We know the Florida Panthers will be on the road to open the season with dates against the Carolina Hurricanes, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, and this afternoon we’ll know everything else as the complete NHL regular season schedule will be unveiled. In concert with the 1 p.m. release, NHL Network will air a one-hour special edition of “NHL Tonight” hosted by Jamison Coyle, Thomas Hickey and E.J. Hradek. The program will also stream on NHL.com for those of us who should be working.
Speaking of NHL.com, writer Amalie Benjamin has the big Team Reset article on the Panthers. Benjamin says what the Cats need the most in the upcoming campaign is health. No surprise there…
The 2025-26 Panthers were derailed by injuries, starting in training camp when Aleksander Barkov went down, necessitating ACL and MCL surgeries to his right knee that cost him the entire season. He wouldn’t be the only one. Matthew Tkachuk missed the first 47 games of the season after offseason surgery, and over the course of the year Seth Jones, Tomas Nosek, Dmitry Kulikov, Jonah Gadjovich, Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand, Anton Lundell and Rodrigues missed time as well. The Panthers have a potential championship roster that was rebuilt in the offseason, but they need their injury woes to slow this upcoming season.
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Trevor Zegras signed a four-year, $36.5 million contract with the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, avoiding an arbitration hearing. Zegras had NHL career highs with 26 goals and 67 points in 81 regular-season games last season and produced six points (2G/4A) in 10 postseason tilts.
Cole Perfetti inked a five-year, $30 million contract with the Winnipeg Jets, also avoiding arbitration. The 24-year-old forward, who was a restricted free agent, had 12 goals and 32 points in 68 games for the Jets last season.
Unrestricted free agent Anthony Mantha signed a two-year, $9.5 million contract with the New Jersey Devils. The 31-year-old forward had NHL career highs of 33 goals, 31 assists and 64 points in 81 regular-season games for the Pittsburgh Penguins last season and one assist in six postseason games.
Forward Luke Tuch and the Columbus Blue Jackets agreed to a two-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $875K at the NHL level. Tuch totaled nine goals, five assists and 82 PIM in 68 games with the AHL’s Laval Rocket in 2025-26.
The following players signed entry-level contracts on Wednesday. Alberts Smits (New York Rangers), Marcus Nordmark (Anaheim Ducks), Elton Hermansson (Minnesota Wild), Juho Piiparinen (Vegas Golden Knights) and William Håkansson (Carolina Hurricanes).
Updated NHL arbitration hearing schedule
- Jamie Drysdale (Philadelphia) – July 20
- Jet Greaves (Columbus) – July 23
- Jason Robertson (Dallas) – July 25
- Connor McMichael (Washington) – July 25
- Cole Sillinger (Columbus) – July 27
- Ronan Seely (Carolina) – July 29
- Alex Jefferies (New York Islanders) – July 30
- Kirby Dach (Montreal) – July 30
- Akira Schmid (Florida) – August 1