• Powered by Roundtable
    Jonathan Tovell
    Jonathan Tovell
    Feb 18, 2024, 22:25

    With no all-star weekend planned for 2025, the NHL selected the Islanders to host the 2026 festivities at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y.

    With no all-star weekend planned for 2025, the NHL selected the Islanders to host the 2026 festivities at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y.

    Image

    The NHL All-Star Weekend is headed to Long Island in 2026.

    During the Stadium Series game between the New York Islanders and New York Rangers at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, the NHL announced the Isles will host the 2026 NHL All-Star Game and weekend events.

    No all-star weekend is planned for 2025 due to the 4 Nations Face-Off taking its place, which is a week-long competition featuring national squads for Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland. The 2026 all-star festivities will come right before the league pauses its schedule for the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina.

    UBS Arena, the home of the Islanders, will host the weekend just over four years after it opened in November 2021.

    “We have been looking forward to UBS Arena playing host to one of our major league events since before construction of this wonderful arena began,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “We have every confidence that the Islanders organization, led by Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky, will deliver a celebration that will make the greater New York region and the NHL proud.”

    The 2026 all-star weekend will be the first time the Islanders host the event since rolling out the red carpet in 1983 at Nassau Coliseum, a 9-3 victory for the Campbell Conference over the Wales Conference. Wayne Gretzky scored four goals in the third period for the Campbell Conference en route to All-Star Game MVP honors.

    “We are honored to be invited to host the National Hockey League, the game’s finest players and fans from around the world to join us in New York for the 2026 NHL All-Star Weekend,” Islanders majority owner Scott Malkin said in the news release.

    The news comes two weeks after the 2024 NHL all-star weekend in Toronto, which saw the return of the fantasy draft, a new 12-player skills competition, a 3-on-3 PWHL showcase and Team Matthews winning the game.

    For more information about the announcement, visit The Hockey News' New York Islanders site.