Before next week’s General Managers Meeting in Palm Beach, FL, The Athletics’ Pierre LeBrun shared a few updates regarding the ongoing Collective Bargaining negotiations and additional notes, in his recurring writeup, NHL Rumblings.
According to LeBrun, next season’s schedule has been tentatively agreed upon. Similarly to this year, next year’s start date will likely be October 7th, and the Stanley Cup Final will likely run to the third week of June. The final schedule may deviate a few days, but we’ll have a clear answer when it’s officially released in July.
Of course, the major scheduling issue is the upcoming XXV Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The 2026 Winter Olympics is expected to have a longer break for NHL players than the most recent 4 Nations Faceoff tournament, which took place between February 12 and February 20. Factoring in the 2026 NHL All-Star Game at UBS Arena, the NHL may have an approximate three-week break for the players.
LeBrun mentioned that commissioner Gary Bettman has already told teams there will be more back-to-back contests next year and a more packed schedule. Since the current iteration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires before the 2026-27 season, the NHL and the NHLPA will look to amend the schedule then.
That’s the primary problem LeBrun wrote about. He shared that serious discussions are being had about shortening the preseason and expanding the regular season to 84 games. That would move the regular season start date to the last week of September while keeping the Stanley Cup Final around the same time.
Extending the calendar by a week or two would lower the saturation of regular-season games over a seven-month schedule. It also accounts for the expected Olympic Games and World Cup tournaments every two years.
Another change to the schedule being discussed is removing the requirement of playing at least one game in every NHL arena per season. According to LeBrun, this idea doesn’t have much momentum or support, given that some teams financially benefit from Connor McDavid coming to their stadiums or heavily followed teams such as the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Lastly, LeBrun shared that there are ongoing negotiations regarding the potential removal of the NHL All-Star Game. It wouldn’t come soon, if ever, because the league already has one scheduled for next season. From LeBrun’s write-up, it appears the Board of Governors would like it to stay, but questions are being raised.
Every team has to visit every team. That would be a very dumb decision to take that away.
Mm. Especially with tournament this and tournament that, the All-Star Game may have run its course.
I like the idea of starting the season earlier. Why kill teams with a compacted schedule if you don’t have to.
1. TRY to even out the tax advantage in the salary cap.
Gary has no incentive to fix this because the no/low tax states are the ones without much hockey history, so he’s happy to give them a leg up to keep the markets viable. But, it undercuts the point of the cap system.
I’m not going to do the math but you can get a rough computation of the different tax burdens by market and tweak each teams’ cap limit. Nothing crazy, but if players will sign in Miami for less money than Montreal because of the tax difference, then the Habs should be able to spend a bit more AAV than the Panthers, etc. Some places are easy (in PA, it’s a flat rate, for ex.) others are harder but it doesn’t have to be perfect, just try to level the playing field a bit.
2. Fix the offsides review.
There is literally no reason to wipe out 98 or 99% of the goals that get overturned by this rule. That millimeter or millisecond gained ZERO competitive advantage. The point of the rule is to wipe out the egregious offsides goal like Duchene and Briere.
There is a VERY simple fix. Only use full speed reviews, no slow motion. Without slow motion, the ticky tacky reviews will not succeed and if they won’t succeed, coaches won’t use them. But, in extreme cases that were way offsides, that can be seen in a full speed replay and overturned.
3. No more goals off of skates.
I might be on an island with this one, but I would disallow ANY goal that goes in off of an offensive players skates. Period. The current rule is a joke. Guys are punting it in and the refs are like “no DISTINCT kicking motion”. Goals that go in off skates aren’t fun. They aren’t fair to the goalie to defend. As smart as Sid is for angling both skate blades and his stick towards the net off the far post, what is the goalie supposed to? It’s not hockey. It’s just “goal creep” from a league desperate for offense.
4. End the college UFA loophole.
It makes no sense that NHL teams have junior and European players by the…sack…but college guys can just glide to UFA status. It defeats the point of the draft. Teams should own players rights one year after their final junior or college game.
5. No more ASG. We can’t go back to that farce again. At the very least, stop using them as mindless filler for NHL Network. Thousands of great old games they could play, but no…show us a lifeless 3 on 3 joke we didn’t want to see the first time.
6. Every team plays every team, home and away. That should be the starting point of every schedule.
7. Get rid of the playoff brackets and bring back 1-8 seeding. It’s SO stupid to know the first round matchups 2 or 3 months out. The same teams year after year is boring.
(nods) I have to think that most of the Toronto fans are giving thanks to whatever gods they worship that there’s little to no chance they have to face the Bruins in the playoffs.
Urinating Tree’s video of their most recent collapse is an all-time classic.