The Carolina Hurricanes won their first Stanley Cup in two decades back in June, and tonight, they raise the banner in front of the hometown crowd at the Lenovo Center to commemorate that title. The season opener of the 2026-27 NHL regular season is finally here, with the reigning champs hosting the Florida Panthers – trying to play spoiler on banner night – at 5:10 p.m. ET. It’s an early start as the league gets rolling, but this is a fantastic matchup between two foes that are likely contending for the postseason once again.
Here’s a Panthers vs. Hurricanes preview, prediction and pick for the season opener, courtesy of odds on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Panthers vs. Hurricanes prediction, preview
Tonight’s opener should be an incredibly fun game for a multitude of reasons. For starters, these teams have history – they met in two of the last four playoff brackets as Florida won both of those matchups. Given that both clubs have now won the Stanley Cup recently, there’s probably a little less bad blood than before. Still, these are familiar foes.
Of course, there’s the actual matchup itself. The Hurricanes need no introduction after an extremely impressive playoff run that saw them finally get over the hump. They hoisted the Cup last time they took the ice, but even following a quiet offseason, they’re a real challenger to repeat this season. The entire core returns to run it back, so this remains a very formidable roster. The group of top-nine forwards is incredibly deep with names like Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven, Jackson Blake, Nikolaj Ehlers and captain Jordan Staal. The lone player missing is Seth Jarvis, who hit the injured non-roster list as he continues to rehab following shoulder surgery. He’s a big loss for now, but the Hurricanes scored the second-most goals in hockey during the regular season last year, and that’s not even getting into a defense that also ranked sixth in goals against. While goaltender Frederik Andersen did depart this offseason, Brandon Bussi and Pyotr Kochetkov should be a nice duo in net, too.
As for the Panthers, last year was something of a disaster as captain Aleksander Barkov tore an ACL in training camp and missed the entire campaign. Other injuries soon piled up and then-goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky also experienced a bit of a decline, so the team found itself near the bottom of the standings and outside of the playoff picture for the first time in half a decade. There have been some changes over the last few months, but most key pieces from the core that won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2024 and 2025 are back in action now. Barkov is healthy and joined by Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett and more – with the addition of Brady Tkachuk via blockbuster trade this offseason, too. The roster should maintain a gritty defensive identity with Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, Seth Jones and more among the pairings, but the goalie situation does raise an eyebrow. Jacob Markstrom is the projected starter after reuniting with the franchse he began his career with, and he’s hoping for a bounce-back season as he tries to fend off backup Akira Schmid.
Panthers vs. Hurricanes pick, best bet
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Hurricanes are a -130 Moneyline favorite at home while the Panthers hold +110 odds to win outright. The game total is set at 6.5 goals.
This should be an excellent game between two contenders, so what a way to open the new NHL campaign. The addition of Brady Tkachuk and reintegration of Barkov into Florida’s forward lines adds a significant boost of firepower to a group that was quite underwhelming last season, so the Panthers could already be at something resembling full strength from the jump and go toe-for-toe with the Canes. However, Carolina played deep into the summer and won’t have Jarvis – who was second on the team in points during two of the last three seasons before finishing fourth on the roster last year – and there’s likely some amount of rust on both sides as they get back to game speed.
With strong defenses in each half, I’d rather fade scoring outright and bank on relatively few goals in this contest. I only feel more confident about that since Markstrom is just a year removed from a .900 SV% and a 2.50 GAA –with a better team in front of him that wears opponents down and truly hangs its hat on defense, I think he can get back to that kind of production.
This should be a close matchup, but I don’t expect it to be a high-scoring one. For that reason, I’m taking the under on 6.5 combined goals as the best bet in the season opener.
