There have been reports about it out there for a while now, dating as far back as New Years’ Day and having been more heavily floated about a month ago, but it appears that we will soon be getting a formal announcement about at least one, if not more, outdoor Stadium Series games between the Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins within the next few seasons — one of which will be in February of the 2016-17 NHL season.
ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun was the first to put it out there this evening, along with news of the other outdoor games that are expected to take place next season:
Deals still haven’t been finalized but plan for other outdoor games: Detroit at Toronto Jan 1, Chicago at St. Louis Jan 2 (W. Classic) con’t
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) March 9, 2016
And a Philly at Pittsburgh outdoor game too next season. Again, nothing finalized yet. But that’s tentative plan now
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) March 9, 2016
And Philadelphia’s own TSN’s Frank Seravalli has the exact date that next year’s game is expected to take place on:
Further to @Real_ESPNLeBrun, believe #Flyers–#Pens would be played Feb. 18, 2017 at Heinz Field. https://t.co/Xedg45NVCh
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) March 9, 2016
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Dave Molinari confirmed that date, also stating that an announcement regarding the games could come as soon as Wednesday. Molinari also mentions that the Penguins “will play an outdoors game in Philadelphia in some future season”, though we don’t know which season that is or if it will be announced at the same time as the 2016-17 game.
With the Flyers and Penguins both celebrating their 50th NHL seasons next year, an outdoor game in the season always made sense. Penn State’s Beaver Stadium had long been mentioned as a potential venue for a Flyers-Penguins game, but reports from February suggested that those plans fell through due to financial demands from the University — likely due to renovations that would be necessary in order to make the fairly old stadium playable in the cold winter months.
So instead the teams will exchange a home-and-home outdoor series across the next few seasons. If LeBrun’s report is any indication, none of these games will be an official Winter Classic, but will instead be a part of the NHL’s other outdoor series. Between this, the two other games LeBrun mentions above (Detroit/Toronto on New Years’ Day and Chicago/St. Louis on January 2), and the Heritage Classic between Winnipeg and Edmonton (which has already been formally announced for next October), the NHL’s outdoor schedule looks to be pretty packed for next year.
Will the Flyers’ dominance of the CONSOL Energy Center extend to Heinz Field? No reason to think it won’t, but it’ll sure be fun to find out.
