The Carolina Hurricanes and Seattle Kraken were selected to play two regular-season games in Helsinki, Finland, as part of the NHL Global Series. The arena they're scheduled to play in had been closed for three years.
Helsinki, Finland, is slated to host NHL action for the first time in eight years.
The 2026 NHL Global Series Finland features the Carolina Hurricanes and Seattle Kraken playing two regular-season games at Veikkaus Arena in Helsinki on Nov. 12 and 14.
The league now has four regular-season games scheduled in Europe next season. Just over a month after the Hurricanes and Kraken play in Finland, the Chicago Blackhawks and Ottawa Senators are scheduled to face off in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Dec. 18 and 20.
There are expected to be some high-level Finnish hockey players on the ice during those matchups.
Sebastian Aho leads the Hurricanes in scoring, with 25 goals, 47 assists and 72 points in 70 games. He helped Team Finland win bronze at the recent Olympics with six points in six games. His Carolina teammate, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, had been a topic of trade speculation leading up to the March 6 deadline, but he remains on the Canes.
Kraken teammates Kaapo Kakko and Eeli Tolvanen also played for Finland at the Olympics, recording five and three points, respectively. Tolvanen even once played for Jokerit in 2017-18 and 2020-21 when they competed in the KHL. Jokerit now plays in Finland's second-tier league, Mestis.
The home of Jokerit, Veikkaus Arena, formerly named Hartwall Arena, last hosted NHL games during the 2018 Global Series, when the Florida Panthers and Winnipeg Jets traded wins in front of 13,490 fans.
The arena had been closed for three years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Its Russian owners, Roman Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko, faced EU sanctions.
In November 2024, a Finnish real estate company bought Rotenberg and Timchenko's share in the arena, and the newly named Veikkaus Arena was repaired so it could reopen to the public in 2025.
The last time the NHL played in Finland was also in November 2024. Florida and the Dallas Stars played in Tampere, which hosted the 2022 Global Series between the Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets as well.
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