When will J.T. Miller be back in town? What will be the Vancouver Canucks’ toughest road trip? How many back-to-back games will they play next season?
The Canucks’ 2025-26 schedule came out on Wednesday with a little bit of help from bbno$ (pronounced “Baby No Money” for the non-Gen-Z crowd).
New game modes UNLOCKED! 🔓
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) July 16, 2025
See the complete 2025.26 #Canucks schedule now and explore this year's matchups!
FULL SCHEDULE | https://t.co/wdlFPD59xH pic.twitter.com/17HRHcOzjv
Let’s break the schedule down and unpack the details.
Match-ups that matter
As has become tradition, the Canucks will kick off their season with a game against an Albertan rival. The last time the Canucks’ season opener was against a team other than the Calgary Flames or Edmonton Oilers was in 2013, when they faced the San Jose Sharks instead.
This time around, the Canucks will face the Flames in their season opener, which will also be their home opener, on October 9.
The upshot for the Canucks is that it isn’t the Flames’ season opener. They’ll be playing the previous night, October 8, in Edmonton against the Oilers, meaning the Canucks will get a tired Flames team on the second half of back-to-backs in their home opener.
Another game to mark on the calendar is the return of J.T. Miller to Vancouver for the first time since he was traded to the New York Rangers. Miller and the Rangers will be in town on October 28, which is a Tuesday, for a 7:00 p.m. start time.
Miller’s return coincides with what will presumably be the return of the NHL’s “Frozen Frenzy,” as all 32 teams in action with staggered start times, so fans can gorge on hockey for almost the entire day.
Of course, with Miller coming back that day, Canucks fans might not be paying too much attention to what’s happening in the rest of the NHL.
Here are some other match-ups that matter:
- Pius Suter will make his return to Vancouver with his new team, the St. Louis Blues, just three games into the season on October 13
- The Canucks will face the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers, in Florida on November 17, then host them at home on March 17
- Quinn Hughes will face his brothers on the New Jersey Devils on December 14 on the road, then January 23 at home
- Rick Tocchet and the Philadelphia Flyers, along with Noah Juulsen, will be in Vancouver on December 30
- The Toronto Maple Leafs’ one game in Vancouver on January 31 will, of course, be a 4:00 p.m. start.
- The regular season will end against the Canucks’ other Albertan rival, the Oilers, in Edmonton on April 16
Divisional opponents
While the Canucks will be opening up their season against the Flames, they'll actually be playing them less than some of their other Pacific Division rivals.
The Canucks have just three games against the Flames: the home opener on October 9, another home game on November 23, and one game on the road in Calgary on March 28.
The Canucks will also play the Vegas Golden Knights just three times, with all three games coming in the back half of the season: on the road in Las Vegas on February 4 and March 30, and at home on April 7.
Every other Pacific Division opponent will play the Canucks four times, twice at home and twice on the road.
That means that if the Canucks are battling the Golden Knights and Flames for a playoff spot in the Pacific, they'll have one fewer opportunity to influence that battle, for good or for ill.
Road trips and homestands
Located in the upper left corner of the NHL map, the Canucks always have to deal with a tough travel schedule.
That tough travel starts right away in October. After their home opener, the Canucks will immediately hit the road for a game against the Oilers, return home to face the Blues, then go right back on the road for a five-game road trip.
Including the home games sandwiching the travel, they’ll have nine straight games where they’re playing in a different city to start the season. That’s a challenging way to kick things off.
The Canucks will have another five-game road trip just before Christmas, with a five-game swing through the East Coast where they’ll face the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Boston Bruins, and Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks’ longest road trip will be six games in January, starting in Buffalo, swinging through Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa, then ending in Columbus. It includes back-to-back games, setting up a couple of three-games-in-four-nights scenarios.
Their toughest road trip, however, could be one of their shorter trips when they face a trio of tough opponents in mid-November: the Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Florida Panthers. The latter two games are on back-to-back nights.
Along with some tough road trips, however, the Canucks also have some lengthy homestands.
The Canucks will have two eight-game homestands: one in January and one in March. The March homestand could be crucial. It will come right after the March 6 trade deadline and could be a major determining factor for whether or not the Canucks make the playoffs.
Or, maybe the determining factor will be in March, when they finish off the season with eight of their final ten games on the road, all of them against Western Conference opponents.
Back-to-backs and rest
The last two seasons, the Canucks have had just nine sets of games on back-to-back nights, which was well below average. In the 2025-26 season, however, the Canucks will have four more: 13 back-to-backs.
That’s right around league average, as the NHL season will be slightly more compressed than usual to make room for the Winter Olympics. The entire league will have three weeks off in February, though many of the league’s stars won’t have any break at all, as they’ll be in Italy representing their respective countries.
Not all back-to-backs are created equal, of course. Sometimes, the team you’re facing on the second half of back-to-backs is also playing on back-to-back nights, so it all evens out.
Micah Blake McCurdy at HockeyViz took a look at how often teams are playing a rested team on the second half of back-to-backs and vice versa. The Canucks have a slight disadvantage in that department.
Tired/Rested games for the NHL 2025-2026 season.
— Micah McCurdy (@hockeyviz.com) July 16, 2025 at 10:30 AM
[image or embed]
The Canucks will be facing a rested team while tired ten times next season; they’ll be playing a tired team while rested eight times. It nearly evens out, but not quite.
At least they don’t have as much of a disadvantage as the San Jose Sharks, who will be playing a rested team while tired a whopping 13 times and only getting the benefit of a tired team while rested seven times. Of course, if they’re aiming to add Gavin McKenna to Macklin Celebrini, they might not be too mad about that.
Another factor when it comes to rest is the sheer number of games. With that in mind, January could be a tough month, even with the eight-game homestand, as they’ll be playing a whopping 16 games.
There are only two sets of games on back-to-back nights, but they’ll only have a two-day break in between games once the entire month. It also kicks off with games on back-to-back nights on January 2 and 3 after playing on back-to-back nights just a couple of days earlier on December 29 and 30. That could be a challenging month.
Hockey Night in Canada and Prime Monday Night Hockey
For those Canucks fans cutting off their Sportsnet+ subscription after the recently announced price hike, there will be plenty of opportunities to watch Canucks games by other means.
The Canucks will be playing 19 games on Saturdays throughout the season, the most of any day of the week. Those games will presumably be broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada on CBC.
In addition, select Monday games will be broadcast on Prime Video, Amazon’s streaming service, as part of Prime Monday Night Hockey. It will be the second season that Prime broadcasts NHL games.
There will be four games on Prime Video in the 2025-26 season:
- October 13 versus the St. Louis Blues at 4:30 p.m.
- December 22 versus the Philadelphia Flyers at 4:30 p.m.
- January 12 versus the Montreal Canadiens at 4:30 p.m.
- March 9 versus the Ottawa Senators at 6:00 p.m.
