The National Hockey League (NHL) has announced its return to Avicii Arena, with the revamped Stockholm venue set to host a pair of regular-season games featuring the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins in 2025-26.
The NHL, National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) and Live Nation have said the 2025 NHL Global Series Sweden will take place on November 14 and November 16.
The Penguins will play abroad for the first time since 2008, when they faced the Ottawa Senators in the NHL Premiere Series, also at Avicii Arena. The Predators last played overseas in the 2022 NHL Global Series Czechia when they faced the San Jose Sharks in two regular-season games at Prague’s O2 Arena.
The 2025 Global Series will be the 15th NHL season to include regular-season games outside North America, with the first opportunity to purchase tickets to both games available to fans in attendance at the first-ever Hockey Day in Sweden celebration, hosted this year by the city of Linköping on Friday and Saturday.
Sweden is one of the NHL’s most important global markets, accounting for the highest representation (9.7%) of players of any country outside North America. Since 1997, the NHL has staged 46 regular-season games at venues outside the United States and Canada.
Stockholm has hosted the most NHL regular-season games of any city outside North America, with next season’s two-game contest to raise that total to 18 games. Avicii Arena has hosted all of these fixtures, barring the 2018 Global Series game between the Edmonton Oilers and New Jersey Devils at Gothenburg’s Scandinavium.
This season’s Global Series saw two games apiece held at Tampere’s Nokia Arena and Prague’s O2 Arena. Having last visited Stockholm for four games in 2023, the 2025 Global Series will be the first NHL games played at Avicii Arena since its re-opening last month after a full year of extensive renovations.
Including the installation of new stands and seating, the redevelopment was led by Stockholm Live and the City of Stockholm, focusing on elevating the fan experience at the venue.
