League releases its 2025-26 schedule; last 82-game season

NHL ROUNDUP

The Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin looks on during a faceoff against the Hurricanes during the first period in Raleigh, N.C., on April 2. KARL DEBLAKER - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE

The Panthers raise the Stanley Cup after defeating the Oilers in Game 6 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Sunrise, Fla., on June 17. NATHAN DENETTE - THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP, FILE

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NEW YORK >> The NHL released the full 2025-26 schedule on Wednesday, the final 82-game season before the new collective bargaining agreement kicks in and increases it to 84.

The league’s 32 teams will combine to play 1,312 games between Oct. 7 and April 16 with the playoffs to run from the following weekend through much of June. Beginning in 2026-27, there will be 1,344 games — the most in NHL history.

Alex Ovechkin begins his 21st season on Oct. 8 when he and the Washington Capitals host Boston. Ovechkin is at 897 career goals after breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record and can add to his total at age 40.

It’s even plausible Ovechkin gets No. 900 in the same arena on Long Island in which he scored his 895th to pass Gretzky. The Capitals visit the New York Islanders in their second game on Oct. 11, before playing the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 12.

After raising their second consecutive Stanley Cup banner on opening night Oct. 7 against Chicago, the back-to-back defending champion Florida Panthers continue their threepeat bid two days later when they host Philadelphia.

Utah plays its first game as the Mammoth on Oct. 9 at Colorado. They were known as the Utah Hockey Club during the first year in Salt Lake City after relocating from Arizona.

For the first time in more than a decade, the league is pausing in the winter to send players to the Olympics. The Milan break runs from Feb. 6-24, with play resuming Feb. 25.

The NHL’s last participation in the Games was 2014 in Sochi, though the new CBA provides for players to also go in 2030, pending another deal with the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Sabres avoid arbitration with Byram

The Buffalo Sabres avoided arbitration with former Av Bowen Byram by re-signing the restricted free agent defenseman to a two-year contract worth $12.5 million.

Byram will count $6.25 million against the salary cap through the 2026-27 NHL season.

He was considered a candidate for a trade or an offer sheet from another team before the Sabres elected salary arbitration with him earlier this month.

The 24-year-old is coming off setting career highs with 31 assists, 38 points and 116 blocked shots while playing all 82 games in his first full season with Buffalo.

The team acquired him from Colorado in exchange for center Casey Mittelstadt at the 2024 trade deadline.

Byram had nine points on the Avalanche’s 2022 Stanley Cup run.

He has 33 goals and 89 assists in 273 regular-season and playoff games since debuting in the league in 2021.

Wayne Thomas, ex-NHL goalie, assistant and exec dies at 77

Former NHL goaltender Wayne Thomas, who went on to have a lengthy career in hockey as a coach and an executive, has died from cancer. He was 77.

A spokesperson for the San Jose Sharks confirmed the team learned of Thomas’ death Wednesday from his family. The spokesperson said Thomas died at his home in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

An Ottawa native, Thomas tended goal for Montreal, Toronto and the New York Rangers from 1973-80.

He immediately went into coaching and spent time as an assistant with New York, Chicago, St. Louis and San Jose, with stints running the bench in the International Hockey League for teams in Salt Lake City and Peoria.

Thomas spent nearly two decades in the Sharks’ front office from the mid-1990s through 2015, a vast majority of the time in which he served as assistant general manager and vice president of hockey operations and oversaw their American Hockey League club.