NHL teams released their schedules this past week, many teams had creative ways to announce their schedules, and the Wild were no different. Their PR department came up with a video showcasing the team destroying a symbol that represented their opponents, with the team name and dates they play during the season in the background, and fans loved it.
This will be the final season that the team plays a six-game preseason and an 82-game regular season. In 2026-27, they will be changing to a four-game preseason and an 84-game regular season. In this article, we’ll take a quick glance at the Wild’s schedule and check out the highlights starting with their home opener.
Wild’s Home Highlights
The Wild start their season on the road, but their second game of the season is their home opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, Oct. 11. They hosted them last season as well, and they came out on top 3-2. It won’t be until the end of the month before they host their first divisional opponent in the Winnipeg Jets, on Tuesday, Oct. 28.
Everyone knows Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are getting up there in age, and the end of their careers will be sooner than fans want. For those who want to see Crosby in Minnesota, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be in town on Thursday, Oct. 30, much earlier than past seasons when the Wild usually see them in March or April. For those who want to see Ovechkin, they’ll have to wait until Tuesday, Dec. 16.
Some other games local fans will want to keep their eyes out for will be when another division rival, the Dallas Stars, come to town a week before Ovechkin, on Thursday, Dec. 11. The Wild have struggled against the Stars for years, but their games are always tight and exciting. The other division opponent that gives them trouble is the Colorado Avalanche, and they’ll see them at home for the first time the day after Thanksgiving, in the first game of a home back-to-back on Friday, Nov. 28. The last note fans will want to make for their home schedule is Hockey Day Minnesota 2026, which will be held on Saturday, Jan. 24 when the Wild host the Florida Panthers.
Wild’s Road Path
While every home and road game the Wild will play this coming season is important, we’ve seen the highlights of their home schedule, and now it’s time to see what road games are notable. They’re opening the season on the road against another divisional opponent, the St. Louis Blues, on Thursday, Oct. 9. Shortly after that, they’ll head out on their first road trip of the season, which will be four games long out on the East Coast.
Their first big road trip out west, which is always a doozy, is the first week of December and will be a bit shorter than last season, with just four games instead of seven. Last year, they started the first month of the season on the road with seven games and nearly two straight weeks on the road, and that’s a lot for any team.
While they escaped that road trip at the start of the season, they didn’t miss it entirely; it just shifted to later in the season. They’ll have that seven-game trip at the end of December into the beginning of January, and it will be a west coast trip. The Wild were one of the best road teams last season, and it’ll be interesting to see if they can keep that up this next season.
Wild’s Final Schedule Tidbits
As said before, every game on the Wild’s schedule is important from the first to the last, and while we looked at the highlights of both the home and road schedules, we still have to talk about a few other items on the agenda. They will once again be having a two-week break in February, but this time it will be for the 2026 Winter Olympics that will be held in Italy.
They had a high number of back-to-backs last season with 12, but this season it’s up to 14. It’s normal for teams to have two games in a row at times, but this is starting to get to be a lot, especially when there’s travel involved. Of course, they should have to play some, but they may need to cut back a bit going forward.
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The final note that’s a pretty big change for the Wild is their New Year’s Eve game. For the first time in over two seasons, they won’t be playing at home on New Year’s Eve. It had become kind of a normal thing to see the Wild end the year at home, but they will be doing so in San Jose this season in the early afternoon. Hopefully, they can showcase both their home and road skills and secure a playoff spot early in the season rather than squeaking in at the last second, and continue with a long postseason run.
