MUNICH — In an effort to grow the National Hockey League’s popularity in Germany, the league and soccer giant FC Bayern Munich on Thursday announced a multiyear partnership and four more regular-season NHL games on German soil in coming years.

The NHL will play two regular-season games featuring the Boston Bruins in Munich during the 2027-28 season, plus two more featuring the Edmonton Oilers in Leon Draisaitl’s hometown of Cologne.

Those will follow two games between the Chicago Blackhawks and Ottawa Senators in Düsseldorf this coming December.

The first-of-its-kind partnership between the NHL and Bayern Munich was the product of a six-month negotiation that saw senior leaders from the organizations regularly crisscross the Atlantic to work through the potential for collaboration on co-branding, content, merchandise and whatever else they could think up.

The multiyear partnership with Bayern and additional NHL games come at a time when the league is mounting a concerted push in the German market, and NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly believes his league can learn from the country’s sporting standard-bearer.

“This isn’t just a team,” Daly said. “This is like 60 percent of the people in Germany are Bayern fans.”

There was no template to work from for a strategic alliance between a professional sports league and a club that plays another sport on another continent. That made for an unlikely scene inside Bayern’s headquarters on Thursday morning, when Daly sat alongside Kasper for a news conference conducted concurrently in German and English, then presented him with a replica Stanley Cup and gave way for Bayern star Alphonso Davies to join German-born NHLers Draisaitl and JJ Peterka on stage.

The gathering reinforced the possibilities at hand for the world’s top hockey league and one of soccer’s marquee clubs.

Rouven Kasper, Bayern’s chief marketing officer, is a member of FC Bayern’s board and oversees the club’s national and international marketing and sales. He was drawn to the NHL’s strong following abroad and believes the partnership will allow the team to expand its reach, which it currently pegs at 1.1 billion followers.

“The NHL is one of the biggest leagues in the world, the best hockey league in the world and this is our ambition: We always want to work together only with the best,” Kasper said. “What we have in common is that we are very close with our fans, that the dialogue is strong, that the atmosphere is good, and bringing these synergies together. When we were sitting together discussing (this possibility), it just totally made sense. For the NHL, it’s important coming to Europe, especially to Germany, and we can help them a lot here. And the other way around when it comes to (Bayern going to) the U.S., so I think it completely makes sense.”

On top of the four games announced Thursday, NHL has already committed to bringing more games to Germany for the 2028-29 season, and Daly told reporters that the league may eventually stage an outdoor game in the country, citing the 75,000-seat Allianz Arena, where Bayern Munich plays, as a possibility.

It’s all part of a “full-out effort to connect with the German fanbase,” Daly said. A league-initiated market analysis identified the country of 84 million as having huge potential for NHL growth, and the league’s board of governors recently signed off on a plan that identified Germany as a major priority.

“It’s a very developed economy here,” Daly said. “It’s a great sports market. Big population. All of the things lined up here. Again, I don’t want to say that it didn’t line up in other countries, but it did (here) to the point where we recommended a priority list to the board, and they embraced Germany.”

Viewed in that context, the decision to partner with Bayern Munich made a lot of sense for the NHL.

The club is a behemoth, with 45.2 million Instagram followers compared to the NHL’s 7.3 million, not to mention a trophy case that includes 14 of the last 15 domestic titles and a payroll more than double any of its competitors in Germany. That fact prompted a lighthearted moment during Thursday’s news conference when Davies was asked about salary caps, which the Bundesliga doesn’t feature while the NHL does.

“Obviously I’m happy that there’s no salary cap in football,” said Davies, whose yearly salary can reach 20 million euros ($24 million USD) with bonuses — significantly more than the $14 million Draisaitl commands as one of the NHL’s top stars. “I don’t really know how the salary cap works over there.”

Davies made those comments while sitting in front of a packed room two days before the start of Bayern’s season, with the Super Cup Final set to be played against Dortmund Saturday night.

While he counts Edmonton as his hometown and has been a regular attendee at Oilers games, including during the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, Davies wouldn’t typically find himself discussing hockey with members of the German media on the eve of a new campaign.

However, the hope from both the NHL and Bayern is that their new partnership will make this kind of crossover seem less foreign in the future.

“We both have established fanbases, we both have established business partners,” Daly said. “We want to collaborate and share information with respect to those business partners, and find ways to collaborate and move the business forward.

“Bayern is a world-class brand. It is known worldwide. It’s iconic. It’s unmatched in its credibility and its authenticity in terms of how it creates its fans. We want to learn from that.”

Ultimately, the chance to compare notes and forge new ground is what brought a hockey league and soccer club together.

“This is completely unique,” Kasper said. “Not just for our club. I think you’ve never saw it, that a league like the NHL is cooperating with a club and the other way around. We are both thinking quite innovatively and going new ways.

“This is what you saw today, and it’s just the start.”

Red Light newsletter 🏒 | This is The Athletic’s hockey newsletter. Sign up here to receive Red Light directly in your inbox.

Good morning to everyone except all the players who turned 23 this year and can’t be in our prospect rankings anymore. Welcome to being old, fellow codgers. Somebody get Matthew Knies a rocking chair. Hike up those pants, Matty Beniers. Prepare to get really into weather-tracking apps, Owen Power. Father Time comes for us all, and he’s undefeated.

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Ezra Shaw, Michael Reaves, Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)

The Future

Happy prospect ranking week

It’s been a big week for our hockey coverage, with prospects expert Corey Pronman dropping his annual rankings of each team’s pipeline of players 22 and younger.

You can find the full ranked list here, and as always, your favorite team is ranked way too low. (If Corey actually watched the games, he’d know your team’s sixth-round pick is an elite prospect even though he holds his stick the wrong way and once played an entire playoff game with his skate guards on.) Many people think this is because Corey hates their favorite team, but that’s not true. It’s that he hates you, personally. You know what you did.

All joking aside, Corey spends a ton of time putting his rankings together, and the level of detail for each team is impressive. Luckily for us, he still found some time to answer a few questions for Red Light readers.

While we don’t want to spoil all the suspense, it’s no surprise San Jose tops the list, given it just added an impressive draft haul to a system that already has Macklin Celebrini and plenty more. Just how high can the Sharks’ ceiling be?

💬 Pronman: “The hardest piece to find is a star No. 1 center. Celebrini looks a lot like how Sidney Crosby did at the same age. The Sharks don’t have an Evgeni Malkin type as well, but they are a very deep and talented young team. They have the makeup of a potential Cup contender in the moderate future.”

One thing that stands out at the top of your list is that seven of the eight highest-ranking teams are in the West. We know about names such as Connor Bedard and Leo Carlsson, but is there a name in that group that you think fans out east should be paying more attention to?

💬 Pronman: “Utah feels like a team on the cusp. It has a strong roster and a high-end collection of young players. Not all of them will be able to play for the Mammoth, who have the chips to make a big play.”

The one top-eight exception in the East is the Montreal Canadiens, who ranked third among teams and have three of the top 11 players on today’s overall list. Given that they’re already coming off a 106-point season where they won two playoff rounds, just how screwed is the rest of the conference for the next decade or so?

💬 Pronman: “You would think they would be screwed if Florida wasn’t a thing and Toronto didn’t just get the No. 1 pick and Buffalo wasn’t also very young. Montreal has the most promising outlook, though, of any team in the East — by a fair margin.”

Thanks to Corey for that. Now it’s time for you to head over and find out where your team ranked and how each of its top 22-and-under players breaks down by potential future impact.

And if the team rankings aren’t enough, don’t forget to check Corey’s tiered ranking of 156 young players from around the league, as well as a special ranking of the top players drafted outside the first round.

The Calder Trophy. (Christopher Hanewinckel / Imagn Images)

💡 Trivia Time

Let’s keep the prospect theme going, with a nod toward Corey’s ranking of players drafted outside the first round. In the cap era, how many players can you name who were not first-round draft picks but went on to win the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year?

A few hints: There’s one recent winner you should probably get fairly quickly. There are multiple European winners who didn’t come over to the NHL until years after being drafted. And don’t forget about the goaltenders.

Answer at the bottom.

Coast to Coast

🤯 Macklin Celebrini is the first hockey player not named Wayne Gretzky to have his card sell for more than $1 million. The Sharks superstar — at just 20 years old — is one of only 33 players across five sports who’ve had one or more of their cards sell for at least $1 million. The sale price of his Upper Deck Young Guns Gold Outburst? A cool $1.28 million.

🗳️ How confident are you in your team’s front office? Tapping into the collective opinion of our well-informed subscribers, we quantified that confidence, or lack thereof. The Hurricanes are no surprise at No. 1, but it gets very interesting after that.

🦘 If you’re like me and you’ve ever wondered why NHL teams bother testing how high a player can jump, check out this fascinating piece from Fluto Shinzawa.

👶 Every fanbase is unique, but one thing unites us all: the lingering belief that every random rookie who debuts against our team absolutely lights them up.

🚨 Jesse Granger checks in from the star-studded U.S. national goaltending symposium, where the vibes around American goalies couldn’t be any better.

📺 Julian McKenzie has the news of the end of the barrier-breaking “Hockey Night in Canada: Punjabi Edition” after 18 years on the air.

🤫 Arpon Basu weighs in on the pressing offseason question in Montreal: Why were the Habs so quiet?

🎙️ It’s a big week for “The Athletic Hockey Show” as Pronman has a full breakdown of all 32 teams’ prospect systems. Plus, on a separate episode, the guys deep dive into Corey’s under-23 player rankings and Scott Wheeler’s first 2027 NHL Draft ranking of the year. Listen or watch here.

Dylan Larkin. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

Losing the Plot

NHL’s forgotten storylines

One of the most frustrating things that can happen as a TV fan is getting invested in a storyline on your favorite show, only to have the writers and producers just kind of … forget about it. As a viewer, you’re left sitting there thinking “Wait, didn’t that used to be important?”

Luckily, the NHL’s script writers rarely fall into this trap. If they introduce some random waiver-wire pickup early on, it’s probably going to be important by the end of the season.

But every now and then, they introduce what seems like a major plotline and then just kind of abandon it for a while. That’s been a theme of the offseason so far, where a bunch of seemingly crucial stories from early summer are still just kind of sitting there as we head into late August.

Here are three that come to mind. If you’re an NHL writer, consider this your gentle reminder to get going.

1️⃣ Team USA exodus

The setup: In the aftermath of their Olympic win, all of Team USA’s star players apparently got together in a group chat and decided to demand trades. Zach Werenski, Dylan Larkin, Brady Tkachuk and Connor Hellebuyck were all going to be on the move. Tkachuk went first, heading to join his brother in Florida, leaving three more big names to drive the summer trade market.

But then … Werenski appeared to change his mind, pulling himself off the market, at least for now. Hellebuyck was apparently close to being dealt to the Sabres at the draft, but it fell through and his trade talk has since gone quiet. As for Larkin, he still hasn’t been traded, and now we’re not even sure who would be trading him, because …

2️⃣ Red Wings’ new GM

The setup: The shocking news of Steve Yzerman‘s ouster as Wings GM came in mid-July, leading to all sorts of speculation about what would come next, how it would affect Larkin and what it would mean about what the floundering Red Wings were even trying to do.

But then … over a month later, and … nothing yet. Detroit is the only team in the league without a GM, leaving not just Larkin but basically its entire 2026-27 plans in limbo. Meanwhile, we’ve yet to so much as hear from Yzerman himself on the move.

3️⃣ Resetting of the blue-line market

The setup: With Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes both needing extensions, the clock was ticking on two contracts that would no doubt blow the lid off of Erik Karlsson’s league-high $11.5 million cap hit for defensemen. The question was not just who would get what, but who’d go first and how long it would all take.

But then … crickets so far, with neither player re-signing or even sounding like he’s all that close. Instead, it was Bowen Byram who got to temporarily assume Karlsson’s throne. That’s fine as far as Hughes and Makar go — they’re both under contract for the coming season, so in theory they’ve got 10 months to get deals done. But with everyone else watching and waiting, we’re still trying to figure out which blue-line shoe will be the first to drop.

Mix in a handful of remaining UFAs, such as Patrik Laine and Vladimir Tarasenko, plus the ongoing Cutter Gauthier drama, and there’s still some work left to be done for the NHL’s 32 GMs. Well, 31 until the Wings get moving.

Lane Hutson. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

Trivia Answer

Of the 21 cap-era Calder Trophy winners, only four were not first-round picks.

Those players were:

• 2024 winner Lane Hutson, a second-round pick in 2022
• 2021 winner Kirill Kaprizov, a fifth-round pick in 2015
• 2016 winner Artemi Panarin, who was undrafted
• 2009 winner Steve Mason, a third-round pick in 2006

Even with our goaltending hint, I’d be impressed if you got Mason. He remains the only goalie to win the Calder in the cap era, although four have been runners-up, most recently Dustin Wolf in 2025.

Questions, comments or corrections? We’d love to hear your feedback. Email us at redlight@theathletic.com.

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