NHL 2026-27 season preview: What to know before the puck drops

The numbers very much tell the story of the new NHL season, set to start Tuesday with five games, as the league begins play in September for the second time in its history. With an 84-game regular season for the first time since the 1993-94 season, the salary cap having broken the US$100-million mark for the first time and eight-year contracts now phased out as the NHL begins its new four-year collective agreement, a new era is upon us.

Of course, the only number that most Canadian fans are interested in is 34, which will be the length in years of this country’s Stanley Cup drought when the playoffs begin next spring.

Here’s a look at the Canadian teams’ key storylines and players to watch for in this brand-new season.

Calgary Flames

Flaming out in Calgary

The Calgary Flames enter what is set to be their final season at the Saddledome with middling aspirations at best. The team will obviously try to ensure that the last competitive NHL action played at the old barn comes during the playoffs, but it’s far more likely that their April 10 regular-season game against the Vancouver Canucks will be the building’s curtain call.

Between now and then, Calgary’s challenge will be to improve on the ice without impacting its ability to get high-end talent in next year’s draft. There’s plenty of room for improvement on both fronts, with the Flames finishing 29th overall in the league standings last year, and the team’s leading scorer – Matt Coronato – earning that achievement on the strength of just 45 points in 80 games.

Player to watch: Simon Nemec: The former second overall pick is expected to provide blueline stability amidst the team’s rebuild.

Edmonton Oilers

Boom or bust with Babcock in Oil Country

In the absence of a third consecutive Stanley Cup final appearance for Connor McDavid last season, the Edmonton Oilers captain did bolster his already bulging trophy cabinet with the capture of a sixth scoring title and a fifth Ted Lindsay trophy. However, neither is sufficient for the best player in the game, whose résumé still has one glaring hole in it.

Cue the arrival of Mike Babcock, with the only coaching member of the Triple Gold Club (world championship, Olympic gold medal and Stanley Cup title) set to coach an NHL game for the first time in seven years. His mandate is simple: to get this veteran club back to the Cup final and over the finish line. The new goaltenders – Frederik Andersen and Devon Levi – will be crucial for a team that has struggled to make the critical save at key times, and despite the distractions caused by Alex Formenton’s signing, Babcock will recognize this as his best chance to win a Stanley Cup since he left Detroit 11 years ago.

Player to watch: Frederik Andersen: Can the goaltender stay healthy enough to be the missing piece of the Oilers’ Stanley Cup puzzle?

Montreal Canadiens

Can youth serve up a Stanley Cup in Montreal?

Fresh off a career year, Montreal captain Nick Suzuki will lead from the front for the Canadiens once again. After becoming the first Habs player with a 100-point season in 40 years, he capped his Selke Trophy-winning season by helping to guide his team to the Eastern Conference final.

Ably abetted by Cole Caufield’s 51 goals, Lane Hutson’s 78 points and a breakout postseason for rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes – who won a pair of Game 7s – Montreal enters the new campaign with designs on a 25th championship. Having locked up rookie sensation Ivan Demidov for the next eight years, and adding the veteran experience of former 50-goal scorer Chris Kreider, head coach Martin St. Louis has a capable and confident roster at his disposal as he looks to live up to the heightened expectations this team has inevitably created.

Player to watch: Jakub Dobes: After a breakthrough postseason as a rookie, can the goaltender stand up to the grind of being an everyday No. 1?

Ottawa Senators

Leadership void in Ottawa

Despite all the kind words about the Canadian capital and the team that drafted him, Brady Tkachuk begins the new season as a member of the Florida Panthers, leaving the Senators and their fans to pick up the pieces. While far from ideal, the situation could be worse.

The team, which made the playoffs for the second straight year, still has Tim Stutzle and his team-high 34 goals, No. 1 defenceman Jake Sanderson and goaltender Linus Ullmark to build around. Ullmark proved pivotal to Ottawa making the postseason last year, and a repeat performance will be crucial to the Sens’ chances.

The team could also get a boost from 2024 first-round pick Carter Yakemchuk, who might pair with Sanderson on the team’s top D pairing, while William Eklund, acquired from the Sharks, should help partly offset the loss of Tkachuk’s offence.

Player to watch: Tim Stutzle: With Tkachuk gone, the Senators’ offence is set to rely even more on the gifted German.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Is too much change a good thing in Toronto?

A modicum of change was on the horizon after the Maple Leafs snapped their nine-year playoff streak last year with a 28th-place finish. It came in the wholesale variety though, as both the general manager and head coach were replaced, the NHL draft lottery was duly won and an entirely new outlook was born when Justin Bieber announced that Gavin McKenna would become the third player to be taken first overall by Toronto.

Add in a new No. 1 goaltender with a Stanley Cup and Vezina-winning pedigree (Sergei Bobrovsky), a new No. 1 defenceman who piled up points last season (Darren Raddysh) and signs that seem to point to better health for captain Auston Matthews, and you can see why some are bullish on the Leafs’ chances of a return to the playoffs, if not possible Cup contention.

Player to watch: Auston Matthews: After stating his intention was always to stay in Toronto, can the Leafs captain show his passion on the ice?

Vancouver Canucks

Vancouver looks to the future

On the plus side, the Canucks begin the new season with few doubts over where their immediate future lies. There’s no Quinn Hughes quandary this time around, only the chance to fast-track the assets his trade secured into NHL service, led chiefly by defenceman Zeev Buium.

Better luck at the draft lottery would certainly help next time – the team’s dead-last overall finish was only good enough to secure the third pick – but the team has a new voice behind the bench in former Canuck Manny Malhotra. It also has Vancouver bloodlines in the front office too, with Ryan Johnson taking over as GM, and the Sedin twins – Daniel and Henrik – serving as team co-presidents.

On the ice, the team could benefit from a return to form by centre Elias Pettersson, who managed just 51 points – half the total he accrued in the 2022-23 season. And the team needs Thatcher Demko to stay healthy too, with the goaltender managing to play just 43 games the past two seasons combined.

Player to watch: Elias Pettersson: A return to form would go a long way to improve Vancouver’s 31st-ranked offence.

Winnipeg Jets

Suspended reality in Winnipeg

It’s hard to believe this Jets team won the Presidents’ Trophy just 18 months ago. After missing out on the playoffs this past season, Jonathan Toews decided to end his brief NHL return by announcing his retirement. But that’s not even close to being the most pressing issue for the Jets right now.

That would be the status – or non-status – of star goaltender Connor Hellebucyk, who has asked for a trade out of Winnipeg just months after adding an Olympic gold medal to the Hart Trophy he won the year before. With general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff unable to find a trade that suits both parties, the team promptly suspended Hellebuyck when he failed to show up for the start of training camp last week.

As the Jets get set to open the season on Friday, it remains to be seen whether their best player will be on the ice with them, with former Oilers whipping boy Stuart Skinner currently in position to step into the breach in his absence.

Player to watch: Stuart Skinner: If Hellebuyck doesn’t play, all eyes will be on the 27-year-old netminder.

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Storylines to follow

Cashing in

It was less than a year ago that Kirill Kaprizov set the high bar for annual NHL salaries when he signed an eight-year deal for US$17-million a year. While that figure will never seem like small change, it didn’t last long at the top of the heap, either. In fact, it’s been eclipsed three times already this summer, as the increased salary cap of US$104-million and the expiring status of eight-year maximum-term deals (they’ve been shortened by one year in the NHL’s new collective agreement) has seen star players cash in.

The record was boosted to US$18-million when Leo Carlsson signed with the Ducks in early July, then to US$18.8-million when Macklin Celebrini inked an extension with the Sharks later that month (though that deal doesn’t start until 2027). It was blown out of the water when Cale Makar signed for US$20.4-million to stay with the Avalanche for the next eight years in another deal that doesn’t kick in until next season.

What can Celebrini do for an encore?

In his second NHL season, Celebrini thrust himself into the conversation as one of the league’s best players, almost doubling his point total from his rookie season as he led the Sharks to within four points of their first playoff berth in seven years.

His 115 points – good for fourth overall – was the third-highest points total by a teenage player in NHL history, topped only by Wayne Gretzky (137) and Sidney Crosby (120). Having turned 20 over the summer, Celebrini is keeping good company heading into a season where much is expected of the Sharks, who jumped from 32nd to 22nd in the standings.

Armed with a contract extension that will make him the second-highest-paid player in the league next season as it stands, and after captaining Canada at the world championships this summer, Celebrini will be hoping an ever-improving Sharks roster can keep up as he enters bona fide superstar territory.

Oh brother

All eyes are on a pair of U.S. Olympic gold medalists on the eve of the new season. Brady Tkachuk is now a member of the Panthers, as the two-time Stanley Cup champions aim to get back to the playoffs and their contending ways after a summer to rest up.

Tkachuk finally gets the chance to line up alongside brother Matthew, with the two looking to bring some of the chemistry they’ve shown in international tournaments to an NHL rink near you.

Over in Minnesota, Quinn Hughes’s future is up for debate, with the Olympic gold medalist entering the last year of his current deal with the Wild. Despite Makar re-signing for big money in Colorado, Hughes has shown no rush to do the same, with some insiders believing that Hughes is still mulling over the idea of heading to New Jersey as a free agent next summer to play with his brothers Jack and Luke.