Chicago Blackhawks to open season against champion Florida Panthers

CHICAGO - The Chicago Blackhawks will kick off their season against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers this fall.

What we know:

The NHL announced Monday that its 2025-26 regular season will open on Oct. 7 with a tripleheader on ESPN in the U.S., and Sportsnet and TVA Sports in Canada.

The Blackhawks will take on the Panthers at 4 p.m. CST at Amerant Bank Arena in Florida. Before the game, the Panthers will raise their second championship banner.

The season-opening tripleheader will continue with the Pittsburgh Penguins facing the New York Rangers at 8 p.m. EST at Madison Square Garden, followed by the Colorado Avalanche playing the Los Angeles Kings at 10:30 p.m. EST at Crypto.com Arena.

What we don't know:

The full Blackhawks regular season schedule has not yet been released.

What's next:

The NHL will announce the complete 2025-26 schedule on Wednesday at noon CST.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - DECEMBER 27: Connor Bedard #98 of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates after scoring the game winning goal during overtime against the Winnipeg Jets at the United Center on December 27, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Patrick Mc

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This is the final 82-game regular season before going to 84 in 2026-27 as part of a collective bargaining agreement extension agreed to and ratified by the league and the Players’ Association. The 2025-26 schedule includes a break for players to participate in the Milan-Cortina Olympics, the NHL’s return to that stage for the first time since 2014.

Dig deeper:

Back in May, the Blackhawks announced they had found their new bench boss with the hiring of Jeff Blashill.

The franchise is hoping he can lift the Blackhawks into the next phase of their rebuild and develop the talented farm system of prospects they've acquired over the years.

"Jeff is an incredibly smart and talented coach who boasts more than 25 years of coaching experience across developmental leagues, the NHL and the world stage," Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said in a release. "He’s thrived when in a position to develop young players and has shown he’s capable of blending that into overall team success, a vision and philosophy we share for where we are today and where we see our team in the future. We couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come under Jeff’s direction."

The backstory:

This will be Blashill’s second stint as a head coach in the NHL. He first coached the Detroit Red Wings after Mike Babcock departed for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and coached there for seven years before his contract expired.

The Red Wings parted with Blashill, who ended his stint in Detroit with a career 206-261-72 record.

Blashill took over a Red Wings team that vaulted into a rebuild after he was named head coach.

Before taking over the Red Wings bench, Blashill was the head coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins, which is Detroit's AHL affiliate team.

In his three seasons leading the Griffins, Blashill coached his way to a 134-71-12-11 record and qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs in all three seasons. He became the first head coach in Grand Rapids history to reach the postseason in three consecutive seasons.

On the international stage, Blashill was also the head coach of Team USA three times at the IIHF World Championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He guided Team USA to a bronze medal in 2018.

After his Red Wings tenure, Blashill helped the Lightning to a 138-86-22 record, and the team qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of his three seasons in Tampa.