The 2026-27 NHL season is officially here and with it comes a big change to the format hockey fans have become familiar with.
Not only is the 2026-27 season starting earlier than before — late September compared to early October — the NHL now has moved to 84-game seasons after recent changes to the league's collective bargaining agreement. Gone are a slew of unnecessary preseason games that dragged on training camp, as NHL teams had only four or five games to tune things up ahead of the regular season. In return, we increase from an 82-game season to an 84-game season.
This isn't the first time the NHL has gone to 84-game regular seasons. Back in 1992, the NHL introduced 84-game regular seasons for just two years before the partial lockout in 1994–95
knocked the league's number of games down once more. This return to 84-game regular seasons is just the second time it's happened in NHL history, with the current CBA set to keep this number of games until at least 2030.
As a result, there will be a record 1,344 games of regular season NHL hockey played this season. More hockey for everyone!
This article originally appeared on For The Win: How many games are in the NHL season for 2026-27?
