{"id":720549,"date":"2026-06-23T05:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/720549\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T05:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:19:14","slug":"kings-announce-2026-preseason-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/720549\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings Announce 2026 Preseason Schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Monday, Insiders!<\/p>\n

As a part of the NHL\u2019s new collective bargaining agreement, the 2026 preseason schedule for the Kings will look different than it has in seasons past. The Kings will play four exhibition contests in a span of just eight days, tightening the training camp and preseason slate from what we\u2019ve seen in the past. The Kings will play four games against three teams \u2013 Vegas, Utah and Anaheim \u2013 and these games will likely feature more veterans than we\u2019ve seen in the past, with fewer games to get up to speed. <\/p>\n

As a result of the newly agreed upon CBA, the NHL\u2019s regular-season schedule will now consist of 84 games, two more than seasons past, and will start earlier. The Kings are expected to begin their regular-season schedule at the tail-end of September or perhaps the first couple days in October, which is a week earlier than we\u2019ve seen in the past. Last season, the Kings were a part of the league\u2019s season-opening set of games on October 7, with this season expected to begin even sooner. With that comes a reduced preseason schedule. In years past, the Kings would typically play 6-8 exhibition contests. Within those games were more opportunities for younger players to play at this level, however it also led to a training camp that was extremely stretched out, spanning closer to three weeks, where you often would get that \u201clet\u2019s get on with it already\u201d feeling. That will tighten up here with the newly negotiated CBA, which eliminates preseason fitness testing, lowers the exhibition schedule to four total games and cuts the overall duration of training camp down from what we\u2019ve seen in past years. <\/p>\n

With that in mind, here\u2019s what we\u2019re looking at for the 2026 preseason schedule \u2013<\/p>\n

Full Preseason Schedule
Saturday, September 19 \u2013 Kings vs. Golden Knights \u2013 6:00 PM (Toyota Arena in Ontario, CA)
Tuesday, September 22 \u2013 Kings vs. Mammoth \u2013 7:00 PM (Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA)
Wednesday, September 23 \u2013 Kings at Ducks \u2013 7:00 PM (Honda Center in Anaheim, CA)
Saturday, September 26 \u2013 Kings vs. Ducks \u2013 1:00 PM (Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA)
*All Start Times and Start Dates are listed in Pacific Time.<\/p>\n

The Kings will continue to play an exhibition game at Toyota Arena in Ontario, which is awesome. The Ontario Reign have provided an excellent environment for prospects to develop over the years and that fanbase deserves to host an NHL game when they have the opportunity. The atmosphere for games in Ontario is typically quite good in the preseason, as it\u2019s more of a marquee event than an exhibition game in an NHL building is. Always a fun one to attend, always a lot of excitement when the Kings visit Toyota Arena. Tickets for the 2026 Empire Classic are available HERE<\/a> and the bulk of upper-bowl seats are under $40 each. Not too bad. If you haven\u2019t been to Toyota Arena yet, it\u2019s one worth checking out, either for the Kings exhibition game or a Reign game next season. <\/p>\n

The Kings will also host two preseason games in Los Angeles \u2013 September 22 and 26 \u2013 at Crypto.com Arena. While not fully knowing what a preseason looks like under Peter Laviolette, or within the structure of the new training camp, I\u2019d expect both of those games to be more veteran-heavy, to reduce preseason travel for those players, even though travel this season means Ontario and Anaheim. All four games will likely have stronger lineups than you\u2019ve seen in the past, as a result of the reduced schedule, but that Los Angeles\/Anaheim game on the 26th specifically should be close to a full NHL lineup, with the regular season set to begin the following week. It\u2019s an afternoon game and the Kings will host their annual Festival after the game concludes. Ticketing information for the two games in Los Angeles will be available at a later date. <\/p>\n

Lastly, the Kings will head to Honda Center on September 23 to take on the Ducks. The Kings and Ducks will conclude their preseason schedule with a home-and-home set, beginning with this game in Anaheim before the preseason finale in Los Angeles on Saturday. We\u2019ve seen these two teams play as many as four preseason games in former seasons but just two for 2026, with the game in Orange County the furthest the Kings will go from home. <\/p>\n

The preseason will be a little bit more interesting this season in my opinion because we haven\u2019t seen how things operate under the new CBA. Would we have seen say the performance that Jeff Malott gave last fall with a condensed schedule? He might\u2019ve only had 1-2 games to showcase what he can do, whereas last year, it was his performance over several games that earned his place on the Opening Night roster. Things like that are not as fluid anymore. It might also mean that we see Kings prospects play more games at the Rookie Faceoff the week prior, as there might not be as much room for those players in preseason games. Henry Brzustewicz, for example, might normally get a few preseason games to see how he fares against NHL competition, especially now that he is AHL-eligible. He might not this year, with only four on the docket, and the need for NHL regulars to each play at least a couple of those games. It\u2019s things like that we don\u2019t know about. Same goes for goaltenders, who would each get games in the past. The priority now has to be the NHL guys but the Kings have Carter George and Hampton Slukynsky who I am sure they\u2019d like to see on that stage. Might not get the chance now, with only four games to utilize. <\/p>\n

Ultimately, these moves are big wins for veteran players and that\u2019s what the CBA should be about. It\u2019ll be interesting, though, to see how things change now that the schedule is much more compact through out the preseason. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Happy Monday, Insiders! As a part of the NHL\u2019s new collective bargaining agreement, the 2026 preseason schedule for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-720549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}