Ice Hockey — Where to Watch
Ice hockey splits into three products that are sold separately almost everywhere: the NHL, the domestic European leagues, and international hockey. The NHL is a national-rights product in each country plus a separate out-of-market package, and the two are not the same purchase. The European leagues — the SHL, Liiga, the National League, the Tipsport extraliga, the DEL — are sold market by market. International hockey mostly ends up with public broadcasters.
One structural fact explains a lot of the confusion. From 2025–26 the NHL’s international streaming product, NHL.tv, is sold through DAZN across roughly 200 countries — but the United States, Canada and the Nordic countries are carved out of it, because those markets already have their own local deals. So “NHL on DAZN” is true in most of the world and false in the four countries where hockey matters most.
| Country | Who shows it | Free option |
|---|---|---|
| US | ESPN and ABC games stream in the ESPN app, Hulu and ESPN Select depending on the window. TNT games are on HBO Max. Out-of-market coverage is NHL Center Ice, streamed through ESPN Select. NHL Network carries certain regional games outside their home markets, and those are not on ESPN Select. | None confirmed. |
| Canada | Sportsnet+ holds the national rights, so it is the centre of the market; TSN carries regional games and adds more on its Premium tier. Amazon Prime Video Canada has Wednesday-night national games in English and French under a long sub-licensing deal with Rogers. French-language coverage is split between RDS and TVA Sports. | CBC Gem’s free ad-supported tier carries the Hockey Night in Canada windows that CBC sub-licenses. We are re-checking which windows remain on CBC for 2026-27 now that Rogers has sub-licensed games to Prime Video. |
| UK and Ireland | Premier Sports carries the NHL, on a separate subscription in each country. DAZN carries NHL.tv in the UK. | None confirmed. |
| Sweden | TV4 Play carries the SHL. Viaplay carries the NHL, which is precisely why NHL.tv is carved out of the Nordics. | None confirmed. |
| Finland | MTV Katsomo carries Liiga on its sports tier. Viaplay carries the NHL. | Yle Areena shows all men’s and women’s Olympic ice hockey live and free — the strongest free hockey coverage in the Nordics, though it is a tournament rather than a season. |
| Czechia | Oneplay, the merged O2 TV and Voyo platform, carries the Tipsport extraliga and the NHL. | None confirmed for the extraliga itself, but Oneplay runs a seven-day free trial — see the warning below. |
| Switzerland | Sky Schweiz sells a Sky Sport plus mySports combination that covers the National League and the NHL. | None confirmed. |
| Germany | MagentaSport carries the PENNY DEL and the IIHF World Championship. WOW carries the NHL, and DAZN carries NHL.tv. | None confirmed. |
| Poland | No broadcaster confirmed in our research for the domestic league. | Matches involving Poland at the men’s elite World Championship are on Poland’s listed-events list — but that list does not take effect until 11 September 2027. |
Can you watch it free?
Free hockey exists, but it is thin and it is public-broadcaster shaped rather than league shaped. In Canada, CBC Gem’s free tier carries the Hockey Night in Canada windows that CBC sub-licenses — which is unusual for a major domestic league, and the reason Canada appears on every honest free-sport list. In Finland, Yle shows all Olympic ice hockey free. In Poland, the listed-events regime will guarantee free coverage of Poland’s World Championship matches, but not before September 2027.
Everything else we checked is paid. There is no free-to-air NHL package in the United States, and the European league rights sit with subscription broadcasters in every market we looked at.
The cheapest legal route
- United Kingdom. Premier Sports at £13.99 a month on a 12-month plan, against £18.99 monthly — but the plan auto-renews, so it is a year-long commitment rather than a month-long experiment.
- Canada, regional games. TSN Standard at C$24.99 a month, with selected regional NHL games; TSN Premium at C$29.99 adds more. Sportsnet+ is the national option, from C$29.99 a month or C$249.99 a year, with a price increase taking effect on 22 September 2026.
- Czechia. Oneplay starts at 199 Kc a month, with the sports tariff at 599 Kc and the top tariff at 799 Kc. The seven-day trial is the cheapest way to check whether the extraliga coverage suits you — diarise the cancellation.
- Nordics. The SHL and Liiga sit with TV4 Play and MTV Katsomo respectively, and the NHL with Viaplay. If you only want Olympic hockey, that is free on Yle Areena.
- Out-of-market NHL wherever you are. NHL.tv through DAZN covers around 200 countries, but check the carve-out list first: the United States, Canada and the Nordic countries are excluded.
| Service | Available in | What it carries | Price | Free trial | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESPN Unlimitedverify | US | The full linear ESPN networks plus Monday Night Football, NBA, WNBA, college football playoff, NHL, WWE premium live events, LaLiga, F1, FA Cup | About USD 31.99/month or USD 319.99/year | No | No link yet |
| HBO Maxverify | US, GB, IE | UK: TNT Sports (Champions League, Premier League, MotoGP, UFC). US: NHL, March Madness, NASCAR, golf, tennis — but no NBA | Tiered; the UK TNT Sports tier starts around GBP 30.99/month | No | No link yet |
| Sportsnet+verify | CA | NHL, MLB, Premier League, WWE | Monthly or annual in CAD | No | No link yet |
| TSN / TSN+verify | CA | NHL, NBA, NFL, CFL, F1, curling | Monthly streaming subscription, no cable needed | No | No link yet |
| CBC Gemverify | CA | Olympics, hockey, some live events | Free | Not applicable — it is free | No link yet |
| Viaplayverify | SE, DK, NO, FI, IS, NL, PL | Football, ice hockey, F1, handball, golf | Varies by country | Varies by country | No link yet |
Where can I watch the NHL?
Is NHL.tv available in the United States and Canada?
Is there a free way to watch ice hockey?
Does Prime Video still show Monday-night NHL games in Canada?
Which service carries the domestic European leagues?
Where to go next
Watching sport in Canada in the UK in Germany DAZN country by country Which free trials still exist Baseball