If you’re like me, waiting out the dog days of summer until hockey starts again, I have good news: I’ve scoured the 2025-26 NHL schedule to come up with a list of road trip ideas for the coming season.

I expect to hit the road for hockey on a few occasions this season. Last season I re-completed my circuit of 32 current NHL arenas by going to see a Utah Hockey Club game at the Delta Center. The team is now known as the Utah Mammoth and the Delta Center is undergoing extensive renovation. I’m not sure I’ll revisit this coming season, but I do expect to come back at some point once the revamp is complete.

While I haven’t made any concrete plans as of this writing, I do hope to return to a few arenas that I haven’t seen (at least for NHL games) in a decade or more, with a specific eye on some of the venues on the East Coast.

For those of you who’d like to put together your own NHL road trip this upcoming season, I’m here to help. Each season we put together a list of multi-city, multi-game itineraries designed to help you visit a number of arenas in as short a timeframe as possible, being mindful of a traveler’s time and budget.

We do posts like this for the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball as well. If you haven’t seen one of these road trip posts before, here are the guidelines that we follow:

• I look to pack as many games into as small a timeframe as possible, at least considering typical travel times (I won’t suggest you travel cross-country for games on back-to-back days, for instance).
• I do my best to put together trips where you’re traveling in the same general direction as you go from city to city (so no zig-zagging around).
• I try to limit the number of times you see a particular team to twice per trip (admittedly difficult, as many times it’s easier to plan a trip through a region because a certain team is on a road jaunt through it).
• And I look only at minimum four-venue trips, because hey, longer trips are more fun.

With that out of the way, check out the NHL road trip itineraries we’ve come up with based off the 2025-26 schedule. And if you’re looking for tickets for these or any other NHL game this season, you can shop for them on Vivid Seats.

1) The East Coast starter

Saturday, Oct. 11: Sabres at Bruins
Sunday, Oct. 12: Capitals at Rangers
Monday, Oct. 13: Jets at Islanders
Tuesday, Oct. 14: Oilers at Rangers
Thursday, Oct. 16: Jets at Flyers
Friday, Oct. 17: Wild at Capitals

Less than a week into the 2025-26 NHL schedule, you can do this five-venue swing with stops at Boston’s TD Garden, New York’s Madison Square Garden and UBS Arena, Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center and Washington’s Capital One Arena.

Obviously, with Rangers home games listed twice, the option exists to go to just one of those games. And this particular itinerary misses the Devils at Prudential Center, since they’ll be on the road for most of this timeframe — but they do return home on Oct. 16 to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers. So if that game is more appealing to you, you can certainly skip over Philly.

2) Fall in Eastern Canada

Friday, Nov. 7: Rangers at Red Wings
Saturday, Nov. 8: Bruins at Maple Leafs
Sunday, Nov. 9: Mammoth at Senators
Tuesday, Nov. 11: Kings at Canadiens

Catch all three of the NHL’s Eastern Canada teams at home with this quick four-city jaunt that begins Stateside, with the Red Wings hosting the Rangers at Little Caesars Arena.

From there, cross into Canada and see the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena, followed by the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre and, finally, the Canadiens at Bell Centre.

3) Thanskgiving week on ice

Monday, Nov. 24: Golden Knights at Mammoth
Wednesday, Nov. 26: Senators at Golden Knights
Friday, Nov. 28: Kings at Ducks
Saturday, Nov. 29: Canucks at Kings

If you’re one of the lucky ones who gets the entirety of Thanksgiving week off from work, why not spend some of it traveling to watch hockey? This year, you can head out west for most of it.

Begin the week watching the Mammoth at Delta Center before heading south, with a pre-Thanksgiving stop at the Golden Knights’ T-Mobile Arena and a Black Friday visit to the Ducks’ Honda Center for a Freeway Faceoff rivalry game (Note: This game has a 1 p.m. puck drop). Finally, check out the Kings on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.

By the way, if you want to see San Jose’s SAP Center to round out the trip, you can tack on a visit Monday, Dec. 1, when the Sharks host the Mammoth.

4) Holiday week hockey

Monday, Dec. 29: Sabres at Blues
Tuesday, Dec. 30: Islanders at Blackhawks
Wednesday, Dec. 31: Devils at Blue Jackets
Thursday, Jan. 1: Red Wings at Penguins
Saturday, Jan. 3: Blackhawks at Capitals

The post-Christmas break presents plenty of opportunities for hockey watching, including this five-city trip that takes you through the New Year.

Start off in St. Louis with a Blues game at Enterprise Center, then round out 2025 with games at Chicago’s United Center and Columbus’ Nationwide Arena. Then, ring in 2026 by seeing the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena and, finally, the Capitals at Capital One Arena.

5) Pre-Olympic trip down South

Saturday, Jan. 31: Hurricanes at Capitals
Sunday, Feb. 1: Kings at Hurricanes
Tuesday, Feb. 3: Sabres at Lightning
Wednesday, Feb. 4: Bruins at Panthers

NHL players are returning to the Winter Olympics for the first time in 12 years, meaning the 2025-26 schedule includes a nearly three-week hiatus beginning Feb. 6.

Before that, though, you can check out the league’s Southeastern outposts by going on this four-game trip, with stops at Capital One Arena in Washington, Lenovo Center in Raleigh, Amalie Arena in Tampa and Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.

The first two games are afternoon contests, followed by the longest drive of the trip: nearly 700 miles between Raleigh and Tampa. So the day off in between should come in handy.

Also, you’ll catch the Lightning having come off their first-ever outdoor game, when they host the Bruins at Raymond James Stadium (home of the NFL’s Buccaneers) in the 2026 Stadium Series on Feb. 1.

6) Back to NHL hockey!

Friday, Feb. 27: Golden Knights at Capitals
Saturday, Feb. 28: Bruins at Flyers
Sunday, March 1: Panthers at Islanders
Monday, March 2: Blue Jackets at Rangers
Tuesday, March 3: Panthers at Devils

The Olympic break concludes and the NHL returns to action on Feb. 25 — who will take home the gold from Milano Cortina?

Whoever it is, you can jump right back into the swing of visiting NHL arenas soon after. Here’s another Eastern Seaboard road trip, with five stops: The Caps at Capital One Arena, the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center, the Islanders at UBS Arena, the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, and the Devils at Prudential Center.

7) The PNW stretch drive

Sunday, March 15: Panthers at Kraken
Tuesday, March 17: Panthers at Canucks
Wednesday, March 18: Blues at Flames
Thursday, March 19: Panthers at Oilers

We’re breaking our rule of not seeing the same team more than twice in any one itinerary, but at least the team in question here is the two-time defending Cup champs, right?

Follow the Panthers along their Northwest road trip with stops at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary and finally, Rogers Place in Edmonton (with the final game being a rematch of the last two Cup finals).

By the way, the Vancouver-to-Calgary trip is a tight turnaround, with less than 24 hours to travel 600 miles — and across the Rocky Mountains, at that. Even though these itineraries are designed to be done reasonably easily by car, it might be best to go by air for that leg.

8) The regular-season capper

Saturday, April 11: Oilers at Kings
Sunday, April 12: Canucks at Ducks
Monday, April 13: Jets at Golden Knights
Tuesday, April 14: Jets at Mammoth

With the regular season in its final week, head out west to catch games at Crypto.com Arena in L.A., followed by Honda Center in Anaheim, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

By the way, there are undoubtedly more trip ideas that I passed over or simply overlooked on the 2025-26 NHL schedule. if you’ve got a trip idea you’d like to share, or better yet, if you’ve got a great hockey road trip already planned, let us know about it!