and the final year of Amazon Prime Video's two-year streaming deal.

;Linear television
* Saturday ''Hockey Night in Canada'' games air on CBC, one or more of the four Sportsnet feeds, Sportsnet One, Sportsnet 360, or Citytv. Decisions on network assignments are made on a week-by-week basis, and select games may simulcast on multiple networks.
* Sportsnet airs ''Wednesday Night Hockey'', the Winter Classic, Stadium Series, and All-Star Game.
* TVA Sports' schedule includes Saturday '' La super soirée LNH'' () games, as well as French-language broadcasts of the Winter Classic, Stadium Series, All-Star Game, among others.

;Streaming
* Sportsnet+ will stream games depending on tier, with national games available on the Standard level, out-of-market games on the Premium tier, and via authenticated streaming on participating teams.
* This will be the final season of a two-year sub-license for Amazon Prime Video to stream ''Monday Night Hockey''.

United States

National

This will be the fifth season of the league's seven-year U.S. national broadcast rights deals with the ESPN family of networks and TNT Sports.

;Linear television
* ESPN broadcasts opening night games and then select Tuesday and Thursday–Sunday night games throughout the rest of the season. ABC's schedule includes ''Hockey Saturday'' on select weekends between January and April. Games may also air on ESPN2. ESPN and ABC has the All-Star skills competition and the All-Star Game, respectively. The ESPN networks also have the rights to the Stadium Series. As per the rotation, ABC holds the rights to the Stanley Cup Finals this season.
* TNT has games on Wednesday nights during the season, select Sunday games, the Thanksgiving Showdown, and the Winter Classic. Some of TNT's games may be simulcast on TruTV. Not all of TNT Sports' regular season games will be exclusive broadcasts and are thus subject to blackout in local markets.

;Streaming
* ESPN+ and Hulu exclusive streams games on select days throughout the season, mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. ESPN+ also streams all of ABC's games, selected ESPN's games, and the ''NHL Power Play on ESPN+'' out-of-market package. Disney+ may also stream select ESPN-produced games.
* HBO Max streams all TNT Sports-produced games.

Local

* The Tampa Bay Lightning announced an agreement with Scripps Sports to replace FanDuel Sports Network Sun as the team's local broadcast partner. WXPX-TV will serve as the flagship station for Lightning games. A DTC streaming option will also be available.

Personnel

* The Los Angeles Kings will have a new radio and TV play-by-play announcer following the retirement of Nick Nickson.
* The New York Rangers promoted radio play-by-play announcer Kenny Albert to replace Sam Rosen on the television booth. Alex Faust will serve as the backup announcer whenever Albert works national NHL games on TNT, NFL games on Fox, and New York Knicks games on MSG Network.
* The New York Islanders fired long-time radio announcers Chris King and Greg Picker. King had served as the radio play-by-play man since the 1998–99 season, with Picker becoming a radio analyst ahead of the 2013–14 season. It is unclear if the Islanders will continue to produce radio broadcasts using a simulcast of MSG Sportsnet with Brendan Burke and Butch Goring, or cease producing games on radio altogether.
* Toronto Maple Leafs announcer Joe Bowen announced his impending retirement after the season. Bowen began calling Maple Leafs games in the 1982–83 season mainly on radio, though he also called regional games on television from 1989 to 1995, and from 1998 to 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2025-26 NHL season
NHL seasons

NHL
NHL