How to watch NHL in Canada 2026-27: TV channels, streaming and what replaced Hockey Night in Canada

Here is how to watch NHL in Canada in 2026-27. Saturday nights belong to Sportsnet, Monday Night Hockey streams only on Sportsnet+, the national Wednesday games are exclusive to Prime Video, and TVA Sports carries the national French-language games. Regional games stay with Sportsnet, TSN and RDS, depending on the team and where you live. The big change is on Saturdays. CBC no longer carries NHL games, so Hockey Night in Canada, a CBC fixture since 1952, is gone from the schedule, and Sportsnet’s Saturday doubleheader has a new name: Saturday Night Hockey. The season opens on Tuesday 29 September with Canadiens at Maple Leafs at 7:00 PM ET and Canucks at Oilers at 10:00 PM ET, both on Sportsnet, and our opening night guide has the start times and home openers.

The NHL’s own listings put numbers on it. Of the 1,344 regular-season games, 652 already list an English-language network: 448 on a Sportsnet channel, 177 only on Sportsnet+ and 27 on Prime Video. TVA Sports lists 264 in French. Another 634 have no Canadian network yet. Most of those, 487, are US teams playing each other, which you watch as out-of-market games. The other 147 involve Canadian clubs and are regional broadcasts, mostly on TSN and RDS, which publish their own schedules.

How to watch NHL in Canada: the short version

Rogers holds the national rights for 12 seasons, to 2037-38, and its deal allowed two pieces to be sublicensed: the French-language package, which went to TVA Sports, and one exclusive night, which went to Prime Video. Each row is explained below, with the full Saturday, Monday and Wednesday schedules, the regional channel for every Canadian club and what to do about blackouts. Every national game now sits behind a subscription of some kind. The NHL’s listings name no over-the-air network for any of the 1,344 games.

What happened to Hockey Night in Canada?

CBC and Sportsnet announced on 16 June 2026 that the public broadcaster would stop carrying NHL games after the 2025-26 season. The sublicence that had put Saturday games on CBC for 12 years expired at the end of the 2026 playoffs, and it was not renewed. That ended a run on CBC television that began in 1952.

CBC still owns the Hockey Night in Canada trademark, and Sportsnet’s Saturday broadcasts now go out under a new name. Saturday Night Hockey premieres on 3 October with Ron MacLean as host and Kevin Bieksa, Elliotte Friedman and Colby Armstrong on the panel. It is a weekly doubleheader with at least one Canadian team in every game. If you came here looking for the Hockey Night in Canada schedule, the Saturday tab below is its replacement.

Saturday Night Hockey, Monday Night Hockey and Wednesdays on Prime Video

Sportsnet says it has more than 550 national games this season, 35% more than last year, and that 150 games which used to be regional, and so blacked out for most of the country, are national now. The three regular nights are below, straight from the NHL’s listings.

Listed by the NHL on 25 September 2026. National selections can change during the season, and TSN and RDS regional games are not in these lists. Our NHL team pages, starting with the seven Canadian clubs, list the current channel for all 84 of each club’s games.

Saturday Night Hockey on Sportsnet

Saturdays carry the most hockey. The NHL lists 154 Sportsnet games across 27 Saturdays, 129 of them involving a Canadian club, and 104 start at 6:00 PM ET or later. Some Saturdays have more than one game at the same time on different Sportsnet channels, such as Sportsnet East or Sportsnet West, so check the channel as well as the time. The first Saturday, 3 October, starts at 7:00 PM ET with Senators at Maple Leafs on Sportsnet, Canadiens at Penguins on Sportsnet East and Kraken at Oilers on Sportsnet West, then Flames at Canucks on Sportsnet at 10:00 PM ET. Our NHL predictions column picks the Saturday games each week.

Monday Night Hockey on Sportsnet+

Monday Night Hockey starts on 5 October and streams only on Sportsnet+, with David Amber as host and Luke Gazdic and Justin Williams as analysts. Every Sportsnet+ subscriber gets it. If you have Sportsnet through a TV provider, you can sign in to Sportsnet+ with those details and watch the channels you pay for, but Monday Night Hockey and the other Sportsnet+ exclusives, more than 100 extra games involving US teams, need a paid add-on. Rogers, Rogers West and Shaw Direct customers with Sportsnet in their package get the exclusives included. The NHL lists 69 Monday games on Sportsnet+, 53 of them with a Canadian club. Six other Monday games, mostly holiday afternoons, are on Sportsnet’s TV channels instead.

Wednesday games on Prime Video

The national game on a Wednesday night belongs to Prime Video, under a 12-year sublicence from Rogers that runs to 2037-38. The deal promises at least 26 national games a season, in English and French, at no extra cost to Prime members, and Sportsnet does not show them on any platform. The NHL lists 27 for 2026-27, every one with a Canadian team, starting with Islanders at Maple Leafs on 30 September. Prime also has two first-round playoff series and one second-round series each spring.

Sportsnet+ Standard or Premium: which one you need

Sportsnet+ is Rogers’ streaming service, and for hockey its two plans split on one question: do you want games from outside your region? Standard streams the national games plus the regional games of the Oilers, Flames, Canucks or Leafs, whichever club’s region you live in. Premium adds out-of-market games, so an Oilers fan in Toronto or a Bruins fan in Calgary can follow the team’s regional broadcasts. Sportsnet puts Premium, like NHL Centre Ice, at more than 1,000 regular-season games.

Both plans include Monday Night Hockey and the other Sportsnet+ exclusives. Neither gets you around a blackout. Premium does not give you a regional game that another broadcaster airs where you live, so a Leafs game on TSN4 inside Leafs territory still needs TSN. Prices change, so check them with Sportsnet+ before you pick a plan.

Your team’s TV: the seven Canadian clubs

National games follow a club wherever you are. Regional games do not, and that is where the channel changes from team to team. The table counts each club’s 84 games as the NHL lists them today.

• Toronto Maple Leafs: regional games are split between TSN4 and Sportsnet Ontario, and TSN posts its own TSN4 schedule. The 20 Leafs games without a network in the NHL’s listings are those regional games.
• Montréal Canadiens: TSN, mostly on TSN2, has 50 English regional games and RDS has 45 in French, across a region that takes in Quebec and Atlantic Canada. TSN has not posted its game-by-game list yet.
• Ottawa Senators: TSN5 has the English regional games and RDS the French ones, 51 of them. The region covers eastern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, and TSN has not posted its TSN5 list yet.
• Winnipeg Jets: the Jets released their broadcast schedule on 25 September. It puts 50 games on TSN3 across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and parts of northwestern Ontario, including Kenora, Dryden and Thunder Bay, and 34 on national TV: 21 on Sportsnet, nine on Sportsnet+ and four on Prime Video. The NHL’s listings still show 41 of the TSN3 games without a network.
• Calgary Flames: Sportsnet West, under a deal that runs through 2035. Every game already has a network in the NHL’s listings.
• Edmonton Oilers: Sportsnet West. Every game already has a network in the NHL’s listings.
• Vancouver Canucks: Sportsnet Pacific, with John Shorthouse on play-by-play. Every game already has a network in the NHL’s listings.

US teams work differently. Their regional games are out of market almost everywhere in Canada, so they come through Sportsnet+ Premium or NHL Centre Ice. Our Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres pages break down which of their games have a Canadian network, and the Buffalo page covers the Niagara Peninsula, which counts as Sabres territory.

Out-of-market games and NHL Centre Ice

Out of market means a game broadcast regionally somewhere other than where you are. There are two ways in. Sportsnet+ Premium streams them, and NHL Centre Ice, sold through TV providers, carries them on your TV, with Sportsnet putting each at more than 1,000 regular-season games. Two limits apply to both. Neither covers a regional game that another broadcaster airs in your own area, and neither changes the national schedule, so Prime’s Wednesday games still need Prime Video. Ask your TV provider what its Centre Ice package includes before you buy it.

NHL blackouts in Canada, explained

Blackouts are an NHL rule, not a broadcaster’s choice. Every club has a designated broadcast region, and its regional games can only be shown there, on TV and on every streaming app. Your location is checked when the game starts, from your IP address or the address on your TV subscription. A trip changes what you can watch. A Leafs fan in Vancouver loses the TSN4 games and needs an out-of-market package instead.

There are fewer of them this season. Sportsnet says 150 games that would have been regional are national in 2026-27, and a national game is not blacked out anywhere in Canada. The playoffs are not blacked out either, because every Stanley Cup playoff game is national.

Watching in French: TVA Sports, RDS and Prime Video

TVA Sports holds the national French-language rights under a 12-year sublicence from Rogers: up to 350 regular-season games a season, 32 of them Canadiens games, plus every Canadiens playoff game. Its games stream on TVA Sports Direct and illico+, and the NHL lists 264 TVA Sports games so far. RDS keeps the regional French broadcasts for the Canadiens, 45 games, and the Senators, 51, on TV, on RDS.ca and in the RDS app, inside each club’s region. Prime Video’s Wednesday games come in French as well as English.

Outdoor games, the Global Series and the playoffs

The playoffs are national, so there are no blackouts. Sportsnet has six first-round series, three second-round series, both conference finals and the Stanley Cup Final, and Prime Video has the other two first-round series and one second-round series. In French, TVA Sports has six of the eight first-round series, three of the four second-round series, the conference finals, the Final and every Canadiens game.

Watching and betting the same game

If you bet while you watch, remember that a stream can run behind the live action, while in-play prices move on the real-time feed. By the time a goal reaches your screen, the line may already have moved. Pre-game prices are steadier. Our guides to the moneyline and the puck line cover the two markets most people start with, and the NHL injury report is worth a look before puck drop, because a change in goal moves a hockey line more than any other lineup news. 19+ (18+ in AB, MB and QC).

These are the NHL sportsbooks we rate for Canadians, listed by province, with the full comparison on our NHL betting sites page:

For the season itself, the NHL power rankings and Stanley Cup odds are updated through the year, and the NHL betting hub covers how hockey betting works in Canada.

How to watch NHL in Canada: FAQ

19+ (18+ in AB/MB/QC) | Please play responsibly | ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600 (ON) | AHS Addiction Helpline: 1-866-332-2322 (AB); every province’s helpline is on our gambling awareness page.