How to Watch the NHL in 2026-27
The 2026-27 NHL season is the first 84-game campaign since 1993-94, and it opens earlier than ever — Tuesday, September 29, 2026, with an exclusive ESPN tripleheader headlined by the Carolina Hurricanes raising their Stanley Cup banner. Here's every way to watch, from the national windows to your local team to the playoffs, and what each option costs.
National TV in the US: ESPN and TNT
The NHL's US national rights are split between two families, and 2026-27 is the sixth year of the current seven-year deals:
- ESPN / ABC / ESPN+ / Hulu (Disney). ESPN carries roughly 100 national games across ABC, ESPN, ESPN+ and Hulu. Games occasionally shift to ESPN2. ABC runs "Hockey Saturday" windows on select weekends from January through April and carries the All-Star Game, and the Stadium Series airs on ABC this season.
- TNT / TBS / truTV / HBO Max (Warner Bros. Discovery). TNT Sports owns Wednesday nights all season long (its first night is Wednesday, Sept. 30), plus select Sundays, the Thanksgiving Showdown and the Winter Classic. TBS handles overflow, truTV is used for simulcasts, and every TNT Sports NHL game also streams on HBO Max.
NHL Network rounds things out, mostly simulcasting local broadcasts and filling gaps on nights the other partners aren't on the air; it comes with most cable packages or a sports add-on. One note on TNT: not all of its regular-season games are national exclusives, so a non-exclusive TNT game can be blacked out in the two teams' home markets, where the local network carries it instead.
Out-of-market games: ESPN+
If you want to follow a team that isn't local to you, ESPN+ carries the NHL out-of-market package — more than 1,000 out-of-market games in 2026-27. The one catch is the mirror image of that: your own local team's in-market games are blacked out on ESPN+, because those rights belong to the team's regional network or a national window. ESPN+ content now lives in the ESPN app (see costs below).
Your local team: the regional networks
Most nights, your team is on its regional sports network (RSN) or a direct-to-consumer stream, not national TV — and this is the part of the map that changed the most for 2026-27. FanDuel Sports Network shut down its NHL operations after 2025-26, which pushed seven teams (Carolina, Columbus, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Nashville and St. Louis) to new homes. The NHL even launched its own in-house production unit to produce local broadcasts for several of them. Here's where the teams we've been able to confirm land in 2026-27:
| Rangers · Islanders · Devils · Sabres | MSG Networks (streaming via DAZN) |
| Bruins | NESN |
| Capitals | Monumental Sports Network |
| Avalanche | Altitude Sports |
| Blackhawks | Chicago Sports Network (also free over-the-air on WJYS) |
| Kraken | Kraken Hockey Network (KING 5 / KONG) + Prime Video |
| Golden Knights | Scripps "The Spot – Vegas 34" — free over the air |
| Utah Mammoth | Scripps "Utah 16" (free OTA) + Mammoth+ stream |
| Stars | Victory+ — free, ad-supported (in market) |
| Panthers | Scripps South Florida stations + Panthers Plus |
| Lightning | Scripps "The Spot – Tampa Bay 66" + streaming |
| Predators | Scripps Sports (WNPX) |
| Kings | ABTV (Angels Broadcast Television) |
| Hurricanes · Blue Jackets · Wild · Blues | NHL-produced local broadcasts (Carolina on its own new network; St. Louis also on Victory+) |
| Red Wings | Distributed via MLB Local Media |
A welcome trend in that list: several clubs — Vegas, Utah, Chicago, Tampa Bay and the Panthers among them — now put games on free over-the-air TV in their home markets through Scripps and others, and Dallas streams free on Victory+ in-market. A few teams' 2026-27 local homes weren't nailed down when we published (the Penguins, Flyers, Sharks and Ducks among them) — check the team's own schedule page on this site, which we update from the source as carriers confirm.
Watching in Canada
Canada's picture changed even more. A new 12-year national deal with Rogers/Sportsnet begins in 2026-27, and the free-TV era ended with it: CBC no longer carries Hockey Night in Canada after 2025-26. Here's the 2026-27 setup:
- Sportsnet carries 500+ national games, including Monday and Saturday nights under the Hockey Night in Canada banner, plus the bulk of the playoffs. Its streaming service is Sportsnet+.
- Amazon Prime Video has exclusive Wednesday Night Hockey in Canada (in English and French), included with Prime — at least 26 national games plus some exclusive playoff series.
- TVA Sports holds French-language national rights (and carries 32 Canadiens games), with RDS carrying 45 Canadiens games regionally in French.
The marquee events
- Winter Classic — Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2026: Colorado Avalanche at Utah Mammoth, outdoors at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, on TNT.
- Heritage Classic — Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026: Montreal Canadiens vs. Winnipeg Jets, outdoors in Winnipeg.
- Stadium Series — Saturday, Feb. 20, 2027: Vegas Golden Knights vs. Dallas Stars at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on ABC.
The playoffs and the Stanley Cup Final
The first two rounds of the 2027 playoffs are split between ESPN (ESPN, ABC, ESPN2) and TNT Sports (TNT, TBS, truTV). The 2027 Stanley Cup Final airs exclusively on TNT in the US (and Sportsnet in Canada) — TNT's turn in the two partners' Cup Final rotation.
What it costs (US, mid-2026)
| ESPN Select (ESPN+ content) | $11.99/mo or $119.99/yr |
| ESPN Unlimited (adds live ESPN channels) | $29.99/mo or $299.99/yr |
| HBO Max (live sports) | Standard $18.49/mo · Premium $22.99/mo |
| Hulu + Live TV | $89.99/mo (with ads) |
Prices are as of mid-2026 and change often — always confirm on the provider's site.
Bottom line
For national games, you want the ESPN app and a way to get TNT (HBO Max, or a live-TV service like Hulu + Live TV that carries both). To follow one specific team out of market, add ESPN+. To watch your local team, find its regional network above — and if you're in a Scripps or Victory+ market, that might be free. Whatever you need on a given night, our live schedule shows exactly which channel or stream each game is on, in your local time.
New to the whole streaming maze? Our best hockey streaming services guide compares every option side by side.