{coyotes} Mammoth, Avalanche set for 2027 Winter Classic on New Year's Eve

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SALT LAKE CITY -- It will be a New Year’s Eve party and more when the Utah Mammoth host the Colorado Avalanche in the 2027 Discover NHL Winter Classic.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Friday that the date of the game will be Dec. 31, 2026, and he gave the general time of the game that will be played at picturesque Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

“It’ll be late afternoon, early evening, prime time in the East,” Bettman said. “Some of it will be under the lights, and we think it’ll be very cool.”

Utah owner Ryan Smith said the Mammoth will capitalize on the date and time. Dec. 31 is a Thursday, so it leads into the weekend.

“We have a lot planned,” Smith said. “Given the time of the game, we’re going to parlay that into a pretty special concert, obviously in the Delta Center that night, so people can come celebrate New Year’s with us with a ball drop and everything else, which I think that’s going to be exciting. …

“Our hope is that this is a whole weekend, that this is a version of like an All-Star Game where we come in and we can program and activate our state and show our state off, so people come in, they ski, they do it all, all weekend.

“You can expect a weekend of full programming of events -- sports, concerts, activities -- that will be pretty special, and we’re blown away to be able to kick it off with the Winter Classic.”

Bettman was in Salt Lake City for Utah’s first Stanley Cup Playoff game, with the Mammoth hosting the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round. The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1.

The Winter Classic will celebrate the extraordinary progress since the NHL established a new franchise in Utah on April 18, 2024.

Despite a tight timeline, the team bought the hockey assets of the Arizona Coyotes, built a temporary practice facility, completed initial renovations of Delta Center and played its inaugural 2024-25 season as the Utah Hockey Club.

Then the team unveiled a permanent brand identity as the Utah Mammoth, opened a new practice facility and completed the next phase of renovations of Delta Center, which has been packed with loud, passionate fans again this season.

Now the Mammoth will draw their largest crowd yet. Nestled between the mountains and downtown, Rice-Eccles Stadium sits on the campus of the University of Utah and seats more than 54,000 for college football.

“Everything they’ve done -- and you’ve heard me say this repeatedly -- has exceeded our highest expectations,” Bettman said. “If you want to know how to write a textbook on how to start a franchise in a community from scratch, nobody better than what Ryan and Ashley have been able to accomplish.”

The Winter Classic will be the second of three outdoor games on the NHL schedule for the 2026-27 season.

The Winnipeg Jets will host the Montreal Canadiens in the 2026 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic at Princess Auto Stadium, home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, on Oct. 25, 2026.

The Dallas Stars will host the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2027 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, on Feb. 20, 2027.

Rice-Eccles Stadium was the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. The 1980 United States hockey team lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony in honor of its “Miracle on Ice” and gold medal.

“I think this venue is going to be incredible," Ryan Smith said in January. "If you look at the proximity to where it kind of sits down where the ice is, everyone's going to be able to actually watch hockey from here, which I think it's been a little different. So I'm excited, I'm excited about that. This is a dream. We actually came up here early in the process of even getting the team because we said this is what we want.”

When the puck drops for this Winter Classic, all 32 franchises will have participated in an outdoor game. Before this season, the Mammoth and the Florida Panthers were the only teams who hadn’t appeared in one. The Panthers hosted the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic against the New York Rangers at loanDepot park in Miami on Jan. 2.

The Avalanche have appeared in three outdoor games.

They lost to the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 before 50,095 in the Stadium Series at Coors Field in Denver on Feb. 27, 2016, and to the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 before 43,574 in the Stadium Series at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Feb. 15, 2020.

They defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in the NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada, on Feb. 20, 2021. The game was for a TV audience with no fans in attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re excited and honored that the League selected us for the Winter Classic,” Colorado president of hockey operations Joe Sakic said. “The Avalanche organization is always proud to be in consideration for marquee events like this. We’re looking forward to being matched up with a great team and represent the Rocky Mountain region in a game that appeals to these two markets in this part of the country.”