Kyle Garcia 
On Thursday afternoon, the Ontario Reign and the rest of the teams in the AHL announced their schedules for the 2026-27 season.
Calendar update: Hockey is SO back! 🤩
📰 https://t.co/49Fqzbkhig pic.twitter.com/ndZdVjNq6o
— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) July 9, 2026
Looking at the schedules across the league, there are quite a few out-of-conference (Western Conference team vs Eastern Conference team) matchups; the Reign aren’t in that group, though. For the third consecutive season, the Reign will play 11 opponents. They will face the other nine teams in the Pacific Division and two teams from the Central Division.
After examining Ontario’s schedule, here are some notes for the upcoming campaign.
The schedule makers cooked on opening weekend
For the first time, the Reign and Coachella Valley Firebirds (Seattle Kraken AHL affiliate) will face off on opening night. The Firebirds will host the Reign in their home opener on Friday, October 2nd, while the Reign will host the Firebirds in their home opener the following night to conclude the home-and-home series to kick off the 2026-27 campaign.
After the Firebirds eliminated the Reign in double overtime of a winner-take-all Game Five of the Pacific Division Semifinals last spring, the creators of the schedule decided to not only have these two square off on opening weekend, but also play another game the following week (Sunday, October 11th). The rivalry has evolved ever since Coachella Valley entered the league and will continue to grow.
As the younger generation would say, they absolutely cooked to open the schedule.
Same outside opponent, but also a new one
The Reign will face the Texas Stars (Dallas Stars AHL affiliate) for four games for a third straight year, but instead of facing the Iowa Wild (Minnesota Wild AHL affiliate) as they did in the previous two seasons, they will see the Milwaukee Admirals (Nashville Predators AHL affiliate) for four games.
The Reign haven’t faced the Admirals since the 2018-19 season.
Four games against Abbotsford and Colorado
Since the Reign are willing to spend money on traveling expenses outside of the division, that means two teams within the division will see their matchups against the Reign go from eight to four. The Abbotsford Canucks (Vancouver Canucks AHL affiliate) and Colorado Eagles (Colorado Avalanche AHL affiliate) will face the Reign four times each instead of eight.
Plenty of weekend home games
The Reign will host 36 games this year, and 24 of them will come on Friday (7), Saturday (11), and Sunday (6).
Two morning games
The earliest start time the Reign had in a game last year was a matinee 1 PM Monday matchup in February against Abbotsford. This season, they will have two morning start times, both coming on the road. The first one will be an 11 AM PST start time on Sunday, February 28th, when they hit the road in Calgary to face the Wranglers; that game will be a 12 PM start time in Calgary, though. The second one comes on Wednesday, March 24th, at 10:30 AM (school-day game) when they travel up North to face the San Jose Barracuda (San Jose Sharks AHL affiliate).
Longest homestand and road trip
The Reign’s longest homestand will be seven games (January 8th through January 23rd). Their longest road trips will last five games (December 15th through December 27th & February 20th through February 28th).
Featured image credit: Bailey Holiver/Ontario Reign