On June 21, 2018, the National Hockey League Players' Association announced that the salary cap would be set at US$79.5 million per team for the 2018–19 season.
[2][3] On October 29, 2018, it was announced that MGM Resorts International would become the NHL's "official sports wagering partner" in the United States.
This deal includes direct access to new forms of internal statistics data, as well as brand licensing agreements in relation to its sportsbooks, and came in the wake of a court ruling earlier in the year which declared the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (a U.S. law that forbade the legalization of sports betting outside of Nevada and other exempted states) to be unconstitutional.
[6] The Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins played one game (Calgary as home team) at the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Center in Shenzhen on September 15, 2018, and played another (Boston as home team) at Cadillac Arena in Beijing on September 19, 2018.
This season, the mandatory "bye week" that each team received was extended from five to seven days to also include All-Star Weekend.
The Florida Panthers and Winnipeg Jets played two games at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland, on November 1 and 2, 2018.
[8] The 2019 National Hockey League All-Star Game was held in San Jose, California, at SAP Center, home of the San Jose Sharks, on January 26, 2019, the first time it was held on a Saturday after many years of the All-Star game being played on a Sunday.
The following players led the league in regular season points at the conclusion of games played on April 6, 2019.
Through BAMTech's prior 2015 agreement to run NHL.tv and the league's other digital properties, the subscription streaming service ESPN+ began offering up to 180 regular season games.
[138] Rogers announced the retirement of long-time commentator Bob Cole from Hockey Night, after calling a limited schedule of games.
[140][141] The New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders have a broadcast agreement with Entercom for the New York City market that will see only a limited number of games broadcast on their flagship sports station, WFAN, with the rest being carried on the company's Radio.com platform (the university radio station WRHU remains the Islanders' radio flagship).
WFAN had already carried only a limited number of games from those teams in recent seasons, previously pawning off the remainder on other non-sports stations such as WNYM.