The First 5 Panthers Games are Announced

After a difficult season, Florida gets a premier matchup to start

May 28, 2025; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov (16) shoots the puck against Carolina Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho (20) during the second period in game five of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Lenovo Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Details of the NHL’s 2026-27 regular season are starting to trickle in.

With each team announcing their opening games on Wednesday, the Florida Panthers’ first five games are mapped out. 

The Panthers will open the season at the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes on September 29. It’ll be Florida’s first time starting on the road since 2023, as they themselves were raising championship banners in 2024 and 2025.

After that, the Panthers will be the home-opening opponent for all three California teams – the San Jose Sharks on Oct. 1, Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 4, and Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 6.

There is space on the schedule to play another team – perhaps the Vegas Golden Knights or St. Louis Blues – before returning home.

Finally, the re-loaded Panthers will have their own home opener at 6 pm on October 10 against the Minnesota Wild. It’s a rematch of their opening night game from the aforementioned road opener in 2023.

Florida played 26 of their final 41 games on the road this year. The positive of wrinkle of the long trip to start the year is that they will get their California swing out of the way early.

As part of the NHL’s Opening Night lineup, the Panthers versus Hurricanes matchup will start at 5 p.m. on ESPN. The tripleheader will continue with the Boston Bruins hosting the New York Rangers at 8 p.m., followed by western conference champion Golden Knights against the Chicago Blackhawks at 10:30 p.m.

This is the first season with the NHL’s expanded 84-game schedule, hence the late September start.

The schedule release presents an official fresh start for a franchise that struggled through a challenging 2025-26 season, with a slew of injuries to key players -- starting with captain Sasha Barkov -- keeping the Panthers from seriously competing for a third straight Stanley Cup. But the Panthers are fully healthy now, and even with a switch at goaltender from Sergei Bobrovsky to Jacob Markstrom, have high ambitions.

Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart and Aaron Ekblad are still around, with all their rings, and GM Bill Zito used his draft pick currency to add Brady Tkachuk to Matthew Tkachuk. Florida can now roll out four strong forward lines again, and the older players have had more time to rest than in the three prior postseasons, when many played all the way until the end.

The rest of the schedule will be released Thursday.