Hockey

NHL Opening Night: Carolina Defends Cup as McKenna and Babcock Debut

By Hugo Brennan

NHL Opening Night: Carolina Defends Cup as McKenna and Babcock Debut

The NHL drops the puck on its 109th season Tuesday with a five-game slate, a championship banner in Raleigh and a fresh set of pressure points around the League. Carolina begins its title defense against Florida, Toronto unveils top pick Gavin McKenna, and Edmonton starts a new era behind Mike Babcock.

Opening night starts with a banner and a brother act

  1. The Hurricanes will raise their 2026 Stanley Cup banner before facing the Panthers at Lenovo Center on Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET. Carolina brings back nearly all of its championship roster, but goalie Frederik Andersen left for Edmonton on a one-year deal and restricted free-agent defenseman Alexander Nikishin remains unsigned.

  2. Forward Seth Jarvis will not be ready for the opener as he continues his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery. Jarvis posted 32 goals and 66 points last season and also represented Canada at the Olympics.

  3. Carolina is trying to follow the recent example set by Florida. The Panthers won consecutive Cups in 2024 and 2025, joining Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017 and Tampa Bay in 2020 and 2021 as the League’s repeat champions since 2017.

  4. Florida arrives with Brady and Matthew Tkachuk set to skate together in an NHL game for the first time. The Panthers acquired Brady Tkachuk from Ottawa on June 21. The brothers have shared a lineup for the United States at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and at the 2026 Olympics in Milan, where the Americans won their first men’s hockey gold medal since 1980.

  5. Aleksander Barkov also returns for Florida after missing all of last season with the right-knee injury suffered on the opening day of training camp. Tuesday will be his first NHL appearance since June 17, 2025, when he had two assists in Florida’s 5-1 Cup-clinching win over Edmonton. The Panthers missed the playoffs without their captain last season; with Barkov back, they again carry the look of a contender.

McKenna gets the Toronto spotlight

Toronto’s home opener against Montreal at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET gives McKenna his first NHL shift. The 18-year-old, selected first overall in the 2026 NHL Draft, showed growing confidence, speed and skating in the preseason after a quieter first exhibition appearance.

The Maple Leafs expect to open McKenna’s career with John Tavares and William Nylander on his wings. Auston Matthews is slated to center Matthew Knies and Jack Roslovic on the top unit, while McKenna is expected to work on the second power-play group.

Toronto is looking to get back into the postseason after missing it last spring. McKenna has injected life into the club, but the test changes quickly once the games count in a market that puts every shift under a microscope.

Edmonton turns to Babcock

  1. Mike Babcock’s first official game back behind an NHL bench comes Tuesday when Edmonton hosts Vancouver at Rogers Place at 10 p.m. ET. His previous NHL game was Nov. 19, 2019, with Toronto.

  2. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman helped bring Babcock out of retirement. Edmonton hired him June 23, five days after the NHL completed its review of his short Columbus tenure.

  3. Babcock had been named Blue Jackets coach on July 1, 2023, then resigned before coaching a game after reports that he had asked players to show personal photographs from their phones.

  4. The Oilers are attempting to recover from a difficult 2025-26 season following consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final under former coach Kris Knoblauch. McDavid begins the first season of his two-year, $25 million contract, carrying a $12.5 million average annual value.

  5. A strong Edmonton season and a long playoff run could strengthen the club’s case for a long-term McDavid extension when he becomes eligible to sign one July 1. Babcock, 63, returns with 700 NHL victories, the 2008 Stanley Cup and two Olympic gold medals for Canada, though he has not coached a team beyond the opening playoff round since Detroit did so in 2013.

Goalie and captain trade files remain open

Connor Hellebuyck remains away from Winnipeg while waiting for a trade. The 33-year-old requested a move early in the offseason, reinforced that position publicly Aug. 27 and did not report to camp, leading to a Jets suspension.

Winnipeg has yet to find a return it considers sufficient for the former Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy winner. The standoff may still break before the Jets host Boston on Friday at 8 p.m. ET, but otherwise it follows the club into the regular season.

Detroit faces its own unresolved captaincy story with Dylan Larkin. He has been around the Red Wings during the preseason, unlike Hellebuyck, but he did not play while rehabbing an upper-body injury. Detroit removed the captaincy at the start of camp as it works through his trade request.

Larkin has five years left on his contract and controls his destination through a no-movement clause. His list of acceptable clubs has reportedly expanded from three teams in June to as many as eight. Interim general manager Shawn Horcoff now has to find a deal that makes sense before, or after, Detroit opens against the Rangers at Little Caesars Arena on Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Familiar faces and a young captain

Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin begin their 22nd NHL seasons, a remarkable point of stability in a summer full of change. Ovechkin, who turned 41 on Sept. 17, considered retirement late last season before signing a one-year extension with Washington on July 2.

Crosby is entering the last season of his current two-year agreement, leaving open the possibility that this could be the final year in which both future Hall of Famers remain active. Washington reshaped its roster after missing the playoffs, while Pittsburgh aims to build on its first postseason appearance since 2022. Both clubs expect to stay in the Eastern Conference race.

In San Jose, Macklin Celebrini starts a new chapter at just 20 years old. The Sharks named him the youngest captain in franchise history Friday, and he begins the season fresh off a five-year, $94 million contract.

Celebrini finished fourth in NHL scoring last season with 45 goals and 115 points. San Jose improved by 19 wins and 34 points but still finished four points outside a playoff spot. With its young center now wearing the C, the expectation is no longer simply improvement; the Sharks are expected to make the playoffs.

An 84-game schedule changes the pace

The Carolina-Florida opener begins a 1,344-game regular season, the largest schedule in League history. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement that took effect Sept. 16, every team moves from 82 to 84 games.

It is only the third time the NHL has used an 84-game format, after 1992-93 and 1993-94. The added games come within each division, putting greater emphasis on familiar opponents and rivalry dates.

There is a tradeoff: camps were shortened to accommodate the longer season. New players have less practice time to settle into systems and establish chemistry before the games begin to count.

More opening-week notes

  • Minnesota defenseman Quinn Hughes and Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov begin the final years of their contracts without extensions. Kucherov won the Hart Trophy last season, and both clubs want to retain their stars. Cale Makar set the current financial benchmark on Aug. 28, signing an eight-year, $163.2 million deal with Colorado that carries a record $20.4 million annual value.

  • Lightning captain Victor Hedman returns Thursday when Tampa Bay visits the Rangers at Madison Square Garden at 7 p.m. ET. The 35-year-old defenseman has not played since March 19, taking a leave from the team the next day to focus on his mental health. He enters his 18th NHL season.

  • Ryan Craig makes his NHL head-coaching debut Tuesday when Vegas hosts Chicago at T-Mobile Arena at 10:30 p.m. ET. He replaces John Tortorella, who led the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final after taking over late last season. Craig has been with Vegas since its inaugural 2017-18 campaign, including six years as an NHL assistant and the past three as coach of AHL Henderson. He inherits the defending Western Conference champion.

  • Manny Malhotra also begins his first NHL coaching job Tuesday in Vancouver’s road game against Edmonton. Malhotra coached AHL Abbotsford for two seasons and guided the affiliate to the 2025 Calder Cup after previously serving as a Canucks assistant. Vancouver finished last in the NHL last season and is seeking a reset under Malhotra and first-year general manager Ryan Johnson.