NHL outdoor games in Miami, Tampa big step for NHL, Florida fans

The morning after the Discover NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field, Nikolajs Slavin and his son, Nikolajs Slavin Jr., waited at Chicago O’Hare International Airport for their flight home to Florida.

Slavin Jr. wore a Winter Classic toque and a Connor Bedard Chicago Blackhawks Winter Classic jersey, but he had a Florida Panthers 30th Anniversary hoodie on underneath. Slavin Sr. wore a Miami Marlins hoodie.

The Panthers season ticket holders from West Palm Beach, Florida, had traveled north to attend an NHL outdoor game figuring they wouldn’t get the chance at home.

“We never thought it would happen,” Slavin Jr. said. “No one thought it would happen.”

Well, it’s happening.

The NHL will play not one but two outdoor games in the state of Florida next season, the League announced Wednesday.

The Panthers will host the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic at loanDepot Park in Miami, playing the New York Rangers on Jan. 2. The Tampa Bay Lightning will host the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, playing the Boston Bruins on Feb. 1.

“Outdoor NHL games in the Sunshine State?” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “Never let it be said that our league isn’t willing to accept a challenge.”

What about the weather?

LoanDepot Park, home of the Marlins of Major League Baseball, has a retractable roof. Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League, does not. But the NHL has played 42 outdoor games in all kinds of conditions.

Seven have been 50 degrees Fahrenheit or higher at face-off. Two have been over 60. It was 62 when the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 in the Stadium Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Jan. 25, 2014. It was 65 for the Detroit Red Wings’ 5-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche in the Stadium Series at Coors Field in Denver on Feb. 27, 2016.

“In Miami, we have every intention of playing with the roof open, but the retractable roof gives us some options and helps protect our rink build,” said Dean Matsuzaki, NHL executive vice president of events. “In Tampa, the venue is open air, and the rink build is much more exposed. We are working closely with our hockey operations department and key vendors on our plans to protect our rink build for the Stadium Series.”

This will not be the first time the NHL has attracted huge crowds for stadium games in the state of Florida. The Lightning played at the ThunderDome, the domed stadium now known as Tropicana Field, from 1993-96. They drew 28,183 for their 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals on April 23, 1996. That was the NHL record until the League began playing outdoor games in 2003.

But this represents the final frontier of NHL events in the Sunshine State, showing how far hockey has come there since Tampa Bay joined the League as an expansion team in 1992-93 and Florida followed in 1993-94.

Florida has hosted the NHL Draft (2001 and 2015) and the NHL All-Star Game (2003 and 2023) twice each. Tampa Bay has hosted the NHL All-Star Game (1999 and 2018) twice. After the All-Star Game in 2018, the Lightning lobbied for the Stadium Series by posting a billboard on the way to the airport with a mock logo and the message: “THANK YOU, NHL! NEXT TIME, LET’S GO OUTSIDE THE BOX.”

The Lightning played in their first outdoor game when they defeated the Nashville Predators 3-2 in the Stadium Series at Nissan Stadium in Nashville on Feb. 22, 2022. The Panthers have never played in one.

Now each will host one for the first time. After this, the only NHL team that will not have appeared in an outdoor game will be the Utah Hockey Club, a new franchise that joined the NHL this season after purchasing the hockey assets of the Arizona Coyotes.

“This is something we have wanted for a long time,” Panthers president Matt Caldwell said.

Florida and Tampa Bay each has earned this opportunity.

The Stanley Cup Final has involved one of these teams eight times, including each of the past five years. Florida made the Cup Final in 1996, 2023 and 2024, winning the Stanley Cup last season. Tampa Bay made the Cup Final in 2004, 2015, 2020, 2021 and 2022, winning the Cup in 2004, 2020 and 2021.

The Panthers (98 percent) and Lightning (100 percent) each are drawing above the NHL average capacity (96 percent) this season. In the afterglow of their first championship, the Panthers sold out of season tickets for the first time and set records for sponsorship, merchandise, parking, and food and beverage revenues.

Meanwhile, ice hockey registration in the state of Florida is up 212 percent from 1999-2024, including 16.1 percent for girls from 2023-24. A decade ago, the NHL never had more than two Florida-born players in a season. Now it is in its sixth straight season of having at least eight.

“The growth of hockey in Florida has just been incredible,” Caldwell said. “The last five years, the Stanley Cup has gone through Florida -- and hopefully we make it a sixth this year.

“So, to be able to celebrate these two franchises and have us play two Original Six teams, I think, is phenomenal. I think our time has come and we deserve to be in an outdoor game. We’re fired up to have it right here locally.”

The Slavins illustrate the growth and enthusiasm.

Slavin Sr. moved from New York to Florida when he was 2 and grew up playing roller hockey in the neighborhood. His 21-year-old son has been going to Panthers games for a decade.

“It’s a little easier to get kids into hockey here, because the Panthers are so focused on community,” Slavin Jr. said. “Yeah, I love going to the games. It’s kind of my only hobby now -- everything Panthers.”

Slavin Sr. took his son and his daughter, Jazmyne, now 18, to Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa to see the Panthers play on the road last season. Father and son will be at the Panthers’ first game in Utah on Wednesday.

The father-son trip to the Winter Classic was Slavin Jr.’s idea. To get into the spirit with no rooting interest, Slavin Jr. bought the Bedard jersey, Slavin Sr. a Brayden Schenn St. Louis Blues Winter Classic jersey. They sat down the left-field line at Wrigley Field and took in the spectacle. Afterward, they posed for a picture with the Stanley Cup, Slavin Jr. pointing at a Panthers hat, Slavin Sr. holding up a Panthers scarf.

“It was a lot of fun,” Slavin Sr. said. “It was exciting. It was cool to see a baseball field set up like that for hockey.”

Wait till next year.