The NHL’s regular season schedule will expand from 82 to 84 games during the 2026-2027 season, and as such, MLive’s Ansar Khan looks back to Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s post-free agency press conference to get the GM’s take on the situation:
The NHL’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement that goes into effect in September 2026 features a couple of slight alterations in the schedule. The regular season will increase from 82 games to 84 games and the season will start in September instead of early October.
“It (84-game schedule) should allow us to start the season earlier so we’re not extending the overall schedule,” Daly told Friedman and Bukauskas. “The 2026–27 season may be shorter (in days). We’ll see how that plays out.”
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman said last month that an 84-game season “makes perfect sense.”
“I think it’ll give more balance to divisional games,” Yzerman said. “I’m not exactly sure what the matrix is going to be as far as divisional games and whatnot, but it seemed to make sense to us.”
Where GM SY isn’t so sold is upon the concept that teams will play only 4 preseason games instead of 6 to 8:
“I think the four preseason games … it’s a bit of a challenge,” Yzerman said. “You’re always weighing how many games your veteran players need to play. The guys that are really knocking on the door, the guys that you can consider call-ups and then those players that are here trying to push to make the team. It’s going to be hard to get everybody in a reasonable number of games with four. That’s the downside to it, but we’ll manage it.”
Less is more, but the NHL only cares about $$$ these days so this move doesn’t surprise me. I also can’t believe they are talking about more expansion. The mighty NFL hasn’t expanded since 2002 and yet the NHL thinks 34 or even 36 teams makes sense?! Unreal.
The only good thing to come out of this is starting the season in September.