NHL outdoor hockey will make its New Jersey debut next year when MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford plays host to a four-team doubleheader of sorts in the league’s Stadium Series.

The New Jersey Devils will play the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night, February 17, and the Islanders will play the Rangers on the same ice the next day, the National Hockey League announced Saturday.

The league said it expects more than 75,000 spectators per game and to continue its streak of 37 consecutive regular-season outdoor game tickets, which began in its modern form in 2003.

“It’s a great NFL stadium and our goal is to bring it to life in a way that, frankly, we haven’t seen a lot,” said Steve Mayer, NHL chief content officer. “We are going to be super creative and highlight the area.”

Mayer and Dean Matsuzaki, the league’s executive vice president of events, said they had long hoped to host an outdoor game at MetLife Stadium. But they said the logistics there are more complicated than many other stadiums because it is home to two NFL teams, the Giants and the Jets, and there is less time to access the facility for preparation. But they noted that the size of the venue allows it to accommodate four teams, with scheduled practice time and recreational time on ice with their families, for all four teams.

Teams will be scheduled for the following Monday in case bad weather over the weekend forces one or both games to be postponed. The exact seating capacity will depend on the construction of the lower seating area which is scheduled to prepare for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup.

In 2014, the Rangers played the Devils and the Islanders, three days apart, at Yankee Stadium. Each game drew about 50,000 fans. The NHL’s largest outdoor regular season game was held at Michigan Stadium in 2014 when an announced crowd of 105,491 fans watched the Detroit Red Wings play the Toronto Maple Leafs. The last outdoor game held in the New York area was the Winter Classic on a frigid New Year’s Day in 2018 between the Rangers and the Buffalo Sabers at Citi Field, when 41,000 fans sat out in temperatures that started at 7 degrees. Fahrenheit in the morning and peaked. at 25

Mayer said organizers hope to bolster next year’s event with additional entertainment, youth hockey games and music. When asked if they would be looking for New Jersey natives like Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen to perform, Mayer asked a reporter if he had Springsteen’s phone number, adding with a laugh, “We’d like to talk to him right away.”