It remains a work in progress, but as teams continue to talk to the NHL about next season, the schedule is beginning to take shape.
Tentatively, we are looking at an Oct. 7 regular season start and the Stanley Cup Final, if it goes the distance, ending around June 21-22 or so.
Because of the Olympic break, which will be longer than the 4 Nations break was, teams have already been warned to expect even more back-to-backs and sets of three games in four nights. It will be congested, and there’s not much anyone can do about that, especially with an All-Star Game on top of the Olympics.
The schedule release is expected sometime in June, but might wait until July.
But where the makeup of the NHL schedule matrix gets really interesting is 2026-27, when there will be a new CBA extension. There are lots of ideas being thrown around right now, and there could be some major changes.
The NHL and NHL Players’ Association could agree, as mentioned previously, to go to an 84-game season and shorten the preseason. One new idea being discussed is starting the regular season earlier — sometime in late September — and still ending the Stanley Cup Final around the same time in late June.
So in other words, they’d extend the calendar on the regular season to create a schedule that’s not quite as jam-packed and also takes into account best-on-best hockey breaks every two seasons for the Olympics and World Cups, as well as accommodating 84 games.
The idea that was discussed by the league and NHLPA last year of ending the season two weeks earlier — around June 10 — appears to be dead (sad face from me). Looks like we’re stuck with late June hockey going forward. Even with the regular season potentially starting in late September, the playoffs would still need to go into late June under this proposal. It’s quite a change in terms of the overall calendar, that’s for sure. If it happens.
Also on the table in discussions about the schedule matrix is whether to change the formula so that teams don’t necessarily have to play at least one game in each NHL arena every season. There are some teams pushing for more divisional and rivalry games. Having said that, some teams won’t want to go two years without seeing Connor McDavid in their building or a strong-drawing team like the New York Rangers or Toronto Maple Leafs or Montreal Canadiens, so, not surprisingly finding unanimity has not been easy in these discussions with teams, which has been an issue forever.
The bottom line is, while next season will be more of the same, it sure sounds like a lot of potential changes are being discussed for 2026-27.
Could the NHL cancel next year’s All-Star Game?
This is another idea being discussed.
It is probably not very likely since the NHL already announced in February 2024 that the New York Islanders were hosting the All-Star Game in 2025-26, which would be held right before the Winter Olympics next February.
It would be the first time the NHL has held an All-Star game in a participating Olympic year since 2002, in Los Angeles ahead of the Salt Lake City Games. The NHL didn’t have an All-Star Game ahead of the 2006, 2010 or 2014 Olympics, which NHL players participated in. And, well, that made sense.
The league thought All-Star ’26 would be a nice send-off, if you will, for the game’s top players before they played in the Milan Olympics.
However, after the tremendous success of last month’s 4 Nations Face-Off, there have been talks behind the scenes about changing course. Some are concerned about holding an All-Star Game which would obviously look like a dog’s breakfast compared to the best-on-best 4 Nations and Olympics. Should the league just scrap the All-Star festivities in Olympic years? (Answer from most every hockey fan alive: Yes!)
Again, it’s probably too hard to do that now that the league has announced All-Star plans for next season and the Islanders are promoting the event with season-ticket holders. But all I can say is that it’s a legitimate question being raised.
Do extensions get done for Palmieri, Donato?
Pending UFA forwards Ryan Donato and Kyle Palmieri were two prominent members of The Athletic’s NHL trade board who ended up staying put on non-playoff teams.
Each team opened contract talks with the player that day. Things have progressed in the Islanders’ talks with Palmieri over the past week, with the sides closing in on an extension while still quibbling over term. There’s no rush to announce anything, but it sure sounds like Palmieri will eventually get extended.
As for Donato and the Chicago Blackhawks, while there was a lot of back and forth on deadline day on what an extension could look like, there hasn’t been much talk since; They’re taking a breather on it, and the expectation is they will pick it up again in the not too distant future. There is lots of time before July 1. But that one still has more ground to cover in terms of getting something done.
And finally … the playoff format
I’m off to the NHL GMs meetings Sunday, which run Monday to Wednesday in Palm Beach, Florida.
One topic that will not be on the agenda at the GMs meeting? Playoff format. Why? Because that’s a Board of Governors (owners) matter, not a GMs matter. But also because commissioner Gary Bettman has been against the idea of tweaking the playoff format every time I’ve asked him over the past several years.
But I will share this: It is remarkable how many people from around the hockey world reached out to me after my piece this week on a possible Colorado Avalanche-Dallas Stars first-round matchup, and they’re essentially saying in unison: “This is proof yet again the playoff format needs to change!”
There are two things I would do: 1) Go back to the old 1-versus-8 conference-playoffs format. And 2) Add a play-in round.
I know that second one isn’t appealing to a lot of hockey fans, but it very much is of interest to many NHL owners and executives. Let me be clear, I don’t want to expand the 16-team playoff field, but I’m in favor of adding a best-of-three round involving 7 versus 10 and 8 versus 9 in each conference to get into the traditional 16-team field.
The league has gone from 21 teams to 32 teams over the past three decades. The chance to get into a play-in would draw more markets into it in the final quarter of the season, which is more exposure for the league.
A potential drawback is having fewer sellers at the trade deadline because more teams could feel they’ve got a shot at 10th place in their conference.
And I guess I would say this when it comes to actually convincing the commissioner to make any of these things: First, it would take U.S. rights-holders, ESPN and TNT, which carry a lot of sway, to tell the commissioner they’re in favor of some of this.
Second, Bettman may be ready to step down at some point over the next few years, so perhaps the new boss would be more receptive to playoff format changes.
INSIDER TRADING…
– NHL clubs seek clarity on CHL, NCAA signing windows
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– Do extensions get done for Palmieri, Donato?MORE: https://t.co/jkLtpMmHm2 pic.twitter.com/hTVOBm5epY
— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) March 13, 2025
(Top photo of Gary Bettman: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
