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One of the final frontiers for the NHL’s outdoor games was addressed Wednesday with the announcement of the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning hosting games outdoors in 2026.
The month-long celebration of hockey’s history in Florida begins Jan. 2 in Miami, where the host Florida Panthers will take on the New York Rangers in the 2026 Winter Classic game at LoanDepot Park. Then, on Feb. 1 in Tampa Bay, the Tampa Bay Lightning will host the Boston Bruins in the 2026 NHL Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium.
It will be the first time in NHL history that outdoor games are played in Florida. But after the Lightning and Panthers each hosted All-Star Games and hoisted Stanley Cups since 2018, the NHL noted it will be a celebration of the sport’s success and growth in the Sunshine State.
“Stanley Cups, strings of sellouts and the exponential growth of youth and high school hockey throughout the state have demonstrated that Florida is a hockey hotbed,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a news release. “Outdoor NHL games in the Sunshine State? Never let it be said that our League isn’t willing to accept a challenge.”
The Lightning and Panthers are two of the NHL’s most successful franchises in recent years, with the Bolts winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021 and the Panthers winning their first Stanley Cup in franchise history in 2024. Each of the last five Stanley Cup finals have featured one of the two Florida teams.
Meanwhile, the success of hockey in Florida can also be seen from the youth side. Over the past 25 years, hockey registration in Florida is up 212 percent, with 21,199 registered players in Florida last season – tripling the numbers collected at the turn of the century, according to the NHL.
In addition, girls’ hockey participation is up 16.1 percent year-over-year and up 56 percent over the past eight years. That’s very encouraging in terms of the sport’s long-term growth in Florida, and the outdoor games will undoubtedly create new hockey fans for generations to come.
The announcement of the Florida outdoor games leaves only one NHL team that has not played or is scheduled for an outdoor game – the first-year Utah Hockey Club. We’ll expect to see them participate in an outdoor game soon, but the NHL still has some teams that have never hosted an outdoor game, including the Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens (!) and Vegas Golden Knights.
Sooner or later, the NHL will get those three teams in as hosts as well. The league has done what it can to include every team in one regard or another for outdoor games, and the league’s expert ice-making team can go into any city and create a terrific experience for fans, both old and new.
We’re going to see that ice-making team put to the test in the Florida heat. The climate in the state tends to be subtropical with mild winters, but the Miami Marlins’ baseball stadium has a retractable roof to protect the ice from sunlight when building the rink. But at long last, the Panthers and Lightning can finally enjoy the fruits of staging an outdoor game in their city. It’s long overdue, and now, it’s only a year away.
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