NHL Ready For Outdoor Games In Florida with Panthers and Lightning Set to Shine

NEW YORK - The NHL will be playing 2 outdoor games in Florida next season.

That’s not a misprint.

The Florida Panthers and New York Rangers face off on Jan. 2, 2026, at LoanDepot Park, home of Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins. The roof at LoanDepot will be open when the puck drops.

The NHL’s Stadium Series game will be played at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on February 1. It features the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins. The venue is home to the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Both games will be played in the evening. This unique setting could influence fan engagement — especially those using betting appsto follow the action and make their NHL picks ahead of puck drop.

This week, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and several NHL executives met with members of the Associated Press Sports Editors in New York as part of the group’s annual Commissioners Meetings.

The NHL executives were asked about the unique challenges when playing host to a pair of outdoor games in the Sunshine State.

Even if the games are at night.

Here is the transcript:

NHL COMMISSIONER GARY BETTMAN: “We've now done 43 outdoor games, and we've gotten them all in if they've all been successful, they've all been sold out and people are saying, are you insane by pushing the envelope this way? And the answer is tune in and we’ll find out”

QUESTION (Bill Speros – bookies.com): “Are you confident about the technology where it could be 70 degrees?

BETTMAN: “We are pretty confident. And we're also hopeful that it's not 80° and 94% humidity. Which would be an aberration in January anyway. We’re playing the games at night, if it's 50 or 60° will be fine. We played an outdoor game in in LA a bunch of years ago, and it was great.  and so, you know, using the dome stadium in Miami, it gives us the opportunity to keep it closed, up until it’s time to open it. We're going to construct something in Tampa, which will be removed in real time to expose the ice to the elements. The build and the creation of the ice will be secure all week and protected all week. It will just be around game time when it is exposed to the elements. But they’ll both be outdoor games and we’re excited to be trying it.”

NHL PRESIDENT STEVE MAYER: “It's super unique (in Tampa.) We are going to build essentially a warehouse tented environment where we will build the ice inside. And to the commissioner's point, approximately 4 hours before the game, we will deconstruct in front of everybody's eyes, in real time that structure to reveal the rink. Because we've done plenty of weather studies, yes, it could be 80°, but it should be just fine, especially playing the game at night.”

NHL DEPUTY COMMISSIONER WILLIAM DALY: “We’ve learned the biggest enemy of is really the sun and the rain, not necessarily temperature.”

BETTMAN: “You know, it is. The game we had the most difficulty with it was Lake Tahoe during COVID and it was in the 30s, and they said 50%, cloudy, and 50% sunny. What happened was the sun and clouds kept moving with each other and the sun on the ice would cause the problem, even though it was cold out, So playing at night after sundown, we thought we're going to be fine. We're not insane. We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think we could make it work, and we're excited to be doing it. I think the reception in both South Florida and in Central Florida/Tampa is going to be really amazing.”