The NHL is considering making a big scheduling change in time for the 2026-27 season.

We already know that this upcoming season will be the last 82-game schedule for the league, with the new CBA upping the amount of regular-season matches to 84 beginning next year.

To accommodate the longer schedule, the league plans on shortening both training camp and preseason schedules. That means that we could see the NHL start playing regular-season games in September, rather than the usual early October.

Bill Daly, the NHL’s Deputy Commissioner, confirmed that the league was pondering a September start in the latest edition of the 32 Thoughts Podcast with Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas.

“Are we looking at the possibility of maybe a September start?” Friedman asked.

“We are,” Daly responded, making sure not to give out too much information.

Friedman continued to press Daly on when exactly that could come into effect. When he asked about the possibility of it coming in 2026-27, he received no answer, but did note that Daly seemed to be giving a sly smile in response.

That seems to indicate that the league may be planning on doing this as soon as next season.

This might not seem like a big change, but it could mark just the second time in the NHL’s 107-year history that the league started the regular season in September. The only other time that has happened was back in 2007-08 when the season began on September 29th, and that was the result of two overseas games being hosted in London, England.

Since 1942-43, just four seasons have started outside of October. That includes the one season that began in September and three others that started in January, thanks to two lockouts and a delayed season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This potential change will excite many hockey fans, as this will mean that hockey returns a bit sooner than usual. There has been angst in recent years that NHL teams play in too many preseason games, which some argue causes unnecessarily high injury risks to players as they play in mostly meaningless games.

For this upcoming season, the preseason will span from September 20 to October 4, with a total of 104 games being played across the league in 40 different locations.

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