The NHL and NHLPA have begun work on a new collective bargaining agreement well before the September 2026 deadline in an effort to get everything hammered out to avoid a lockout. Sides have yet to discuss the nitty gritty of player salary, the salary cap, and revenue sharing — but there does seem to be an early agreement on one change: An 84 game season.
This would mark the first scheduling shift in the NHL since 1994 when the league decided to move from 84 games down to 82, which has been the status quo up to this point. However, the current schedule is a complicated mess which is full of imbalance, and that’s what the move to 84 games would hopefully address.
As it stands every team in the league plays each other twice, home and away (62 games) — but from there things get complicated. The current schedule calls for every team to play non-divisional conference team an additional time (7 games), and the final 13 games of the schedule come inside the eight team divisions division. This has been problematic, as those final games have meant some teams play four divisional opponents, while others play five.
Essentially the shift to 84 games would prioritize divisional games over non-divisional conference games and balance everything out.
- Every non-divisional opponent home/away: 56 games
- Every divisional opponent twice home and twice away: 28 games
That’s how you hit the seemingly-odd number of 84 games. However, this format makes perfect sense. It’s a plan by the NHL and NHLPA to prioritize divisional games, which naturally attract more attention, than largely meaningless in-conference, out-of-division games.
The NHLPA’s concern is that two more games would mean more wear-and-tear on players, however that risk is seemingly worth it in exchange for guaranteeing that the schedule has parity across the league.
