Sidney Crosby and the Penguins will head to Sweden early in the 2025-26 season.
The NHL announced Tuesday that the Penguins will play the Nashville Predators in Stockholm on Nov. 14 and 16 as part of the annual NHL Global Series games.
Both games will be held at Avicii Arena, which recently reopened after renovations.
The Nov. 14 game has a start time of 3 p.m. ET. The Nov. 16 game begins at 10 a.m.
Erik Karlsson, one of three Swedes on the Penguins, is excited for the opportunity.
“Obviously, we have a lot of fans back home in Sweden, a lot of young kids who start playing hockey because of the NHL. I wish I had that chance when I was a kid growing up playing hockey,” said Karlsson, who plays for the Swedish national team, in a video released by the Penguins. “So I think it’s a great thing the NHL does.”
Rickard Rakell and Emil Bemstrom are the other Swedes on the Pittsburgh roster.
“It means a lot,” said Rakell, who still spends his offseasons back home in Sweden. “My grandma, she’s 90 years old. Just for her to see me play, it will be a lot of fun.”
This is the 15th year the NHL will host Global Series games outside North America.
It will not be the first time the Penguins have played overseas. The opened the 2008-09 season in Sweden with two games against the Ottawa Senators, winning the first game then dropping the next the following day. Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang were on that team, which went on to win the Stanley Cup.
Crosby reflected on that experience in the video the Penguins released Tuesday.
“I remember just being really excited for the opportunity to play in Europe and in a great hockey city like Stockholm. The fans were super excited for us to be there,” he said. “As players, to experience something like that at a young age, it was a lot of fun. And we had some time there, so that was cool, just to see different things.”
Tickets will go on sale to the public at livenation.se starting on March 26 at 5 a.m.
First Published: March 18, 2025, 2:31 p.m.
Updated: March 19, 2025, 12:41 p.m.
