5 Must-Watch Winnipeg Jets Games in 2025-26

The pain has subsided a bit and by October, it will have been displaced a little more by the annual hope that comes with a fresh slate. Even with recent history put aside, hoopla surrounding home openers is always fun as fans usually pack arenas for their first chance to see their team in action during a game that counts, and a win to begin the home portion of one’s schedule always feels a little extra important. Leaving the home opener happy is something Jets fans have gotten used to: the team has won seven straight dating back to the 2018-19 campaign.

2: Nov. 21, 2025: Nikolaj Ehlers Returns to Winnipeg With Hurricanes

Jets fans will see Nikolaj Ehlers in another NHL team’s jersey for the first time in person in this late-November matchup.

For 10 seasons since he broke into the league in 2015-16, Ehlers was one of the Jets’ most unique and gamebreaking players, racking up 225 goals and 290 assists for 520 points in 674-career games with the Jets since being selected ninth overall in 2014. He turned many a game on its head and generated plenty of highlight-reel end-to-end goals and slick assists, becoming a fan favourite in the process.

Winnipeg loved him, but he didn’t love it back enough to stay. The Dane has provided only vague platitudes about “a new challenge to grow as a player as a person” as why he decided to leave the only market he’s ever known as an unrestricted free agent and sign a six-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Ehlers will inevitably get a video tribute sometime during a first-period shovelling timeout, but how he’ll be received during that video and when he touches the puck before and after is is quite up in the air. Some fans are understandably not happy he rejected Winnipeg as a place to continue his career and turned down general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff’s pitch to make him a Jet for life. The fact he actually accepted less money from Carolina than what the Jets offered — despite praising the city and organization in a farewell statement — has only added to the conflicting feelings that some fans still may not have worked through by the time puck drops on this one.

3: Jan. 19, 2026: Longtime Blackhawks Captain Toews Returns to Chicago

A few months later, Blackhawks fans will have the similar strange feeling of seeing one of their long-time favourites suiting up for the opponent.

That’s Jonathan Toews, the former Blackhawks captain who signed a one-year deal with his hometown Jets to try and reignite his career after a two-season hiatus due to illness. “Captain Serious,” as the third-overall 2006 pick came to be called in the Windy City, led the team to Stanley Cup glory in 2010, 2012, and 2015, putting up 372 goals and 511 assists for 883 points in 1067 regular-season games and 45 goals and 74 assists for 119 points in 137 playoff games.

Unlike Ehlers, it’s unlikely the now 37-year-old will be received any way but warmly at the United Center. He was already struggling with chronic inflammatory response syndrome and long COVID by the time his last Blackhawks contract expired at the end of the 2022-23 season, and the fact he’s healthy enough to play again should be something all hockey fans — but especially those who witnessed and benefitted from his skill for so many years — can get behind.

4: Jan. 22, 2026: Former Coach Maurice, Back-to-Back Cup Champion Panthers, Visit Winnipeg

Paul Maurice walked away from his position as Jets head coach in December, 2021, saying the team needed a fresh perspective and that he’d taken them as far he could after eight-and-a-half seasons. While it was the right move for both sides as his message and tactics had gotten terribly stale and the Jets needed someone new to repair the poor team culture, he’s won two Stanley Cups as the Florida Panthers’ bench boss since then.

There’s always a little bit of buzz when he returns to Winnipeg. Some Jets fans still love him, and to be fair, he did play a role in the Jets’ rise to relevance after some rough post-location seasons. Their fondness for him was only reinforced last November when he said, despite his team being in their Cup-defending season, that “if I could have one thing more, it would be for the Winnipeg Jets to win the next Stanley Cup.” (Maurice’s club ran it back instead, as we all know.)

The Panthers are now undeniably the NHL’s most-dominant franchise, and this midseason matchup in Winnipeg will be a good measuring-stick game for a team like the Jets. They won the Presidents’ Trophy last season but clearly aren’t in the same echelon as the Panthers when it comes to relentlessness, ability to suffocate opponents, and sheer will to win.

5: Feb. 26, 2026: Jets’ Post-Olympic Stretch Run Begins in Vancouver

The Jets will be off from Feb. 5 through Feb. 24 for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games taking place from Feb. 6 to 22, 2026, in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

NHLers are participating for the first time since 2014, and Jets fans will likely get to enjoy watching Kyle Connor (USA), Connor Hellebuyck (USA), Josh Morrissey (Canada), and possibly Scheifele (Canada) in addition to Nino Niederreiter — who was already announced as one of Switzerland’s first six players — compete on the world stage.

The Jets’ stretch run really ramps up after the Olympics ends, with 26 games between Feb. 25 and April 16. The sprint to the finish begins Feb. 26 with an away game against the Vancouver Canucks, and the quicker the Jets get feeling good out of the break, the better.

Last season, the Jets came out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break (Feb. 8 through 22) in first place in the Central at 39-14-3 and riding an eight-game winning streak. They built that streak into a franchise-long 11-game run with three-straight victories out of the break. There’s no doubt they would like to be in a similar position going into the Olympic break and have a similar success when they come out of it.