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After two straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final including a victory that came just this past season, the Florida Panthers have become one of the NHL’s big dogs (cats?), so the league needs to get them on one of the biggest in-season stages and make them play outside.

Well, it looks like that’s coming.

According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, one of the items that came out of the latest NHL Board of Governors meeting was that the Panthers are closing in on an outdoor game at loanDepot Park — home of the Miami Marlins — that could be on the schedule as soon as the 2025-26 NHL season.

The Hockey News backed this up with a report that the league is expected to make a formal announcement sometime around New Year’s Eve, which is when this year’s NHL Winter Classic will take place at Wrigley Field between the Chicago Blackhawks and the St. Louis Blues.

Furthermore, The Miami Herald reported that the game would likely take place in December 2025 or January 2026.

Could that mean it’ll be next season’s Winter Classic?

Only three teams in the NHL have never played an outdoor game: the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Utah Hockey Club, and the Florida Panthers.

The Blue Jackets will play the Red Wings at Ohio Stadium later this year, while Utah is in its first season (and is technically a new franchise, even though it’s made out of the zombified remains of the Arizona Coyotes).

So, Florida, given its recent success, needs to be in an outdoor game, and the league has to know that.

No word on whom an opponent would be, but the natural choice would be the other Floridian NHL team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. If that doesn’t happen however, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Panthers play the Boston Bruins because that has become a great rivalry over the last couple of postseasons.