The Minnesota Wild (and the rest of the league) dropped a little piece of hockey candy in the depths of summer as they announced the 2025-26 schedule. The Wild will get their 25th Anniversary season underway on the road in St. Louis, and then welcome fellow 25th Anniversary team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, for the home opener a few days later.
The Wild will kick off the season against the Blues on Thursday, October 9 in St. Louis. A year after the two teams finished just a point apart from each other (the Wild had the 97-96 edge) the two division rivals will likely be jostling for playoff seeding with each other once again as they both look to overtake the Jets, Stars, and Avalanche in the Central Divsion. The season-opening game will be the first of three games (one home, and two on the road) against the Blues.
It wouldn't be a surprise to see these two teams meet at some point in the playoffs with the way the bracketed schedule works in the post-season. Finishing second and third in the division would lead to a first-round match-up, as could any various wild card scenario.
Two days later, the Columbus Blue Jackets, who, like the Minnesota Wild, are celebrating their 25th season of hockey, are in town as the Wild begin the home portion of their schedule. For young defenseman David Jiricek, it'll be his first game against the team that drafted him back in 2022.
After suffering the painful loss of Johnny Gaudreau prior to the start of last season, the Blue Jackets put together a competitive season before missing the playoffs. Much like the Wild, they are hoping that their young core of players, centered around Adam Fantilli, can get them back into the post-season. An offseason trade netted them Miles Wood and Charlie Coyle from Colorado. They didn't go crazy on the free-agent market, deciding to re-sign some of their own players instead. They retained the services of Ivan Provorov, Dmitri Voronkov, and Dante Fabbro on multi-year deals.
The Wild begin the 2025-26 season with 12 games in October, split evenly with six home games and six road games. After a five-game road trip from October 14 - 22, they finish the month off with four games at home.