NHL Accidentally Releases That Habs and Jets Will Play A Heritage Classic in Winnipeg
On Thursday afternoon, the NHL accidentally revealed on their website that the Winnipeg Jets will be hosting the Montreal Canadiens in a Heritage Classic game on Sunday, October 25th, 2026. However, it wasn’t long before the page of the announcement was taken down. Nonetheless, RDS caught wind of the story and released the details about the potential Heritage Classic on their website. The game is expected to take place at the 32,000-seat Princess Auto Stadium, the home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The NHL announces that the Habs will play the Jets in an outdoor game at the Heritage Classic in Winnipeg next year on Oct. 25, 2026. pic.twitter.com/5RtjIyH5kE
— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) December 4, 2025
With this news, the Canadiens are expected to play in their 5th outdoor game (3rd Heritage Classic), the most of any Canadian team. The Habs actually played in the first ever outdoor regular season game in Edmonton at Commonwealth Stadium, home of the Edmonton Eskimos, on November 22nd, 2003, where they won the game 4-3. Despite their history with outdoor games, they still haven’t been able to host one of their own, and it doesn’t seem like they will in the near future with no logical place available in the city.
On the other hand, teams hosting the Canadiens in outdoor games is a recipe to get many fans across the country to go to the city and watch this special game live, which is great for the tourism of that city. Also, it’s no secret that despite not winning a Stanley Cup in 32+ years, the Habs are still the most popular team across the world, and there are fans of the organization in almost every NHL city. With that being said, the Habs may be the best team to have as a guest for an outdoor game.
As for the Jets, this would be the first time they would ever host an outdoor game in Winnipeg. However, they did play as the home team in a Heritage Classic game against the Calgary Flames back on October 26th, 2019. That game was also the first-ever outdoor regular-season game held in neutral territory, as it took place at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, which is the home of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The first ever neutral-site game in neutral territory was on September 27th, 1991, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas between the New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings, but that was just a preseason game.
If the news is in fact 100% true about this game taking place on October 25th, then it would mean that the Jets would be considered the host team almost exactly 7 years apart from the first time that they played in an outdoor game. Although it is early in the season, there is still the risk that the ice could be bad, as the weather could still be way above 0°C at that time of year.
Therefore, the weather may lead to bad ice conditions. Although, with the fact that there have been outdoor games in southern states before, it wouldn’t be the first time players would have to deal with subpar ice conditions. The best part of it possibly being in October is that the weather will be much more tolerable for the fans than it would be in December through February. This could make the overall experience better for the fans in the crowd.
Heritage Classic | Canadiens vs Jets octobre 2026 ⬇️ https://t.co/4GOMc4qdg9
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) December 4, 2025
Given that the Jets did delete their post, it is still possible that the Heritage Classic may not be a thing, but chances are it will be coming up and it just wasn’t ever supposed to be announced.
What are your thoughts on the Habs potentially getting to play another Heritage Classic?
