The Carolina Hurricanes are heading to Europe this fall, tapping into the NHL’s growing push to expand its international footprint.

The Hurricanes announced Monday they will participate in the 2026 NHL Global Series, traveling to Helsinki, Finland, to face the Seattle Kraken. The matchup puts two of the league’s younger franchises on a global stage, with the series continuing the NHL’s multi-year effort to build audiences in non-traditional hockey markets.

The Global Series has sent teams to cities across Europe for regular-season games since the league relaunched the program in 2018. This year’s edition includes stops in both Finland and Germany, giving the league a two-country footprint as it chases revenue and viewership beyond North American borders.

For the Hurricanes, the trip represents a significant moment for an organization that has worked steadily to rebuild its profile since the lean years that followed their 2006 Stanley Cup championship. The franchise relocated its fanbase identity, leaned into a “Bunch of Jerks” underdog brand, and has since become a consistent playoff contender. Taking that brand to Helsinki puts the organization in front of a Finnish hockey audience that takes the sport seriously. Finland has produced some of the sport’s elite players, and fans there follow the NHL with a level of sophistication that casual American markets often lack.

The Kraken, entering just their fifth season as a franchise in 2026, make for an interesting counterpart. Seattle has built its roster with speed and defensive structure, and the matchup against Carolina should offer compelling hockey regardless of the venue’s location.

The NHL has used the Global Series to spotlight franchises with European roster connections, and both the Hurricanes and Kraken carry Finnish and broader Nordic roster ties that would give Helsinki fans a personal stake in the game.

From a business perspective, the league’s international strategy runs deeper than goodwill. The NHL has pursued broadcasting partnerships and sponsorship deals tied to European markets, and these regular-season games function as live advertisements for those commercial relationships. Commissioner Gary Bettman has long maintained that growing the game globally protects the league’s long-term economic health, even when critics argue the travel burden on players mid-season creates competitive disadvantages.

Players who make the trip face a tight schedule. International travel, time zone adjustments, and the physical demands of back-to-back games in an unfamiliar arena can affect performance in the weeks surrounding the trip. Teams that participate often absorb short-term disruptions to their regular-season rhythm. Whether that price is worth the promotional value is a debate that surfaces every time the league announces the Global Series roster of teams.

Carolina has not publicly detailed the specific game dates or arena configuration in Helsinki, but the announcement confirms the Hurricanes’ participation. The Finnish capital’s primary hockey venue, the Nokia Arena in Tampere has hosted previous NHL games, though Helsinki’s Hartwall Arena has served as a backdrop for major European hockey events as well.

For fans in the Carolinas, the news raises the obvious question of accessibility. International games are largely inaccessible to the average season ticket holder, and the Global Series has sometimes drawn criticism for prioritizing league marketing over the actual fanbase that fills seats all winter in Raleigh. The counter-argument is that any exposure that raises the Hurricanes’ national and international profile ultimately benefits the organization, and by extension, the home market.

The November timing places the Helsinki games early in the regular season, before standings tighten and every game carries maximum urgency. The league has generally tried to schedule Global Series games in that early window to minimize competitive stakes around the travel disruption.

Carolina enters the 2026-27 season with familiar postseason ambitions. The organization has positioned itself as a perennial contender in the Metropolitan Division, and the coaching staff will need to manage the European trip as part of a broader season calendar that leaves little room for stumbles.

For now, the Hurricanes’ front office is celebrating the selection. Helsinki is a long way from Raleigh, but the NHL clearly believes the trip is worth making.