NEW YORK, United States, September 20, 2026: Brady Tkachuk needed one preseason game to show why Florida surrendered three first-round picks to acquire him. Beckett Sennecke needed less than two periods to turn Anaheim’s opener into another argument for the Ducks’ young core. Tampa Bay’s two major July additions connected on a goal after only 93 seconds, while young players in Boston, Colorado, New Jersey and Seattle used the NHL’s compressed preseason to make roster decisions more uncomfortable for their coaches.
Seven games produced seven winners, but the most important developments were happening underneath the scores. Veteran combinations were being tested, goaltenders were auditioning for roles, prospects were receiving unusually concentrated opportunities, and new signings were being inserted directly into positions that could define the regular season.
The timing matters because this is the NHL’s first preseason under a radically tighter evaluation structure. Teams have only four exhibition games before an expanded 84-game regular season begins September 29. Players with more than 100 NHL games are limited to no more than two preseason appearances, creating more ice time for prospects and less margin for anyone fighting for a job.
The structural change was already visible in The Sports Encounter’s opening-night preseason report, when Montreal’s split squads, Edmonton’s established stars and Seattle’s young players immediately showed how differently coaches are using the shortened calendar.
For the wider season picture, follow The Sports Encounter’s NHL coverage and our complete 2026-27 NHL season preview.
NHL Preseason Results: September 20, 2026
| Game | Result | Defining Story |
|---|---|---|
| New York Islanders at New Jersey Devils | Devils 2-1 | Connor Brown wins it; David Rittich beats former team |
| San Jose Sharks at Anaheim Ducks | Ducks 6-2 | Beckett Sennecke scores hat trick |
| Washington Capitals at Boston Bruins | Bruins 3-2 SO | Charlie McAvoy ties it late; James Hagens wins shootout |
| Nashville Predators at Tampa Bay Lightning | Lightning 2-1 | New signings Ilya Mikheyev and John Carlson connect immediately |
| Carolina Hurricanes at Florida Panthers | Panthers 6-3 | Brady Tkachuk records three points in Florida debut |
| Utah Mammoth at Colorado Avalanche | Avalanche 4-1 | Young Avalanche players turn third period into statement |
| Seattle Kraken at Calgary Flames | Kraken 4-2 | Seattle prospects win again as Logan Morrison breaks tie |
The official NHL preseason roundup confirmed all seven results and the major individual performances.
Brady Tkachuk’s Florida Debut Looked Like More Than a Preseason Experiment
Florida paid a premium because it believed Brady Tkachuk could change the personality and production of its forward group.
The first competitive evidence arrived immediately.
Tkachuk scored twice and added an assist in the Panthers’ 6-3 victory over defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina. His first goal came on the power play with older brother Matthew providing the primary assist. He later sprung Aleksander Barkov on a breakaway before adding an empty-net goal.
The trade cost explains why three points in an exhibition game still attract attention.
Florida sent Ottawa three first-round selections and a second-round pick to acquire Tkachuk in June. President of Hockey Operations Bill Zito described him as the kind of relentless, physical competitor the Panthers wanted in their room when the Panthers officially announced the trade.
That move came after Florida missed the playoffs in 2025-26, following Stanley Cup championships in 2024 and 2025.
The franchise was not rebuilding. It was trying to reload quickly enough to rejoin the league’s championship tier.
Aleksander Barkov’s Return May Matter as Much as Tkachuk’s Arrival
Barkov’s goal and assist carried another layer of meaning.
The Florida captain missed the entire previous NHL season because of injury, making this his first appearance at Amerant Bank Arena since the 2025 Stanley Cup Final.
Florida therefore spent Sunday evaluating something it could not test last season: what its attack looks like with Barkov healthy and Brady Tkachuk added to the available forward pool.
That question becomes urgent almost immediately.
The Panthers open the regular season in Carolina on September 29 while the Hurricanes raise the championship banner they earned by defeating Vegas in June. TSE documented that championship run when Carolina ended its 20-year Stanley Cup wait.
Sunday’s 6-3 score should not be mistaken for a prediction of that opening-night matchup. Carolina used a much younger lineup, and Pyotr Kochetkov still made 28 saves.
The valuable evidence belonged to Florida’s combinations. Tkachuk immediately created offense, Barkov looked comfortable returning to competition, and Cole Reinhardt scored twice while pushing for his own place in the hierarchy.
Why Beckett Sennecke’s Hat Trick Matters to Anaheim’s Next Step
Anaheim’s 6-2 victory over San Jose contained the most explosive young-player performance of the night.
Sennecke scored three times, including a power-play goal created by Leo Carlsson.
The performance needs the right context.
Sennecke is no longer an unknown prospect trying to prove he belongs in the NHL. The former No. 3 overall pick produced 23 goals and 60 points as a rookie last season and helped Anaheim reach the playoffs for the first time since 2017-18.
His challenge now is role expansion.
Can he become a player trusted with more power-play responsibility? Can he create regularly beside Anaheim’s expensive young centers? Can he turn an excellent rookie season into top-six production that carries through the playoffs?
Sunday offered encouraging answers.
Anaheim’s Youth Project Is Entering a More Expensive Phase
The Ducks spent the summer turning potential into financial commitment.
Carlsson enters the season on an $18 million average annual value after Anaheim matched Philadelphia’s offer sheet. Cutter Gauthier also signed a six-year extension after scoring 41 goals last season.
TSE examined how contracts such as Carlsson’s have reshaped the sport in our ranking of the highest-paid NHL players by annual value.
Sennecke’s development now affects the value of those commitments.
A young core becomes far more difficult to defend when high-end players mature together instead of taking turns carrying the offense.
Tristan Luneau also produced a goal and two assists, Jackson LaCombe had a goal and an assist, and Carlsson finished with two points.
The Sharks led after 97 seconds and tied the game 2-2 in the second period. Anaheim then scored four unanswered goals.
That response is the part Joel Quenneville will care about more than the final margin.
Tampa Bay’s New Signings Needed 93 Seconds to Show the Plan
Tampa Bay’s 2-1 victory over Nashville contained one of the cleanest examples of preseason roster construction becoming visible on the ice.
Ilya Mikheyev redirected John Carlson’s point shot only 1:33 into the game.
Both players joined the Lightning on July 1.
Mikheyev signed a four-year contract worth $15.4 million. Carlson signed for two years and $17 million.
More important than the contracts was where Tampa Bay placed them.
Mikheyev skated beside Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. Carlson was paired with J.J. Moser and led Tampa Bay in ice time at 21:56.
Those were not depth auditions.
They were early tests of combinations Tampa Bay may use when the games begin to count.
Victor Hedman’s Return Added Another Layer
Lightning captain Victor Hedman played 19:13 after being away from the team since March 19 on personal leave.
His return allowed Tampa Bay to test a deeper defensive group while Carlson immediately assumed major minutes.
Conor Geekie scored the winning goal late in the first period after pressure from Sam O’Reilly forced a Nashville turnover.
That sequence gave coach Jon Cooper evidence from both ends of the roster: the veterans connected early, and younger forwards created the decisive goal.
Nashville’s performance was more encouraging than the loss suggests.
The Predators used a substantially younger lineup against a Tampa Bay group much closer to regular-season strength. Brady Martin scored Nashville’s only goal with an aggressive rush around Moser, while Juuse Saros stopped 20 shots.
During a preseason with only four games, a 19-year-old beating established NHL defenders may carry more evaluation value than the final score.
Boston’s Win Was Really an Audition for the Next Bruins Core
The Boston Bruins trailed Washington twice and still won 3-2 in a shootout.
Charlie McAvoy forced overtime with 1:43 remaining. James Hagens scored the only goal of the shootout. Michael DiPietro stopped 30 shots and every Washington shootout attempt.
Those three names represent three very different Bruins questions.
McAvoy is established.
Hagens is trying to become part of Boston’s next wave.
DiPietro is fighting to turn opportunity into a permanent NHL role.
The preseason structure magnifies all three.
Boston Put Its Young Players in Real Situations
Head coach Marco Sturm had spent the opening days of camp skating Hagens with Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov.
That trio opened together against Washington.
Minten then assisted McAvoy’s late equalizer, while Hagens delivered the shootout winner.
Boston has already made a major commitment to Minten, giving him a seven-year, $50.4 million extension before the season. TSE examined the thinking behind that decision in our analysis of Boston’s long-term Minten bet.
Sunday therefore offered a glimpse of how the club intends to surround that investment.
Washington also received something useful from its offseason additions. Jonny Brodzinski, who signed a one-year deal in July, scored the opening goal, while Ivan Miroshnichenko added a goal and an assist.
Logan Thompson made 28 saves.
For Boston, DiPietro’s performance was arguably the most consequential. Exhibition shootouts disappear quickly from memory. A goaltender proving he can handle 30 shots and pressure situations can change how a coaching staff allocates the next few preseason starts.
Devils Beat Islanders, but the Goaltending Story Was More Important
New Jersey beat the Islanders 2-1 using a lineup composed largely of players expected to spend significant time outside the NHL.
That alone made the result useful to the Devils’ evaluation process.
David Rittich made 23 saves against his former team after signing a one-year deal with New Jersey in July. At the other end, Vitek Vanecek stopped 20 of 22 in his Islanders debut after signing his own one-year contract.
Connor Brown won the game on a third-period breakaway after forcing a turnover from Marshall Warren.
New Jersey’s wider offseason strategy already included significant roster movement, including the acquisition of Luke Evangelista. TSE explored that broader construction in our analysis of how the Devils and Rangers approached the offseason differently.
Cole Eiserman Gave the Islanders Something They Needed to See
Cole Eiserman scored the Islanders’ only goal on a four-on-three power play.
That matters because New York’s power play was one of the league’s weakest last season, finishing 30th at 16.5 percent.
The Islanders changed the staff responsible for the unit during the offseason, bringing in Rocky Thompson to oversee the power play.
An exhibition goal does not prove the problem is solved.
It does give the coaching staff a young shooter showing he can punish open ice from the faceoff circle.
Those are exactly the traits New York needs to develop if it intends to return to the playoffs.
Colorado’s Third Period Showed How One Coaching Challenge Changed the Game
Colorado beat Utah 4-1 after the game entered the third period tied.
The turning point came quickly.
Gavin Brindley scored 1:52 into the period. Utah challenged the goal for offside.
The review confirmed the goal.
Because the challenge failed, Utah received a delay-of-game penalty.
Thirty-five seconds later, Brock Nelson scored on the resulting power play.
A 2-1 game became 3-1 because of one unsuccessful bench decision.
That is exactly the kind of sequence preseason hockey can still reveal even when the standings mean nothing.
Colorado’s Younger Players Took the Opportunity
Beckett Hamilton scored in his first NHL preseason game. Taylor Makar, Cale Makar’s younger brother, also scored in his preseason debut.
Brindley finished with a goal and an assist.
Mackenzie Blackwood stopped all seven shots he faced before Ilya Nabokov entered and stopped 16 of 17.
Utah also used the game to test a major organizational investment in goal.
Sebastian Cossa, acquired from Detroit in June for a 2026 first-round pick, stopped 11 of 12 shots before Michael Hrabal replaced him. Hrabal allowed three goals on five shots during Colorado’s third-period surge.
That split does not settle Utah’s goaltending hierarchy, but it adds data to a decision the Mammoth paid heavily to create.
Seattle’s Prospects Are Taking Advantage of the NHL’s New Preseason Rules
No team has illustrated the shortened-preseason dynamic more clearly than Seattle.
The Kraken beat Vancouver 4-2 on Saturday with a prospect-heavy lineup.
Twenty-four hours later, another young group beat Calgary by the same score.
Ty Nelson scored in both games. Logan Morrison scored in both games. Jon-Randall Avon produced a goal and two assists in Calgary.
Seattle’s success is directly connected to how the NHL’s new rules redistribute preseason opportunity.
Veterans with at least 100 NHL games can appear in no more than two of their team’s four exhibitions. That creates more meaningful minutes for prospects who may otherwise have spent preseason shifts behind established players. Seattle’s official postgame analysis framed the weekend around exactly that youth movement.
Logan Morrison Responded When Calgary Tied the Game
Aydar Suniev scored both Calgary goals and tied the game 2-2 at 10:26 of the third period.
The tie lasted 93 seconds.
Morrison redirected Tyson Jugnauth’s shot on the power play to restore Seattle’s lead.
That response matters more than simply scoring in consecutive games.
Coaches want to know which young players can execute immediately after momentum changes.
Morrison did.
Calgary also came away with something useful despite losing.
Suniev’s two goals followed another goal in the Flames’ Next Gen Showcase. He entered camp as one of numerous younger players competing for attention and has now forced management to keep evaluating him seriously.
Why These Seven Games Mattered More Than Their Preseason Scores
The NHL has shortened the period between experimentation and decision.
That changes preseason behavior.
Coaches cannot spend six or eight games gradually testing combinations. General managers cannot give every prospect repeated chances to recover from a quiet performance. Goaltenders have fewer appearances to prove they can handle NHL shooters. Veterans need enough work to prepare without using all of their permitted preseason games too early.
Sunday exposed how every club is responding differently.
Florida used established stars together because it needs chemistry quickly after major roster changes.
Tampa Bay inserted expensive new pieces directly into likely regular-season roles.
Boston mixed prospects with established leaders and placed young players in late-game situations.
New Jersey and the Islanders used the afternoon to test depth and new goaltending options.
Colorado allowed prospects and younger players to finish a competitive game.
Seattle leaned into the opportunity created by veteran restrictions.
Anaheim discovered that a player who was already good enough to finish near the top of the rookie scoring race may be ready for another jump.
What Did the Major NHL Coverage Angles Miss?
The most visible league-wide coverage understandably centered on two performances: Brady Tkachuk’s three-point Florida debut and Sennecke’s hat trick.
Those were the headline moments.
The more consequential question is what coaches do with the information they received.
Does Mikheyev remain beside Point and Kucherov?
Does Carlson stay on Tampa Bay’s top pairing?
Does Hagens continue receiving high-leverage opportunities in Boston?
How much power-play responsibility does Sennecke receive?
Can Suniev force himself deeper into Calgary’s plans?
Does DiPietro strengthen his claim to an NHL role?
How quickly can Tkachuk and Barkov turn a promising first appearance into chemistry against full-strength opponents?
Those decisions are where preseason results become regular-season consequences.
What Happens Next?
The NHL preseason continues immediately, with teams trying to squeeze evaluation into a window that closes September 26.
Regular-season hockey begins September 29.
Florida and Carolina meet again that night in Raleigh, turning Sunday’s exhibition into an early reference point for one of opening night’s biggest games.
The Islanders and Devils still have roster decisions to make around young forwards and goaltending depth. Anaheim must decide how aggressively to expand Sennecke’s role within a young core already carrying enormous financial expectations. Boston will continue testing Hagens and Minten together. Seattle’s prospects now have two victories worth placing in front of management.
The results will disappear from the standings.
The decisions they influenced may last all season.
For continuing roster news, preseason results, contracts, injuries and Stanley Cup analysis, visit The Sports Encounter NHL Hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
What were the NHL preseason results on September 20, 2026?
New Jersey beat the Islanders 2-1, Anaheim defeated San Jose 6-2, Boston beat Washington 3-2 in a shootout, Tampa Bay defeated Nashville 2-1, Florida beat Carolina 6-3, Colorado defeated Utah 4-1 and Seattle beat Calgary 4-2.
How did Brady Tkachuk perform in his Florida Panthers debut?
Brady Tkachuk recorded two goals and one assist in Florida’s 6-3 preseason victory over Carolina.
Who scored a hat trick for the Anaheim Ducks?
Beckett Sennecke scored three goals in Anaheim’s 6-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks.
Did Aleksander Barkov return for the Panthers?
Yes. Barkov returned to game action after missing the entire 2025-26 NHL season because of injury and produced a goal and an assist.
Who scored the shootout winner for the Boston Bruins?
James Hagens scored the only goal of the shootout after Charlie McAvoy tied the game late in regulation.
How did Michael DiPietro play for Boston?
DiPietro made 30 saves and stopped every Washington shootout attempt in Boston’s 3-2 victory.
Which Tampa Bay signings combined for the Lightning’s first goal?
Ilya Mikheyev redirected a John Carlson point shot 1:33 into Tampa Bay’s 2-1 win. Both players joined the Lightning on July 1.
Why is the 2026 NHL preseason shorter?
The league reduced the preseason to accommodate an expanded 84-game regular season. Teams are playing only four exhibition games in the compressed 2026 schedule.
How does the new NHL preseason rule affect veterans?
Players with more than 100 NHL games are limited to no more than two preseason appearances, creating more opportunities for prospects and depth players.
When does the 2026-27 NHL regular season begin?
The NHL regular season begins Tuesday, September 29, 2026.