The Dallas Stars, along with the entire NHL, officially released their 2025-26 regular season schedule on Wednesday, always a surge of excitement during an otherwise silent time for hockey fans mid summer.

First of all, here is the Stars full schedule:

Now, let’s dive into a few of the highlights and potential moments throughout the year.

Season opener is always a good time

As they did last season, the Stars open 2025-26 on the road. This season, they open their schedule at the Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 9 and in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche two days later.

Talk about seeing familiar faces. The Stars dispatched both the Avalanche and Jets in the first two rounds of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. They impressively overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat the Avs in Game 7 and handled the Presidents’ Trophy Jets in only six games. Will this be the return of Connor Hellebuyck-Buyck-Buyck on the DLLS Stars show? Will Colorado get a bit of revenge on the team that ended their season two years running?

Oh, and the Stars get to see an old friend in Jonathan Toews, now with the Jets after missing two full seasons due to injury… well, not so much a friend. More so, a player who haunted their dreams, slicing up many Dallas teams with his pal Patrick Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks.

The NHL schedule begins on Oct. 7, so per usual — or at least it feels like it is — Dallas will wait around a couple of days before dipping their toes in the water.

I feel home

After two road games, the Stars finally get to play in front of a packed, sold-out, and raucous American Airlines Center crowd in their home opener against the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 14. Sure, it’s a Tuesday night. But that doesn’t matter in Texas. Stars fans are going to flood that building, the Green Carpet will be lined up hours early, and the atmosphere should be a fun (and hot) one in Big D.

Opening up at home against Minnesota is fun since that is where Dallas began as an NHL franchise. However, that rivalry has cooled off, if it ever really got going. How about a Minnesota-Dallas playoff round again? I know the fans hate each other, and I’m sure many of the players feel the same.

Two days later, Dallas welcomes the Vancouver Canucks to town for a Thursday night showdown. The Canucks were a MESS with a capital every letter last season. But this year, they hope to put most of that behind them, as captain Quinn Hughes and new head coach Adam Foote look to get back in the playoff race and the media cycle for good things, rather than the bad and messy.

Welcome back, boys!

I always think it’s nice when a former Stars player gets to face his old team in Dallas first, rather than on the road. And that’s what we get to see this year, and pretty early in the season, too.

On Oct. 25, just the eighth game of the season, Dallas fans get to welcome back a player they loved, Logan Stankoven.

Stankoven — fresh off signing an eight-year extension– and the Canes should make for a fun Saturday night at the AAC, the first home Saturday of the year. Stankoven was a key piece in the trade that brought Mikko Rantanen to Dallas. Although not many Stars fans can possibly find a way to complain about adding a superstar like Rantanen, most or maybe even all, are disappointed and sad that it had to be Stankoven going the other way.

Stankoven came on the DLLS Stars show this summer to talk about his trade, former teammates and good friends, and plenty of other fun stuff. Check that out if you missed it!

But Stankoven is not the only former Stars forward to make a welcome return to Dallas this season.

Mason Marchment and the Seattle Kraken come to town on Sunday, Nov. 9. Marchment was traded to Seattle this summer to make some room in the salary cap to bring back Matt Duchene and Jamie Benn. Stars GM Jim Nill admitted he did not want to move Marchment, but the addition of Rantanen and the earned extensions of Thomas Harley, Wyatt Johnston, Jake Oettinger, and Esa Lindell made it impossible to keep him around.

Marchment has a lot to prove in Seattle. After getting off to a wicked hot start last year, he saw his offense dry up after his brutal facial injury. He never really re-found that offense and was among the many underperforming forwards during the Stars playoff run.

Many, including myself, believed Marchment was a key to this team taking a more physical approach next season. The Stars are making a conscious effort to do exactly that, including being heavier on the forecheck, but will have to do it without one of the better F1 forecheckers in the game.

But more importantly, the reunion of Marchment and Oettinger, and the likely many hijinks that will come between the two buddies, will be fun to watch.

We meet again, for the first time, for the last time

I understand that this heading makes no sense. I was going to just say we meet again. But then I thought, if I don’t add “Spaceballs” references every week or so, what am I really even doing with my life?

On Nov. 4, the Stars host their now-hated rivals, the Edmonton Oilers. Is rival too strong a word?

I know many sports fans who believe both teams have to win for it to be a true rivalry. In reality, Edmonton has not only ended the Stars season in the Western Conference Final two years running, but they have exposed Dallas and made them look the far inferior team of the final four, especially this year.

Edmonton is also the source of plenty of drama and likely the main reason Pete DeBoer is no longer behind the Dallas bench. DeBoer was fired after falling short again, but also because of the way he pulled Oettinger in an elimination Game 5 and pretty much stomped all over his franchise goalie in postgame and exit interviews.

In a bigger sense, the loss to Edmonton is why Glen Gulutzan is back leading the Stars.

It’s nice that many of these “big” games or reunions take place in Dallas. Fans get to see some of their favorite players and their most hated team up close on home ice. Should be a fun year, can’t wait to cover it with y’all.

Other notable dates

• Nov. 1 – Dallas travels to Sunrise to face the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
• Nov. 6 – Mikael Granlund returns to Dallas with the Anaheim Ducks.
• Nov. 25 – The first visit back to Edmonton.
• Nov. 28 – The first-ever matchup with the Utah Mammoth.
• Jan. 29 – A matchup with Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, and the Vegas Golden Knights that Stars fans adore so much. Oh, and it is exactly one year and one day from the moment Stone dove headfirst into Miro Heiskanen’s knee. So there’s that.
• Feb. 5 – Feb. 24 – A long, three-week break for the Winter Olympics, which NHL players will partake in for the first time since 2014.
• April 15 – The regular-season finale at the Buffalo Sabres during a month that features five home games in 10 days.