The regular season started on October 4, 2024, when the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils played the first of two games in Prague, Czech Republic, as a part of the 2024 NHL Global Series.
[3] The sale, which involved the NHL buying the franchise from Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo, then reselling it to Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA), was finalized on April 18, after the NHL Board of Governors voted to establish a team in Utah, with the Coyotes' hockey assets;[4] however, rather than formally relocate, the Coyotes franchise was instead marked "inactive", with the Utah Hockey Club considered an expansion team in a similar situation to the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL).
[8][2] The Utah Hockey Club will play its inaugural season without an official name, mascot, or colors, while a full identity is developed in time for 2025–26.
[1] The Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils played their first two regular season games against each other on October 4 and 5, 2024, at O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic.
Four teams representing NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States played a total of seven games from February 12 to 20.
This includes Sportsnet's sub-licensing agreements to air Saturday Hockey Night in Canada games on CBC Television and French-language broadcasts on TVA Sports.
[113] This is the fourth season of the league's seven-year U.S. national broadcast rights deals with the ESPN family of networks and TNT Sports.
The Panthers then signed a multi-year agreement with Scripps Sports to broadcast games on three Scripps-owned stations: WSFL-TV in Miami/Fort Lauderdale, WHDT in West Palm Beach, and WFTX-DT3 in Fort Myers.
[145] The Stars subsequently announced a new digital platform known as Victory+ as part of a partnership with A Parent Media Co., to carry the team's ancillary video content, and stream regionally-televised games in-market for free.
[155][156] Along with airing on FanDuel Sports Network, the Blue Jackets, Hurricanes and Predators announced agreements to simulcast a limited number of games on local over-the-air stations.