2025-26 NHL regular season to begin on Oct. 7

The NHL will drop the puck on the 2025-26 regular season on Oct. 7, 2025, the league announced on Wednesday. 

Speaking at the general managers’ meeting in West Palm Beach, Fla., NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced the upcoming season’s start date while addressing other key points, such as the future of the NHL All-Star Game and upcoming CBA negotiations with the NHLPA. 

Oct. 7 marks a later start than the Oct. 4 puck drop of 2024-25 and is the same date the league began the 2022-23 season. In 2024-25, the season started in Europe, as the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres played two games at O2 Arena in Prague, Czechia,  before eventually hitting the ice in North America on Oct. 8. 

While the NHL announced Euro Series games in the early stages of the 2025-26 regular season, they will happen on Nov. 14 and 16 between the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins in Stockholm, Sweden, with both teams likely to start their season in North America. 

The NHL will announce the full schedule for the 2025-26 season at a later date. Ahead of the 2024-25 campaign, the league released their regular season dates on July 2. 

Historically, the earliest start to an 82-game regular season schedule was Sept. 29, to kick off the 2007-08 season, while the latest start was Oct. 12 in 2016-17 and 2021-22. 

The NHL will also feature an Olympic break in the 2025-26 season for the first time since 2013-14,  with the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic men’s hockey tournament set to be played from Feb. 11-22. 

The current 2024-25 regular season will wrap up on April 17, with the Calgary Flames visiting the LA Kings in the final matchup before the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

As of March 18, the Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets lead their respective conferences, each with 98 points, with the Capitals having 14 games remaining compared to the Jets’ 13.