When Does the 2026-27 NHL Season Start and End?

The 2026-27 NHL regular season starts Tuesday, September 29, 2026, and ends Saturday, April 10, 2027. Those are the official regular-season dates announced by the NHL. Training camps and exhibition games begin earlier, while the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue after the April 10 finale.

Last updated July 27, 2026. The full regular-season schedule is available now, but some later details—especially the complete playoff calendar and game-by-game national broadcast assignments—will be confirmed separately.

2026-27 NHL season dates at a glance

“When does the NHL season start?” can mean several different things. A player reports for camp before fans see a preseason game, and the first meaningful standings points are not awarded until opening night. This timeline separates those stages.

Season stage	2026-27 timing	What the date means
Training camp	Begins in September; date varies by club	Players practice and compete for roster places
Preseason	Primarily late September	Exhibition games that do not count in the standings
Regular-season opener	September 29, 2026	The first games that count toward the 2026-27 standings
Regular-season finale	April 10, 2027	All 32 teams complete their regular-season schedules
Stanley Cup Playoffs	After the regular season	Exact round-by-round schedule is announced separately

Regular-season opening night

The NHL’s official schedule announcement sets opening night for September 29. Five games are scheduled that Tuesday, led by Carolina raising its championship banner before hosting Florida. Montreal visits Toronto, the Rangers visit Boston, Vancouver plays at Edmonton, and Chicago visits Vegas.

That rare September opening is the date to use for countdowns, fantasy roster deadlines tied to opening week, and regular-season ticket planning. For individual start times and any revisions, use the complete 2026-27 NHL schedule instead of relying on an old screenshot.

Regular-season finale

The regular season closes on April 10 with all 32 teams in action. That produces a 16-game Saturday and gives every club the same final date, although teams will arrive there with different rest patterns. It is also a likely high-impact day for playoff qualification, seeding and tiebreakers.

April 10 is not the end of the broader NHL calendar. Qualifying teams continue into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the final playoff game takes place weeks later. If you are booking travel around a possible first-round series, wait for the NHL and clubs to confirm playoff dates rather than treating an estimated date as a ticket guarantee.

What happens before the regular season starts?

Players return before September 29 for medical checks, training camp and preseason games. Those dates vary by team. For example, Philadelphia announced a September 17 training-camp opening and preseason games from September 21 through September 26, while Edmonton’s exhibition slate runs from September 19 through September 26.

The shortened window is important in 2026-27. Under the new collective bargaining agreement, an NHL team may play no more than four preseason games. Those exhibitions help coaches evaluate prospects, test line combinations and prepare regulars, but the results do not create standings points and are not part of each club’s 84-game total.

For that reason, two different answers can both sound reasonable in casual conversation: hockey activity returns in mid-to-late September, but the official regular season begins September 29. Check a club’s official site for its training-camp and exhibition details because the leaguewide regular-season page is not a substitute for team-specific preseason information.

How long is the 2026-27 NHL regular season?

The NHL describes the schedule as a 194-day span containing 185 game days. Each club plays 84 games during that window: 42 at home and 42 on the road. Across all 32 teams, that creates a league-record 1,344 regular-season games.

The calendar is long, but no team plays every day. Travel, recovery days, arena availability, holiday pauses and league events create uneven stretches. A club may have a busy four-game week followed by a lighter period, so the two boundary dates alone cannot tell you when your team is home.

For planning away from a screen, the site’s printable NHL schedules provide a team-by-team reference. If you want updates in a digital calendar, use the NHL calendar tools and choose the full league or one club.

Key dates and breaks during the season

The opening and closing dates frame the season, but several pauses and showcase events affect travel and viewing plans:

• October 25: Montreal visits Winnipeg for the 2026 Heritage Classic.
• November 12 and 14: Carolina and Seattle play NHL Global Series games in Helsinki, Finland.
• December 18 and 20: Ottawa and Chicago meet in Düsseldorf, Germany.
• December 23-25: no regular-season games are scheduled during the holiday break. Games return on Boxing Day.
• December 31: Colorado visits Utah for the Winter Classic in Salt Lake City.
• February 4-7: the regular-season schedule pauses around All-Star events. Skills are set for February 5 and the All-Star Game for February 6 at UBS Arena.
• February 20: Dallas hosts Vegas in the Stadium Series at AT&T Stadium.

The NHL also identified November 20 and November 26 as dates without regular-season games. These leaguewide gaps do not mean every team otherwise plays daily; they simply help explain how the 185 game days fit inside the 194-day calendar.

How to plan around the season dates

Start with September 29 and April 10, then narrow your plan by the task you need to complete:

1. Use the full schedule to identify your team’s home dates, road trips and rivalry games.
2. Check today’s NHL games near game day for the latest daily slate.
3. Use this week’s NHL schedule to compare short-term rest and travel.
4. Print or subscribe only after choosing the correct team and time-zone view.
5. Recheck the official game listing before leaving for the arena because start times and broadcast assignments can change.

If your question is about when the schedule itself became available, the separate guide to the 2026-27 NHL schedule release explains the July 16 announcement and the move to 84 games.

Frequently asked questions

Does the NHL season start with preseason?

Preseason is the first set of NHL exhibition games, but it is not the start of the regular season. The 2026-27 regular season officially begins on September 29, 2026, and preseason results do not count in the standings.

When do the 2027 NHL Playoffs start?

The regular season ends April 10, 2027, and the playoffs follow. As of July 27, 2026, fans should wait for the NHL’s complete playoff schedule before treating a specific first-round date or time as final.

How many games does each team play in 2026-27?

Each team plays 84 regular-season games, evenly divided into 42 home and 42 road games. Preseason and playoff games are additional and are not included in that number.

Why does the 2026-27 season start in September?

The expanded 84-game schedule fits inside a 194-day regular-season window beginning September 29. It is only the second NHL regular season to include games in September, after the 2007-08 season opened overseas.

Cover photo by Adam Bishop, CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped and converted to WebP.