NHL season opener 2026: Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens preview & predictions
Gavin McKenna wasn’t even born the last time the NHL opened a season in September.
That was September 29, 2007 with the 18-year-old first overall draft pick expected to make his NHL debut almost two decades later and on the exact same day.
He would do it in a matchup that has opened the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season six times running, and now does so for a seventh: the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena.
That’s about the one settled thing about Toronto’s opening night. Almost everything else has turned over – the Leafs have a new general manager, a new head coach, and half a new forward group.
Montreal finished 28 points above them last season and went to the Eastern Conference Final, meaning the ceremony belongs to one side of this matchup, but the recent evidence belongs to the other.
Toronto Maple Leafs home opener 2026: When and where to watch
- Date: Tue, Sept. 29, 2026
- Puck drop: 7 p.m. ET
- Venue: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto
- Broadcast: Sportsnet, first of a Canadian doubleheader
- Market: Click here
The late-September start is a consequence of the league’s new 84-game calendar, up from 82 and the longest since 1993-94.
Both of the added games are divisional, so Atlantic Division rivals now meet four times each season rather than three or four depending on the draw – making this the first of four guaranteed Leafs-Canadiens meetings.
Recent history in the building favours the hosts. Toronto has won 10 home openers in a row, a streak that spans Auston Matthews’ entire career; he has never lost one.
The last home-opening defeat, in 2015, came against Montreal. Last season’s opener went the other way, 5-2 to Toronto at Scotiabank Arena, with the 48th Highlanders piping the teams out that night as they have for decades.
Toronto Maple Leafs 2026-27: Gavin McKenna & a rebuilt roster
Toronto earned this latest overhaul.
The Leafs went 32-36-14 last season, finished eighth in the Atlantic Division, and ended a nine-year run of playoff appearances – then won the draft lottery for the first time since taking Auston Matthews in 2016.
John Chayka arrived as GM and rebuilt accordingly. Jim Hiller replaced Craig Berube behind the bench and takes his first regular-season game as Leafs head coach in the season opener against the Canadiens.
In goal, Sergei Bobrovsky signed a three-year contract and steps straight in as the No. 1 which, for a team that used five goaltenders last season, counts as the summer’s most practical fix.
Up front, four forwards signed two-year deals on the opening day of free agency: Jack Roslovic from the Edmonton Oilers, Colton Sissons from the Vegas Golden Knights, Teddy Blueger from the Vancouver Canucks, and Zack MacEwen from the New Jersey Devils. Nick Paul came from the Tampa Bay Lightning the same day, with defenceman Darren Raddysh arriving from Tampa Bay in a June sign-and-trade.
Most of it is depth, but Roslovic has spent camp on the top line with Matthews and Matthew Knies, and is set to make his Leafs debut on opening night. Paul, meanwhile, left Wednesday’s preseason finale with an undisclosed injury and missed Thursday’s practice. He is listed as day-to-day ahead of the Canadiens matchup.
Then there’s McKenna. The Whitehorse native put up 51 points in 35 games in his one season at Penn State, and has spent camp on the second line with John Tavares and William Nylander – the trio Hiller used for McKenna’s preseason debut against Montreal on September 19.
Toronto has since trimmed its camp roster, and he is expected to be in the lineup on Tuesday, with family and friends travelling in for a night he says he rarely gets.
Montreal Canadiens 2026-27: Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and a settled roster
Where Toronto rebuilt, Montreal barely moved.
General manager Kent Hughes brought back essentially the roster that reached the Eastern Conference Final, losing Brendan Gallagher to Vancouver and adding only Chris Kreider on a one-year deal days before camp after the Anaheim Ducks terminated his contract.
Hughes had reason to sit still. Nick Suzuki put up 101 points, the first Canadien past 100 since Mats Naslund in 1985-86, and won the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward.
Cole Caufield scored 51 goals, making him the first Montreal player to reach 50 since Stephane Richer in 1989-90, and Juraj Slafkovsky added 73 points on one of the league’s best first lines.
Ivan Demidov, now day-to-day with a foot injury, led all rookies with 62 points before signing an eight-year extension in July, while Lane Hutson comes into the season a Norris Trophy candidate.
Martin St. Louis begins a sixth season behind the bench, against a Toronto staff assembled this summer.
NHL opening night 2026: Full schedule
Leafs-Canadiens is the second of five games on opening night. Carolina opens the season at 5 p.m. ET, raising its second Stanley Cup banner and its first since 2006 before hosting the Florida Panthers.
At 8 p.m. ET, with the Leafs game still running, the New York Rangers visit the Boston Bruins at TD Garden – two Original Six matchups on the same night.
There’s also a second all-Canadian game, the Canucks at the Oilers at 10 p.m. ET.
The full 2026-27 NHL opening night schedule is:
- 5 p.m. ET: Florida Panthers @ Carolina Hurricanes
- 7 p.m. ET: Montreal Canadiens @ Toronto Maple Leafs
- 8 p.m. ET: New York Rangers @ Boston Bruins
- 10 p.m. ET: Vancouver Canucks @ Edmonton Oilers
- 10:30 p.m. ET: Chicago Blackhawks @ Vegas Golden Knights
The wider season calendar is in our NHL season preview.
Maple Leafs vs. Canadiens predictions
Two things pull against one another here – Montreal is the better team on last season’s evidence, and took both preseason meetings, but Toronto has not lost a home opener in 10 years.
Score prediction: Leafs 4-3, settled late.
Player to watch: McKenna. A second-line start with Tavares and Nylander is a generous place to begin, and Scotiabank Arena will be waiting on his first touch. A point rather than a goal feels the likelier opening night outcome.
First goal scorer: Caufield, who scored 51 last season and needs very little time to shoot.
Coaching angle: Watch Hiller’s first line rather than his second. He was publicly unimpressed by the Knies-Matthews-Roslovic unit late in camp, warning it couldn’t just be “a rush line” and had to create more in the offensive zone. The response came in the subsequent 6-1 preseason win over the Ottawa Senators, with Roslovic scoring and Toronto dominating the shot count – though not against the strongest Senators team. Whether it holds against Montreal’s top line is the first real question of Hiller’s tenure.
Opening night is here – explore Leafs vs. Canadiens odds and markets on LeoVegas