Nashville Predators Announce Date For Season Opener
The NHL announced its schedule for the opening night of the 2026-27 season on Wednesday. The league has expanded its regular season schedule to 84 games, with each team playing a division opponent for the extra two contests. The NHL season gets underway on Tuesday, Sept. 29, with the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes hosting the Florida Panthers. The Nashville Predators get their season started on Thursday, Oct. 1, when they'll host the Minnesota Wild at Bridgestone Arena.
Recommended for you: Nashville Predators vs Minnesota Wild
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) July 15, 2026
Streaming Oct 1 at @BrdgstoneArena ⏯️ pic.twitter.com/Sweswf60JY
Nashville split the season series with Minnesota last season, but three of the four matchups against the Wild went into overtime. The Wild went on to lose a five-game series against the Colorado Avalanche in the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs, while the Predators were eliminated from playoff contention in the final week of the year.
Predators head coach Andrew Brunette is 1-2 in season openers on the Nashville bench, losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Dallas Stars in his first two seasons, but defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets to kick off last season.
The season opener will come after a four-game preseason slate in late September, where the Predators will play road games on the 20th and 24th and home games on the 22nd and 26th.
The NHL also announced Honda NHL All-Star Weekend returns on February 5-6 at UBS Arena in Long Island. The event will feature the 2027 NHL All-Star Skills competition on Feb. 5, with 10 superstars under the age of 26, competing in eight events, and the 2027 Honda NHL All-Star Game on Feb. 6, featuring five teams of 11 players each. The teams will be broken up by nationality with Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States making up four groups and a "World" team making up the fifth. Teams will paly three-on-three style, round robin exhibition games to determine a winner.
The NHL is expected to announce the full 84-game schedule on Thursday at noon CT.
Nashville Predators All-Star Game Selections by Year
- 1999 - Sergei Krivokrasov
- 2000 - Kimmo Timonen
- 2004 - Kimmo Timonen, Thomas Vokoun
- 2007 - Kimmo Timonen, Barry Trotz
- 2008 - Jason Arnott
- 2009 - Shea Weber
- 2011 - Shea Weber
- 2012 - Shea Weber, Ryan Suter
- 2015 - Shea Weber, Filip Forsberg, Pekka Rinne, Peter Laviolette
- 2016 - Shea Weber, Pekka Rinne, James Neal, Roman Josi
- 2017 - P.K. Subban
- 2018 - P.K. Subban, Pekka Rinne, Peter Laviolette
- 2019 - Pekka Rinne, Roman Josi
- 2020 - Roman Josi
- 2022 - Roman Josi, Juuse Saros
- 2023 - Juuse Saros
- 2024 - Filip Forsberg
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NASHVILLE PREDATORS On SI
Joe Gaither covers the Nashville Predators for Nashville Predators On SI. He also oversees videos and podcasts for Alabama Crimson Tide On SI/BamaCentral. He began his sports media career in radio in 2019, working for three years in Tuscaloosa covering the University of Alabama and other local high school sports. In 2023 he joined BamaCentral to cover a variety of Crimson Tide sports and recruiting, in addition to hosting the “Joe Gaither Show” podcast. His work has also appeared on the Boston College, Miami, Missouri and Vanderbilt college On SI sites.