The NHL and the NHL Players' Association are negotiating a potential increase to an 84-game regular season during their collective bargaining agreement talks, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
An increase over the current 82-game schedule has been discussed internally by the NHL over the past few seasons. The league has been considering scheduling alternatives after some franchises complained about an imbalanced number of divisional games against rivals -- contests that typically draw larger crowds and bigger television audiences.
The addition of two regular-season games would allow the NHL to keep its current schedule format, which sees every team visit every opponent at least once while giving divisional rivals four games against each other every season. But there has been discussion on other alterations to the format as well.
It is expected the NHL would reduce the number of preseason games to compensate for the additional two regular-season games. A source told ESPN that there is some concern on the players' side about "wear and tear" from two additional regular-season games.
The current CBA expires Sept. 15, 2026.
The NHL previously had an 84-game regular season from 1992 to 1994, when the league and NHLPA agreed to add two "neutral site" games to every team's schedule.
An expanded regular season is one of several issues being negotiated in the CBA talks. They include a way to address teams' use of the long-term injured reserve salary cap exemption late in the regular season only to bring those players back into their lineups at the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs. One possible remedy: that lineups iced in the playoffs must be cap compliant, although the entirety of the roster can still be over the salary cap in the postseason.
The NHL and NHLPA have been nearing agreement on a new CBA over the past several weeks. Multiple reports said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had an extensive review of the talks at Wednesday's Board of Governors meeting in Los Angeles but there was no vote to ratify it.
During the Stanley Cup Final in Edmonton, Bettman characterized the talks with the players as "constructive, professional and cordial."
"We started a little bit later than we had anticipated for a variety of reasons on both sides, so I don't have an announcement to make today that we have a deal," Bettman said hours before Game 1 between the Panthers and Oilers. "We have more than a year to go, and I think we're in a really good place in terms of our relationship."
