Elliotte Friedman: Leafs to Host Outdoor Game on New Year’s Day 2017, Red Wings likely opponent

It sounds like Toronto’s going to be a busy place in the holiday season of 2016-17. While hosting the Canadian group of the 2017 World Juniors in the round robin, another piece of news dropped today about the Leafs organization’s second-ever outdoor game, and first at home. 

Elliotte Friedman reported this on the air tonight (via James Mirtle):

However, Mirtle followed his tweet up with this, so there’s a chance it’s not a rematch of the 2014 Winter Classic.

Either way, it’s a sensible move for the NHL to tap into one of its biggest markets for an outdoor game. No word yet on the venue, but the consensus when these rumours swirled earlier in the year would be at Toronto’s BMO Field. It is unclear yet how the game will be branded.

Detroit played in the NHL’s first outdoor game in 1954- against a team of prison inmates from Marquette, Michigan. They also played Chicago in the 2009 Winter Classic, winning 6-4, and lost 3-2 in a shootout in the aforementioned 2014 game in Ann Arbor, Michigan.