NEW YORK — The NHL is going to an 84-game regular season for the first time since 1994 and just the second time in its 109-year history, adding two games for each of its 32 teams as part of the collective bargaining agreement in place through 2030. Business has been booming for several years, with the salary cap skyrocketing and attendance reaching new heights in packed arenas, and the league will now stage a record 1,344 regular-season games — more than the 1,008 in 1992-93 and 1,092 in 1993-94 when there were fewer teams.
"That will power some of our growth," Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said. "That uplift is very subtle. People aren't realizing it, but that's an organic way to grow." The change meant shorter training camps and fewer exhibition games, and it could have an effect on everything from goaltending tandems to stats and records. "Eighty-four games is a long, long road," said ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro, who was a player the last two times the schedule was this long. "I'm just interested to see what the new rhythm of the season will be like."
The Sept. 29 opening night is the soonest play is getting underway in North America and matches the earliest start date on the calendar worldwide from when Los Angeles and Anaheim took the ice in London in 2007. The season started Oct. 7 each of the past two years and Oct. 10 in 2023. "I'm excited that we're starting early," Boston winger David Pastrnak said. "That's probably the biggest change or thing that I'm excited about is that you don't have to wait until Oct. 10, 11 when you're already in the town the whole September." The 1,344 games are spread over a 194-day span before every team plays its finale on April 10 ahead of the playoffs, and with the exception of the holiday break for Christmas and the All-Star break in early February, there are only two days without at least one game on the schedule. Pittsburgh has the most back-to-back sets with 15, while Vegas and Calgary are tied for the fewest with eight each. "There's going be more time in between games," Tampa Bay's Jake Guentzel said. "I think last year it was kind of condensed with the Olympic schedule, so I think the spread-out of games will help. ... You just got to take care of your bodies (because) it's obviously a war of attrition."
Rod Brind'Amour, coach of defending champion Carolina, made headlines by saying he'd rather go to 86 games and eliminate the preseason altogether because it lacks value for fans. The way the NHL Players' Association sees it, limiting the exhibition schedule to two games for anyone with 100-plus games of experience more than makes up for extending the regular season. "The thought behind it is the workload is the same, if not a little less," said NHLPA assistant executive director Ron Hainsey, who played 17 seasons from 2002-20. "Those exhibition games sometimes are more difficult than a regular-season game. You're out there with players, not necessarily NHL players, and things get a little haywire. Whereas, there's a lot of reasons that if you just flip two exhibition into two regular season games, it's a good thing." Gone are the days when a goaltender would play in nearly every game — Grant Fuhr's single-season record of 79 appearances in 1996-97 is safe, and the last time a goalie surpassed 70 was Cam Talbot's 73 in 2016-17. Utah's Karel Vejmelka started 63 games last season and played in 64, as the NHL has become much more of a rotation in the crease.
Alex Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's career goals record of 894 in April 2025 and now returns for a 22nd season sitting on 929, with a couple of extra chances to put the mark further out of reach. "He knows how to score goals," said Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby, who holds the record for the most point-a-game seasons with 21. "You don't lose that. Maybe as you get older, you might have to adjust a little bit, but his shot is his shot and that's not going anywhere." Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov and Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon have combined for the 11 highest-scoring seasons among active players, and with two extra games any of them — plus San Jose's Macklin Celebrini — could set career highs and maybe even top McDavid's 153 points that are the most since the salary cap era began in 2005. The NHL record is 215 points set by Wayne Gretzky in 1985-86.
The idea in the early 1990s was to grow the game by playing real games in non-NHL cities, so every team played a pair of neutral-site games in Atlanta; Cincinnati; Dallas; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Hamilton, Ontario; Indianapolis; Miami; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; Oklahoma City; Orlando, Florida; Peoria, Illinois; Phoenix; Providence, Rhode Island; Richfield, Ohio; Sacramento or Saskatoon, Saskatchewan — a few of those cities now have NHL teams. In 1992-93, the first season with 84 games, there were 24 teams. In 1993-94, Gretzky led all scorers with 130 points while Pavel Bure scored the most goals with 60, the New York Rangers had the best regular season and won the Stanley Cup to end their 54-year drought, Mario Lemieux's Penguins won the Presidents' Trophy in '92-93 but were knocked out in the second round, and the Montreal Canadiens hoisted the Cup that spring and remain the last team based in Canada to do so.