Now with an 84-game schedule, the NHL season opener will take place at the end of September this year, and the Maple Leafs will play on the opening night of the NHL regular season: Tuesday, September 29, vs. Montreal in Toronto, followed by a back-to-back against the Isles on Wednesday, September 30.
That means we’re just two-and-a-half months or 75 days away from Maple Leafs hockey.
The Leafs will start their season with a four-game homestand (MTL, NYI, OTT, NSH) before heading out west for a Vegas-Colorado-Utah road trip.
A few schedule notes:
– One of the unique features of this season’s schedule, beyond the 84-game slate with the late September start, is a Boxing Day game. It’ll be Leafs vs. Habs in Montreal. There is also a Black Friday 1 p.m. clash with the Bruins in Boston.
– Sergei Bobrovsky’s return to Florida won’t take place until late in the season, as the Leafs visit the Panthers on March 6 and April 1. The Panthers visit the Leafs first on December 3.
– Daniel Alfredsson and the Maple Leafs visit Ottawa for the first time on January 20.
– Head coach Jim Hiller welcomes his former team (the Kings) to Toronto on November 19 and visits LA on December 30.
– Darren Raddysh returns to Tampa on February 20.
– The Maple Leafs welcome Mike Babcock (if he makes it through training camp in Edmonton) to Toronto on Saturday, November 14. They visit Edmonton on October 24, so their two-game set vs. McDavid’s Oilers will be played in the first month and a half of the season.
– The Leafs will visit the Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, December 5 and Friday, March 5.
– The 1 p.m. next-gen game will take place on Monday, December 21, vs. the Washington Capitals.
– After an exhausting Olympics-impacted schedule in 2025-26 featuring 15 back-to-backs, the Leafs will play 11 this season.
NHL teams who have most sets of back-to-back games this year. pic.twitter.com/SR8BWCH4jf
— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) July 16, 2026
– Based on games vs. non-playoff opponents and early-outs from last season, January would appear to be a 13-game month with a lot of opportunity to collect points for the Leafs, including a five-game homestand in the middle:
– March will be the busiest month of the season with 16 games and will include matchups against Florida x2, Dallas, and Tampa x2. That said, it also includes a decent percentage of softer opponents (Detroit, Seattle, Winnipeg, Vancouver, NYR, NJD. Also, the Leafs tend to play Tampa well).
– The Leafs’ longest road trip will take place Dec. 22 to January 7 (seven games) — that’s tough in one sense, to be traveling a lot around the holidays, but on the other hand, the Christmas holiday does break it up a little.
– The All-Star Break will take place between January 31 and February 7.
– The season wraps up on April 10 at MSG in New York after a four-day break — potentially decent timing for a gap in the schedule if the Leafs are preparing/resting for the playoffs.
Breakdown from Leafs: pic.twitter.com/VWWj79VyBj
— Lance Hornby 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@sunhornby) July 16, 2026
