There will be four games in Finland and Germany.
The National Hockey League makes its first European regular season trip of the season with a pair of games in Helsinki, Finland featuring the Seattle Kraken playing the Carolina Hurricanes on November 12th and 14th. The NHL schedules games in Europe with teams that have European players and there will be five Finnish players returning to their home country for the pair of games as a selling point. The league will head to Düsseldorf, Germany for a pair of games featuring the Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks on December 18th and 20th. There are a handful of German players in the league including Tim Stützle who plays for Ottawa. The NHL seemingly has big plans for Germany in the future. The NHL has scheduled regular-season games in Germany for the next three seasons. During the 2027–28 season, Munich will host the Boston Bruins, and Cologne will host the Edmonton Oilers. The league has not, as of yet, scheduled the two opponents’ for Boston and Edmonton.
There may be something else. An outdoor game in Germany at some point. “I think it’s going to happen, for sure,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said at the European Player Media Tour in Munich last August. “When it’s going to happen, I couldn’t tell you, but I would say relatively near future would be a good guess.” The league has a partnership with Munich’s soccer franchise to build up the game in Germany. Unlike the National Basketball Association which is planning a European league, it doesn’t appear as if the NHL at this point is too interested in establishing a league or conference in Europe. There would be competition in Europe from the Kontinental Hockey League out of Russia, and others on the continent. But right now selling caps and merchandise in Europe is enough for the NHL.
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