NHL camps open Wednesday with the usual clean-sheet optimism, but the 2026-27 calendar arrives carrying more than a few loose ends. From Connor Hellebuyck’s trade demand in Winnipeg to a new 84-game grind and the first September regular-season faceoffs in North America, clubs are stepping onto the ice with major decisions still unresolved before Opening Night on Sept. 29.
Ten camp storylines that will shape the 2026-27 NHL season
Winnipeg’s crease remains the sharpest question in camp. Hellebuyck is still a Jet and is expected to report, but the three-time Vezina Trophy winner made his position clear Aug. 27, saying he had requested a trade privately months earlier and still felt a departure was best for him and his family. The 33-year-old is beginning Year 3 of the seven-year, $59.5 million deal he signed in October 2023, carrying an $8.5 million cap hit. Carolina, Buffalo, Utah and New Jersey have all surfaced as possible destinations. If no deal comes before the regular season, the situation could become an increasingly difficult daily backdrop in Winnipeg.
Minnesota will also enter camp with its franchise defenseman under contract scrutiny. Quinn Hughes became eligible for an extension July 1 and could have signed for eight years through Tuesday. Under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the longest available extension now drops to seven years. Cale Makar reset the market Aug. 29 with Colorado, agreeing to an eight-year, $163.2 million contract worth $20.4 million annually, and Hughes could become the next defenseman to reach the $20 million range.
Hughes has said he is not rushing the process, intends to make the decision on his own timetable and will not negotiate through public comments. He also said he can picture a future in Minnesota, citing his confidence in the Wild, coach, general manager Bill Guerin and his role with the club. Hughes, agent Pat Brisson and Guerin remain in contact. Matt Boldy does not expect the matter to distract the room, and Hughes has said it will not weigh on his game, but a player of his importance naturally leaves a cloud over camp until the paperwork is done.
The new CBA will change the pace of every camp, not just Minnesota’s. The League will play 84 regular-season games for only the third time in its 109-year history, following the 1993-94 season. Teams will play meaningful games in North America during September for the first time, and the NHL has previously begun before October only once: Anaheim and Los Angeles opened the 2007-08 schedule with a pair of games in London.
Coaches will have less runway to sort out their rosters. Preseason schedules have been cut from six games to four, reducing audition time for prospects and players competing for the final spots. Veterans must appear in at least two exhibition games, while clubs must fit two mandatory days off around those four dates. With fewer practices and the earliest North American start on record, camp staffs will have to make decisions quickly.
Toronto’s spotlight will find Gavin McKenna from the first drill. The No. 1 selection in the 2026 NHL Draft, taken by the Maple Leafs on June 26, arrives after playing at Penn State last season. The 18-year-old has already handled an enormous amount of attention, but his first NHL camp will bring a daily examination of his skating, deployment and readiness. McKenna is living with John Tavares and has guidance close by from both Tavares and Leafs captain Auston Matthews, former first-overall picks who understand the weight of entering the league with that label.
New Toronto coach Jim Hiller is expected to give McKenna a prominent role. Camp should reveal where the rookie begins on the depth chart, who might center him, which power-play group he joins and how quickly he can translate promise into NHL minutes.
Edmonton will be watched just as closely behind the bench. Mike Babcock returned to the NHL when the Oilers hired him June 23, after an NHL investigation cleared him following his brief and controversial 2023 tenure with Columbus. Babcock resigned before coaching a Blue Jackets game after reports that he had asked players to show personal photographs from their phones. His last NHL game behind the bench came before Toronto fired him on Nov. 20, 2019.
The 63-year-old was drawn back by an Oilers group led by Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, who played for Babcock in Toronto. McDavid called it an opportunity to learn from a coach who has handled hockey’s biggest games and won championships and international gold. Draisaitl said Babcock is the coach Edmonton needs to reach its goal. The pressure will be immediate, though that is nothing new for Babcock or an Oilers team built around two superstars.
Florida has a different kind of luxury problem: deciding how to use Brady and Matthew Tkachuk together. The brothers are now Panthers teammates after skating alongside one another for the United States at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Winter Olympics, where the Americans won their first men’s hockey gold medal since 1980. Panthers general manager Bill Zito worked with Team USA at both events.
Coach Paul Maurice can place the Tkachuks together at even strength and on the power play, or split them to spread his attack through two lines and two units. Florida should also have Aleksander Barkov back after he missed last season with a knee injury, while Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett remain top-six options. Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Brad Marchand could form a formidable third line. The first few camp sessions should show whether Maurice wants family chemistry concentrated in one place or distributed through the lineup.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes bring back nearly everyone from the group that beat Vegas 3-0 in Game 6 at T-Mobile Arena on June 14. All 20 players who dressed for the Cup-clinching victory return, as do three of the five healthy scratches listed that night. Goaltender Frederik Andersen is the one certain departure after signing with Edmonton as an unrestricted free agent.
Carolina does have work left with restricted free agent defenseman Alexander Nikishin, and Seth Jarvis is expected to miss the beginning of the season while recovering from shoulder surgery performed shortly after the Final. Still, the Hurricanes enter camp with the kind of continuity required for a repeat bid. Pittsburgh won back-to-back Cups in 2016 and 2017, Tampa Bay did it in 2020 and 2021, and Florida followed with championships in 2024 and 2025.
Buffalo, meanwhile, must prove last season was a launch point rather than a one-off. The Sabres ended a 15-year playoff drought, won the Atlantic Division with 109 points and captured a postseason round before losing a seven-game series to Montreal. Their roster has changed, however. Alex Tuch joined Washington after finishing second on Buffalo with 33 goals and third with 66 points. Bowen Byram went to Chicago after recording 42 points, second among Sabres defensemen.
The Sabres acquired 23-year-old Olen Zellweger to help replace Byram, and he projects to join Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson in the top four. Replacing Tuch internally will depend on continued growth from Zach Benson, Josh Doan and Jack Quinn. Benson had 43 points in 65 games at age 21, while Doan and Quinn, both 24, combined for 45 goals and 103 points and each cleared 20 goals and 50 points. Buffalo is no longer chasing merely a playoff spot; it enters camp expected to contend.
Three young centers will hear the volume rise with new contracts in hand. San Jose, Anaheim and Chicago committed a combined $259 million to Macklin Celebrini, Leo Carlsson and Connor Bedard during the offseason. Carlsson signed a five-year, $90 million offer sheet with Philadelphia on July 3, and Anaheim matched it July 9. At $18 million per year, the 21-year-old briefly became the NHL’s highest-paid player.
Bedard, also 21, signed a five-year, $75 million extension with Chicago on July 18 and was named captain Tuesday. A shoulder injury is likely to keep him out of camp, delaying his season. Celebrini signed for five years and $94 million on July 29, with the deal beginning next season after he established a Sharks record with 115 points, including 45 goals and 70 assists, last year.
Anaheim reached the Western Conference Second Round last spring and needs Carlsson driving another push forward. San Jose finished four points out of a playoff berth, with Celebrini entering his third NHL season as the club’s central figure. Chicago finished last in the Central Division, and that result cannot become routine in Bedard’s captaincy era. The money will not score goals, but it will ensure every cold spell gets noticed.
Washington’s new depth should also alter Alex Ovechkin’s workload. The Capitals added Tuch in a sign-and-trade with Buffalo, acquired Jordan Kyrou from St. Louis and signed Boone Jenner in free agency, giving the top six more options than it had a year ago. Ovechkin still led Washington with 32 goals and 64 points last season, but his 17:27 per game was already a career low.
With Ovechkin turning 41 on Thursday and entering his 22nd NHL campaign, his ice time could decline for a fifth consecutive season if Washington’s additions deliver. The NHL’s all-time goals leader, with 929, should remain a major power-play piece, though he may no longer play the entire two-minute advantage. Camp will offer the first look at where he lines up at even strength and how the Capitals balance their newest weapons around their historic scorer.
SEO Title: NHL training camp questions for 2026-27: Hellebuyck, Hughes, McKenna and more
SEO Description: A rink-side look at the major questions entering NHL training camps, including Connor Hellebuyck’s future, Quinn Hughes’ contract, the 84-game schedule, rookie Gavin McKenna and the Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes.
