The NHL’s 2024-25 regular season is now underway, and the debate of whether the league plays too many preseason games has likely become an afterthought already.
With opening-night extravaganzas taking place in Florida, where the Panthers are still relishing their Stanley Cup, and Utah, where the relocated hockey club is getting comfortable in its new surroundings, most have moved on.
But that doesn’t mean the conversation is going away.
As The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported recently, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association have had preliminary discussions about potential changes to the schedule, and among the possibilities is trimming the number of preseason games to four and having an 84-game regular season.
The current collective bargaining agreement expires in September 2026, and the topic is expected to be brought up when the two sides have more dialogue. In the meantime, the NHLPA will continue to canvass its players for input.
To see what those opinions might be, The Athletic asked more than a dozen NHL players and two head coaches for their thoughts on the issues.
They touched on all the key points:
• More preseason games can lead to injuries, but with a shorter preseason, those injuries could happen early in the regular season
• Veterans typically want fewer preseason games, while prospects want more
• 84 games could be good, but it may be too many
• If regular-season games are added and they replace preseason games, the players will want more hockey-related revenue (HRR)
• More practices before the first preseason game and comparable lineups
In this year’s preseason games, Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty (broken ankle) and Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine (knee sprain) were both injured during exhibition games for their respective teams and are expected to miss months of the regular season.
“There’s been a lot of big-time names that have gotten injured,” Anaheim Ducks forward Alex Killorn said. “Guys that sell tickets. Those are guys you don’t want to see get hurt.”
“When you see this year how many players are getting injured, you have to think about it,” Minnesota Wild forward Marco Rossi said. “To me, it makes sense to add regular season games and only have three, four preseason games.”
But even Rossi’s teammate, Wild defenseman Brock Faber, wondered if that would matter when it came to injuries.
“I think people talk about the star players getting hurt in preseason, but it’s going to happen at the start of the season if you’re playing less,” Faber said. “Like you need to play games. Your risk of injury will go down once you start to play more and more and more. (If not), then Game No. 1 out of training camp, your whole team’s basically playing Game No. 2, which makes it more dangerous.”
As players have been saying for years, however, few of them arrive at camp still needing to get into game shape.
“I felt like preseason games have become more like regular-season games in terms of intensity, physical play, than it has in the past,” Pittsburgh Penguins forward Rickard Rakell said. “It definitely feels like everything is more competitive from the start.”
They come ready to play, so it’s more about cleaning up any bad habits from summer shinny or finding chemistry with a new teammate.
“I just feel like the preseason is to, for me, get ready for the regular season — sharpen your touches, fine-tune your edges, get the rhythm and the reps,” Penguins forward Lars Eller added. “I don’t personally need more than one or two games for that. To play three or four is just not necessary.”
That’s what most of the veterans who were surveyed said, which is why they feel six or eight preseason games are unnecessary.
“That’s a bit much,” St. Louis Blues forward Brandon Saad said. “I think every guy that I’ve talked to only needs two or three to feel ready. But I understand how they want to see other guys and give guys a chance.
“Back when I was in Chicago, I played a majority of the preseason games. I’m sure they wanted to see me in those situations, so that benefited me. So I see why it’s there, but at the same time, I don’t really think that many are necessary.”
A few lockers down from Saad was one of those prospects who could benefit from more preseason games.
“You have a lot of guys at camp, so those games are important,” Blues forward prospect Zach Dean said. “If there’s only three preseason games, the vets are going to want to get at least two games in before the start of the season, and it’s going to be tough to get the young guys in.”
There could be a way around that issue, though the solution wouldn’t be actual NHL games for those prospects.
“I think if they decrease the number of (preseason) games and you feel rookies aren’t getting a chance to make an impression, you should increase the rookie camp right before main camp instead,” Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson said. “Then you know who could actually take a spot and just bring those players in. Then you don’t need as many games.”
But it’s not just the prospects who are hoping for some ice time in camp.
“When you look at it from the aspect of being a bubble player, four is probably not enough games in the preseason,” Penguins forward Cody Glass said. “You want as many opportunities as you can to prove yourself. That’s where it’s tough, right? It’s a hard question.”
There are plenty of players who have been in that spot.
“If you asked me 10 years ago when I was trying to make the lineup, I’d probably say I want 20 preseason games to try to make the team,” Wild forward Ryan Hartman said. “So there’s two sides the way you can look at it. For the vets, we probably don’t want it. For the kids, they do.”
If there’s a shorter preseason, the chatter around the league is that there could be two more regular-season games for an 84-game schedule.
“I mean, regular season games are meaningful, right?” Winnipeg Jets forward Cole Perfetti said. “In the regular season, everyone’s so excited for that. Everyone’s itching for the regular season, so I think everyone would really enjoy that. We’re here anyways. Why not play?”
It’s one thing, though, when you’re 22 years old like Perfetti and another thing when you’re 39 and have played the fourth-most games of any goaltender in NHL history.
“I could jump into a longer regular season, but I feel if you asked in mid-February, you could feel a little different,” Wild goalie Marc-André Fleury said.
Other vets don’t mind the idea, but wonder if 84 games is really the right answer.
“You go back and forth,” Saad said. “It’s nice to have a lot of games, but at the same time, if you played 70 games, and they’re more intense, that might be better for hockey, too. It’s a long enough season as it is, and the more you add, the harder it is on players. I don’t think we need more hockey games necessarily.”
Necessary? Perhaps not. But if it brought in more revenue?
“In terms of 84 games, I would have to see how that would affect the bottom line — if guys are going to end up getting paid more,” Killorn said. “I know the owners take a lot of the money in the preseason. If we’re going to play those games anyways, might as well get paid for them. It’s all a calculation. It’s all based on revenue. If we did play those two games, we would have higher revenues. How that would affect contracts? I don’t know. I just don’t want to get into a situation where it’s, ‘OK, 84. What about 86?’ That’s where I get a little worried.”
That, of course, would be what drives any decision.
“I do think a lot of it comes from the financial side of the game,” Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey said. “If two extra regular-season games contribute to that, that will probably be the decision that people a lot smarter than I make.”
Even if the NHL and NHLPA decide not to shorten the preseason, or extend the regular season, coaches and players alike hope there are other differences in the exhibition schedule.
“I think the biggest challenge is we put these guys in games three days into training camp in some instances,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “I mean, how could a team possibly pull itself together and play a game three days into training camp? Yet, that’s what we do. I’m not sure that makes a lot of sense.”
Another coach agreed.
“I still (think) we need the length of training camp,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “But I think there’s ways around that, having more scrimmages in practices early on compared to jumping in games. I think there’s a happy medium there that would be good for both the players and also the coaching staff where we’re able to get enough done and make decisions.”
And when teams do begin their preseason schedule, the prevailing sentiment is that the lineups should look more similar.
Currently, the NHL requires clubs to suit up a minimum of eight veterans, which is defined as skaters who have played 30 NHL games the previous season, goalies who’ve dressed in 50 games or played in 30 the previous year, any player who has played in 100-plus games, or a current-year first-round pick.
“I don’t think it’s really fair for the young guys not to be able to show themselves, so maybe (give them a couple of games) and just play the top guys the last two games of the preseason, where the lineup is a little NHL-like,” Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas said.
Gudas isn’t alone, but for another reason.
“It’s not really appealing to fans in general, too,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno said.
So will there be any changes? Do the players want them? What’s the consensus?
“It’s something that should be talked about for sure,” New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal said. “I don’t know if there’ll be any action taken on it but I definitely think it’s a conversation we should be having.”
— The Athletic’s Michael Russo, Eric Stephens, Rob Rossi, Murat Ates and Arthur Staple contributed to this report
(Top photo of Logan Cooley and Casey Mittelstadt taking a faceoff in a preseason game: Aaron Baker / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
