The Best Ways To Watch Every NHL Game This Season

The NHL season is rapidly approaching, but due to complicated broadcast agreements, it’s not possible to get all NHL games with just a single package or streaming service — at least not in the U.S. or Canada. That said, there are ways to get every game, and in this article, we’ll explore just how to go about it.

How to watch all NHL games in the U.S.

In the U.S., national games are broadcast on a combination of TNT, ESPN, ABC, and ESPN+ (a streaming service, not to be confused with ESPN, the television channel).

Local regional games are available on your regional sports network, while out-of-market regional games are available on either NHL Center Ice (a cable and satellite TV add-on) or ESPN+.

Here’s a breakdown of how to watch everything.

	Channel	Streaming service
National games	TNT ESPN ABC	Hulu ESPN+
Local games	Regional sports network
Out-of-market games	NHL Center Ice	ESPN+

So, to get access to every NHL game in the U.S., you’ll need access to the following:

• A way to watch the national channels TNT, ABC, and ESPN: This could be a cable or satellite subscription or a live streaming service that carries those channels, such as DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, or Sling TV.
• An ESPN+ subscription: This is available as a standalone service or as part of a bundle with Hulu and Disney+.
• A way to watch your local RSN: This could be a cable or satellite subscription or a streaming service like DIRECTV STREAM. Make sure you double-check the channel lineup before subscribing to a streaming service for this purpose — many don’t carry RSNs.

Finally, if you’re wondering how much all that will cost you, here are the details.

• DIRECTV: $59.99–$149.99/mo
• DIRECTV STREAM: $74.99-$154.99/mo
• Sling TV: $40.00-$75.00/mo
• ESPN+: $9.99-$11.99/mo
• Hulu, Disney Plus, and ESPN+ bundle: $16.99–$26.99/mo
• NHL Center Ice: $69.99 per season

How to watch all NHL games in Canada

Much like in the U.S., you’ll also need several services to get access to all NHL games in Canada. National games require a combination of Sportsnet, Amazon Prime Video, and TVA Sports. Local games require access to a local RSN while out-of-market games require NHL Center Ice or Sportsnet+.

Here’s the breakdown of how to watch hockey if you’re in Canada.

	Channel	Streaming service
National games	Sportsnet	Sportsnet+ Prime Video
Local games	Regional sports network
Out-of-market games	NHL Center Ice	Sportsnet+

Here are the prices.

• Sportsnet+: $19.99–$34.99/mo
• Amazon Prime Video: $8.99/mo, or included with Amazon Prime for $14.99/mo
• NHL Center Ice: $219 per season (Canadian)

How to watch all NHL games in the U.K.

Outside of North America, things work a bit differently. In fact, it’s actually simpler to get every NHL game in the U.K. than it is in the U.S.!

In the U.K., you have two choices: you can watch NHL games on the Premier Sports channels, or you can subscribe to NHL.TV, a streaming service that broadcasts NHL games internationally.

Premier Sports will show all games, so there’s no need to grab multiple services for regional and national games. NHL.TV should also have all games — users have indicated that this has been the case in previous seasons.

Here are the prices for these services.

• Premier Sports: £15.99/mo
• NHL.TV: $22.99/mo

How to watch all NHL games from anywhere

Whether you’re traveling out of the country and want to keep up with your favorite teams or live in a country where you can’t regularly access NHL content, a virtual private network (VPN) is a great way to stay connected to all the action.

VPNs are often thought of as privacy and security tools — and they’re great for that! — but by making it look like you’re in a different country, they can also be used to bypass regional restrictions on content. For example, one common way to use a VPN is to set your location to the U.S. in order to unlock the U.S. Netflix library.

When it comes to watching the NHL with a VPN, you can use the tool to set your country to wherever you have your subscriptions based from. For example, if you’re traveling to France and have an ESPN+ subscription in the U.S., you could set your VPN to a U.S. location in order to access your ESPN+ content from back home.

Our top streaming VPNs include NordVPN (best overall) and Surfshark (best value).

A word on NHL broadcast rules

NHL games (and most other sports, for that matter) fall into one of two categories for broadcast purposes: national games and regional games.

National games

These games are broadcast on national networks and are generally available nationwide at no cost, provided you can access the channels where they’re being broadcast.

Regional games

These games are only broadcast on regional sports networks (RSNs), and so are technically only available in the local markets that those RSNs serve.

Regional games can be further divided into two categories.

• Local regional games: Sometimes called in-market games, these games are available on your local RSN and are usually free, as long as you have access to your local channel.
• Out-of-market regional games: These are the local games everywhere else in the country. Normally, these wouldn’t be available since you’re usually outside the region. However, there are some cable add-on packages and streaming services that enable you to access them.

If you think this seems overly complicated, you’re not alone. Unfortunately, these regional limitations are the result of exclusive broadcast deals between the NHL and various networks, and it’s like this for most professional sports in the U.S.

Ultimately, it means you’ll need several separate subscription services in order to be able to watch all NHL games.

FAQs

Bottom line

If you’re in North America, you’ll need a combination of several services to get every NHL game. The situation in the U.K. is simpler with only a single service needed to watch all NHL games, which is admittedly a bit odd given that it’s an American and Canadian sports league.

Finally, if you’re traveling and want to keep access to your NHL content, you can use a VPN to access local content. Some of the best VPNs for catching the games are NordVPN and Surfshark.