The Stars and Florida Panthers will play a pair of games November 1 and 2 in Finland.
The Stars and Florida Panthers will play a pair of games November 1 and 2 in Finland.
The National Hockey League and NHLPA announced Tuesday that the 2024 NHL Global Series™ presented by Fastenal will take place during the 2024-25 regular season in Finland and Czechia.
The series will be headlined by the Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils. The Stars and Panthers will face each other for two games at Nokia Arena in Ampere, Finland November 1 and 2. The Sabres and Devils will meet in a pair of games to kick off the regular season October 4 and 5 at O2 Arena in Prague.
The Global Series will be the first time the Stars have played a regular season game outside North America. They become the 27th NHL team to play in such a series.
"It's exciting," Stars coach Pete DeBoer told reporters Tuesday morning. "The last time I was in Finland was with Florida... We were in Helsinki on that trip. We had some Finnish players and we did some Finnish things there... We've obviously got some great Finnish players."
The news is particularly exciting for Roope Hintz, a native of Tampere. Hintz started his SM-liiga career in 2013-14 with Ilves, which played their games at Nokia Arena.
"It's a dream come true to go play there," Hintz said Tuesday. "Obviously, it's going to be my home city too, so it's going to be cool."
Three other Finnish-born Stars players will also get the chance to play in their home country: defensemen Jani Hakanpaa, Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell. The series will mark the 11th season the NHL has played regular-season games in Europe, giving those passionate hockey fans a chance to see the NHL style of play.
Tickets for the Stars-Panthers games in Tampere will go on sale March 22, and Hintz is already anticipating requests from family and friends.
"I'm gonna get some requests for sure," Hintz said. "But I don't know how many."
What can first-time visitors expect to see in Hintz's home town?
"Lots of happy people, lakes, forests and probably may snow at that time," he said. "It's going to be cold, I would think."
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