The NHL is beginning to piece together the framework of extending its seasons to 84 games beginning in 2026-27 while general managers and coaches are meeting this week in Detroit, as first reported by Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic on Wednesday.
The expanded schedule will feature two more regular-season games while cutting the preseason slate down. Opening night will come in late September rather than the first or second week of October, while the Stanley Cup will be awarded in mid-June, potentially two weeks earlier than usual. For example, the Florida Panthers took Game 7 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final on June 24.
An increased regular-season schedule was tentatively agreed upon just days after the Stanley Cup Final as a part of a broader extension of the collective bargaining agreement that will ensure labor peace through 2030. The NHL and players’ union (NHLPA) began negotiations during the spring after briefly coming together during the 4 Nations Face-Off in February to guarantee that the World Cup of Hockey will return in 2028.
Each team’s two extra games are expected to come against divisional opponents, which would guarantee that rivals such as the New York Islanders and Rangers are guaranteed four meetings per season.
This will be the second time in NHL history that an 84-game season is being established. The league experimented with that number of games for the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons, with every team adding two neutral-site games to their slate.
Any momentum to continue was snuffed out during the 1994-95 NHL lockout, which shortened the season to 48 games. League seasons have been 82 games since.
