Our NHL predictions run as a weekly Saturday column: three to five selections from the evening slate, with the reasoning shown. Saturday is the night the Canadian hockey audience actually watches, and it carries the biggest schedule of the week.
This is the opening edition. The 2026-27 season starts on Tuesday 29 September, when Toronto host Montréal and Carolina host Florida. The first full Saturday follows on 3 October.
Why a weekly column and not a daily one
The season runs to 84 games per team, up from 82. That is 1,344 regular-season games. About seven a night, rising to as many as 16 on the busiest Saturdays, which is more fixtures than any editorial operation can preview one by one without the writing going thin.
So we go the other way. One edition a week, on one page, with the games that matter to a Canadian reader treated properly. Saturday gets the fullest schedule and the two national broadcasts, which makes it the obvious anchor.
Opening Saturday: 3 October 2026
Thirteen games. 4 of them involve a Canadian club and 2 are all-Canadian, including the first Battle of Ontario of the season. Last season’s finishing position is shown for context, not as a forecast.
| Matchup (away at home) | 2025-26 finish | 2025-26 points | Canadian interest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago at Buffalo | 31 / 4 | 72 / 109 | – |
| Ottawa at Toronto | 9 / 28 | 99 / 78 | All-Canadian |
| Washington at Tampa Bay | 12 / 5 | 95 / 106 | – |
| Carolina at Philadelphia | 2 / 11 | 113 / 98 | – |
| Montréal at Pittsburgh | 6 / 10 | 106 / 98 | Canadian side |
| Utah at Columbus | 15 / 17 | 92 / 92 | – |
| Seattle at Edmonton | 27 / 14 | 79 / 93 | Canadian side |
| New Jersey at NY Islanders | 21 / 19 | 87 / 91 | – |
| Dallas at Nashville | 3 / 23 | 112 / 86 | – |
| Boston at Minnesota | 8 / 7 | 100 / 104 | – |
| St. Louis at Colorado | 22 / 1 | 86 / 121 | – |
| Calgary at Vancouver | 29 / 32 | 77 / 58 | All-Canadian |
| Los Angeles at San Jose | 20 / 24 | 90 / 86 | – |
Winnipeg are the only Canadian team not playing. Six of the seven are in action, which is unusual for a single date and makes this a strong first edition.
Ottawa at Toronto is the one to start with
The Battle of Ontario opens the Saturday schedule. The two clubs arrive from opposite directions. Ottawa finished ninth overall on 99 points with a goal difference of plus 32, while Toronto finished 28th on 78 points at minus 46 and allowed 299 goals, the second highest total in the league.
That gap did not show up in the penalty kill. Toronto killed at 81.2 per cent, inside the top ten, while Ottawa sat 26th at 75.7 per cent. So the problem was not special teams but the volume Toronto conceded at even strength, and whether the roster has addressed it is the question the opening weeks will answer.
Season predictions for 2026-27
Three reads from last season’s numbers, offered as starting positions rather than settled conclusions.
Colorado remain the team to beat, with a caveat. The Avalanche took the Presidents’ Trophy on 121 points with a goal difference of plus 99 and the league’s best penalty kill at 84.6 per cent. They were then swept by Vegas in the Conference Final. Regular-season dominance and a deep playoff run are different skills, and Carolina proved it by winning the Cup from second place.
New York Rangers are the bounce-back candidate. They finished 30th on 77 points, which reads like a collapse. Their goal difference was only minus 12. Calgary tied them on points at minus 47. Same total, very different team underneath, and the Rangers had the fifth-best power play in the league at 24.7 per cent.
Four teams look due a correction. Each banked a healthy points total while being outscored across the season.
| Team | 2025-26 finish | Points | Goal difference | OT losses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 20 | 90 | -22 | 20 |
| San Jose | 24 | 86 | -41 | 8 |
| New Jersey | 21 | 87 | -24 | 3 |
| Detroit | 16 | 92 | -17 | 10 |
Los Angeles is the clearest case. Ninety points looks like a comfortable playoff team until you notice 20 overtime losses, which is 20 single points collected in games they lost, on a minus 22 goal difference.
For the seven Canadian clubs, the honest read is that last season was poor. Three made the playoffs. Three finished in the bottom five, and only Montréal at sixth and Ottawa at ninth carry a genuine platform into the new season.
Where the prices are
This column does not quote bookmaker prices. Availability and pricing differ by province, because Ontario and Alberta run open private markets while British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan run through PlayNow and Quebec through Loto-Québec. A single price would be wrong for most of the country.
Futures markets sit on our Stanley Cup odds page. Match markets, provincial rules and where you can bet are covered on the NHL betting hub. Weekly form is tracked in our NHL power rankings.
Frequently asked questions
Every Saturday through the regular season, ahead of the evening slate. Saturday is the biggest night on the Canadian hockey calendar and carries the largest schedule, up to 16 games on the busiest weeks.
Three to five, with the reasoning behind each. We would rather write about a handful of games properly than produce a line on all 13.
No. This is a weekly column, not a daily one. A Saturday edition lets us do the work on each game instead of turning out a fixture list seven days a week.
Prices sit on our Stanley Cup odds page for futures markets and on the NHL betting hub for match markets. Availability differs by province, so what you can bet in Ontario is not what you can bet in British Columbia.
Tuesday 29 September 2026. Toronto host Montreal and Carolina host Florida. The first Saturday slate follows on 3 October with 13 games.
19+ (18+ in AB, MB and QC). Predictions are opinion, not advice, and are accurate at the time of writing. No outcome is guaranteed. Please play responsibly. ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600 for Ontario residents. Helplines for every other province are listed on our gambling awareness page.