Before Puck Drop: Your Guide to the 2026-27 NHL Season

Last season's Stanley Cup Final was a classic: the Carolina Hurricanes outlasted the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2, capped by a 3-0 shutout on the road in Las Vegas in Game 6. It was Carolina's first Stanley Cup since 2006 and just the second championship in franchise history.

The 2026-27 season drops the puck on September 29 with a three-game national TV opening night: the Hurricanes host the Florida Panthers — back-to-back champions in 2024 and 2025 — and raise their own championship banner before puck drop, while the Bruins host the Rangers and the Golden Knights host the Blackhawks. Toronto's opener against Montreal is also one to watch, with top prospect Gavin McKenna in the mix for his NHL debut.

A few things worth knowing before you start making NHL picks on MockSport. Hockey is low-scoring, so a single goal — an early one, a late one, an empty-netter — can flip a moneyline that looked settled minutes earlier; one-goal games are the norm, not the exception. Goaltending matters more here than the starting lineup does in most other sports, so who's between the pipes can move a line on its own. And because rosters and lines are still shaking out early in the season, don't read too much into the first couple weeks of results.

NHL games can be picked on the winner, the spread (in hockey usually called the puck line) and the total, so there are more ways to play a close game than just picking the winner. Spreads and totals show whenever every game on the board has a line.

Check the NHL page once the season starts for this week's live odds, and How Odds Work if you want a refresher on reading moneyline odds.