Senators expected to play two exhibition games in Quebec City in 2025-26

While Quebec City longs for the return of professional hockey, locals will have the opportunity to take in the NHL next fall when the Videotron Centre plays host to a pair of Ottawa Senators‘ exhibition contests.

Per Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, the Senators will head to the Quebec capital for two preseason games in 2025-26. The New Jersey Devils will take on the Senators in the first game, while the Montreal Canadiens will serve as the opposition in the second contest.

Last October, Quebec City’s Videotron Centre hosted the Los Angeles Kings for two preseason games, one against the Boston Bruins and the second versus the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Videotron Centre also hosted a Canadiens’ exhibition game each year from 2015-18.

To note, each year, the NHL preseason schedule often includes a selection of neutral site games. In 2024-25, several communities hosted an NHL exhibition game, that beyond Quebec City included Orlando, Fla., Milwaukee, Wis., and Des Moines, Iowa.

Formerly home to the Quebec Nordiques prior to the club’s shift to Colorado in 1995, Quebec City has remained in the headlines as a possible future expansion site for the NHL. In 2015, the Videotron Centre, an 18,259-seat facility, opened its doors in hopes of the NHL returning to the city. In 2016, after approving expansion to Las Vegas, Nev., the NHL deferred a separate bid from Quebec. Two years later, the NHL expanded once again, adding its 32nd franchise in Seattle, Wash.

For the Senators, the club has called the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ont., home since 1996. The club continues to work toward a new home rink in the LeBreton Flats neighborhood of downtown Ottawa. Returning to the NHL in 1992, the Senators previously played out of the now TD Place Arena in downtown Ottawa prior to the franchise’s shift to suburban Kanata.