How to watch the NHL in 2026-27: what's staying the same, what's changing, and what we still don't know

The national picture for the 2026-27 NHL season is stable — ESPN and TNT again split the games, with the Stanley Cup Final on TNT — but the local side is being rebuilt from scratch after the FanDuel regional networks collapsed. Here's where every national game lives, which teams have found new local homes, and which markets are still waiting for answers.

The gist: With the 2026-27 schedule now out — an 84-game season opening Tuesday, September 29 — it's a good moment to map where the games will actually live. The national picture is stable and familiar. The local picture, though, is the most scrambled it's been in years: the regional networks that carried a chunk of the league shut down, and teams are rebuilding their local coverage one deal at a time. Here's what's staying the same, what's changing, and what's still unsettled.

What's staying the same: the national picture

If you mostly watch nationally televised games, almost nothing changes this season. U.S. national coverage is split between the same two families as last year, and both deals run through 2027-28:

• The ESPN/Disney side — games on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC, streaming on the ESPN app (via an ESPN DTC plan or a pay-TV login) and Hulu. The season opens with an ESPN tripleheader on September 29.
• The Warner Bros. Discovery side — games on TNT and TBS (with truTV as occasional overflow), streaming on HBO Max.
• The Stanley Cup Final rotates between the two; this season it's on TNT.
• ABC's national windows are available over the air with an antenna, so a slice of the national schedule — including the Cup Final in the years ABC carries it — needs no subscription at all.

For out-of-market viewing — following a team that isn't local to you, all season long — the options are also unchanged, though it's worth being precise about which product does what:

• NHL Power Play is the streaming out-of-market package (1,050+ games). It lives on ESPN+ — which is now the ESPN Select tier. If you already subscribe to ESPN+, this is the same service under a new name, not a separate purchase: ESPN Select is available on its own ($11.99/month) or in the Disney+/Hulu/ESPN bundle, and it's also included in the pricier ESPN Unlimited plan ($29.99/month). Note that this is not the same as the "ESPN" cable channel — the out-of-market games require the ESPN Select/ESPN+ streaming tier specifically, not just an ESPN-channel login.
• NHL Center Ice is the equivalent package for cable and satellite subscribers, sold through your TV provider rather than as a streaming app.

Either one carries well over a thousand games your local channels won't. One caveat that applies to both: out-of-market packages black out games in your own market (those are on your local channel instead), and in-market games you're blacked out of are typically available to stream about 24 hours later.

The simplest cord-cutter setup remains the same as last year: one live-TV streamer that carries both ESPN and TNT (YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, or Sling), optionally paired with ESPN Select (for NHL Power Play) if you follow a team from afar.

What's changing: your local team's channel

This is where 2026-27 is genuinely different. For years, most teams' local (in-market) games ran on a regional sports network — for many, that meant the FanDuel Sports Networks (previously Bally Sports). Those networks have now shut down, and the seven NHL teams that were on them are each rebuilding local coverage on their own. The result is a patchwork, and the through-line is a shift away from cable RSNs toward broadcast stations and team-run streaming.

Three of the seven have confirmed their new 2026-27 homes:

• Detroit Red Wings → Detroit SportsNet, a new operation run by the Ilitch family (which also owns the Tigers), offering local TV, cable/satellite carriage, and an in-market streaming subscription.
• Nashville Predators → Scripps Sports, moving games to over-the-air broadcast TV in Middle Tennessee (on WNPX, rebranded "The Spot - Nashville 28") plus streaming, across a five-state territory.
• Los Angeles Kings → staying on their former FanDuel regional network, which was bought by the owners of the LA Angels and continues under new ownership rather than shutting down.

The common thread for fans: your team's games may no longer sit behind a cable RSN add-on. More local hockey is heading to broadcast stations you can get with an antenna or your normal pay-TV and streaming packages, and several teams are building their own direct-to-consumer apps. If your team was on a FanDuel network, don't assume last season's channel — confirm the new arrangement before you commit to a package.

What we still don't know

Four of the seven former FanDuel teams have not yet announced their 2026-27 local homes:

• St. Louis Blues
• Carolina Hurricanes
• Columbus Blue Jackets
• Minnesota Wild

For these markets, the local picture is genuinely unsettled as of now — deals are expected to be announced closer to the season, and until then, how (and where) to watch each team's in-market games is an open question. In St. Louis, for example, the Blues have said only to "stay tuned" for their 2026-27 broadcast plans.

A few other things are still to be filled in league-wide: the full game-by-game national TV assignments (typically released in late summer), and the details of All-Star Weekend and the outdoor games (Winter Classic and Stadium Series). There's no mid-season international break this year, since the Winter Olympics aren't until 2030 — so the schedule runs straight through.

The bottom line

For national games, 2026-27 looks just like last season: ESPN and TNT split the slate, the Cup Final is on TNT, and ABC's windows are free over the air. The work is all local — and for four markets, the answer literally isn't known yet. We'll keep tracking the local homes as teams announce them, so you'll know exactly where your team lands before opening night.

Not sure which of this week's games you can already watch? StreamCaddy maps the cheapest correct way to watch all of your teams and events for your exact location and subscriptions.

Sources

1. Matchcast — "How to Watch the NHL 2026-27 Season in the USA" (national split between Disney/ESPN and WBD/TNT; both deals run through 2027-28; ABC over the air; ESPN Select for out-of-market), June 16, 2026 — https://matchcast.tv/guides/how-to-watch-nhl-2026-27-in-usa
2. NHL Trade Rumors Talk — "How to Watch the NHL: 2026-27" (channel-by-channel national map; ESPN+/Hulu/Disney+ and HBO Max streaming homes; cord-cutter combos; Stanley Cup Final on TNT this season), June 14, 2026 — https://nhltraderumorstalk.com/how-to-watch-nhl-2026-27-tv-channels-streaming-guide
3. Sports Brackets — "2026-27 NHL Schedule: 84-Game Expansion, Key Dates" (season opens Sept. 29 with an ESPN tripleheader; 84 games; no mid-season Olympic break; national windows on ESPN/ABC and TNT), July 2026 — https://sportsbrackets.net/2026/01/01/2026-27-nhl-schedule-printable-regular-season-tv-lineups-team-schedules/
4. DIRECTV Insider — "Local Sports Broadcast Channels: RSNs" (FanDuel networks ending before the 2026-27 season; four of seven NHL teams still seeking new local services; Red Wings on Detroit SportsNet; Kings' RSN bought by the Angels' owners) — https://www.directv.com/insider/rsn-channels/
5. Nashville Predators / NHL.com — "Preds, Scripps Sports Announce Broadcast Partnership" (Scripps Sports becomes the Predators' TV/streaming home for 2026-27; over-the-air on WNPX, "The Spot - Nashville 28"), April 7, 2026 — https://www.nhl.com/predators/news/preds-scripps-sports-announce-game-changing-broadcast-partnership-2026-04-07
6. MLB.com (Ilitch Sports) — "Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings enter broadcast partnership with MLB" (Detroit SportsNet becomes the Red Wings' local home starting 2026-27; cable/satellite and in-market streaming), February 9, 2026 — https://www.mlb.com/news/press-release-detroit-tigers-and-detroit-red-wings-enter-broadcast-partnership-with-major-league-baseball
7. St. Louis Public Radio — "Blues to seek new television home next season as Main Street Sports Group shuts down" (Blues' 2026-27 broadcaster undetermined after FanDuel wind-down), April 6, 2026 — https://www.stlpr.org/news-briefs/2026-04-06/blues-seek-new-television-home-main-street-sports-group-shuts-down
8. ESPN Press Room — "All-Access NHL Coverage Returns to ESPN and The Walt Disney Company" (NHL Power Play on the ESPN App carries 1,050+ out-of-market games, available to ESPN DTC subscribers; all games stream on the ESPN App via ESPN DTC or pay-TV) — https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2026/04/2025-26-nhl-regular-season-concludes-this-week-with-five-exclusive-nhl-games-this-week-on-espn/
9. CableTV.com — "NHL Center Ice Review: Cost and Out-Of-Market Access" (NHL Center Ice is the cable/satellite out-of-market package; ESPN+ is the streaming home of out-of-market games, now bundled within the ESPN Select and ESPN Unlimited tiers; in-market blackouts apply), April 23, 2026 — https://www.cabletv.com/sports/nhl-center-ice-review