The Columbus Blue Jackets will host the Detroit Red Wings at Ohio Stadium, home of the Buckeyes football team, on March 1, 2025, in the National Hockey League’s 2025 NHL Stadium Series.
Next year will be the first regular season outdoor game for the Blue Jackets and the fifth for the Red Wings, who are 2-0-2 in their previous four appearances. The Blue Jackets and Columbus hosted the 2007 NHL Draft at Nationwide Arena and the 2015 NHL All-Star Weekend.
“Hosting an NHL Stadium Series game in Columbus has been on our wish list for years,” said Greater Columbus Sports Commission Chief Executive Officer and President Linda Logan. “We’re thankful to the NHL, Blue Jackets, Ohio State and other partners around the city that turned this dream into a reality. We can’t wait to welcome hockey fans from around the world and show them all our city has to offer, centered around an iconic venue like Ohio Stadium.”
The announcement was made during two days of outdoors competition at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the 2024 Stadium Series was hosted with a doubleheader of games featuring the New Jersey Devils against the Philadelphia Flyers before the New York Rangers and New York Islanders faced off.
The Blue Jackets have played more games against the Red Wings than any other team since the club joined the NHL in 2000. The Red Wings defeated the Blue Jackets in their only meeting in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, winning the 2009 Western Conference quarterfinal series in four games.
“This is an event our fans have been extremely excited about and the Blue Jackets could not be happier to take on the NHL’s team from that state up north next season in one of the world’s most iconic sports venues,” said Blue Jackets President and Alternate Governor Mike Priest. “We’d like to thank the NHL and everyone at The Ohio State University, as well as the Greater Columbus Sports Commission, who has worked very hard with our staff to make this game at historic Ohio Stadium a reality.”
The Stadium Series will be one of the NHL’s marquee events in its traditional slate of games in non-traditional venues, especially with the 2024–2025 season not having an All-Star Game so the league can instead organize the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off, which will feature teams from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States in February 2025 in two cities to be announced at a later date.