NHL 2026-27 in Canada: Where Every Game Airs This Season

The NHL 2026-27 season drops the puck on Tuesday, September 29, and in Canada almost everything about where the games live has changed. Rogers’ new twelve-year national agreement starts this season, so Sportsnet carries more than 550 national games, Prime Video takes Wednesday nights exclusively, TSN and RDS keep their regional packages, TVA Sports holds the French national rights — and for the first time since 1952, not one NHL game airs on CBC.

This is a channel-by-channel map of the season: which broadcaster holds what, which feed carries your team, how the blackout rules changed, and what each route actually costs. Every date and figure below comes from the league’s or the broadcasters’ own announcements.

The short answer

• Sportsnet is the national home: more than 550 games, a 35% increase on last season, including the new Saturday Night Hockey doubleheader from October 3.
• CBC is out. The national Saturday game is not on CBC for the first time since Hockey Night in Canada reached television in 1952, so the free over-the-air route is gone.
• Prime Video owns Wednesday Night Hockey exclusively — at least 26 national games in English and French, starting September 30 — plus two first-round and one second-round playoff series.
• Monday Night Hockey streams only on Sportsnet+ from October 5. It is not on the linear Sportsnet channels at all.
• TSN keeps the regional packages: Maple Leafs on TSN4, Senators on TSN5, Jets on TSN3, Canadiens on TSN2 at 50 games a season.
• French viewers need to follow three names: TVA Sports nationally, RDS for 45 regional Canadiens games, and Prime Video for its Wednesday slate.
• Sportsnet keeps regional rights for the Canucks, Oilers and Flames on Sportsnet Pacific and Sportsnet West.
• 150 regional blackouts have been lifted, so a large block of games that used to be locked to one market now airs nationally.
• The regular season grows to 84 games and runs from September 29, 2026 to April 10, 2027.

The catch is that no single subscription covers all of it any more, and the reason is worth understanding before you pay for anything.

What changed for the 2026-27 season

The old twelve-year Rogers deal ran from 2014-15 through last season. The new agreement starts now and runs through 2037-38 at a reported $11 billion, and Rogers has sublicensed pieces of it rather than keeping everything in-house. That reshuffle is the single biggest change Canadian hockey viewers have faced in more than a decade.

Six things are genuinely different this season:

1. Hockey Night in Canada is not the name any more. Sportsnet has rebranded its Saturday show Saturday Night Hockey, with Ron MacLean hosting alongside Elliotte Friedman, Kevin Bieksa and Colby Armstrong. The Hockey Night in Canada name stays with CBC, which no longer airs the games.

2. No NHL on CBC. This is the change with the widest practical effect, because CBC was the one place you could watch a national NHL game with an antenna and no subscription at all. That option has ended. If free Saturday hockey was your whole plan, you now need some form of paid service.

3. Wednesday nights belong to Prime Video. Under a twelve-year sublicensing agreement between Rogers and Prime Video, Prime Video is the exclusive home of regular-season Wednesday Night Hockey in Canada, with at least 26 national games a season in English and French, beginning Wednesday, September 30. Prime Video also takes exclusive rights to two first-round playoff series and one second-round series each year. Those games are included with a Prime membership at no extra charge — but they are not on any television channel.

4. Monday Night Hockey moved behind Sportsnet+. From October 5, Monday Night Hockey streams exclusively on Sportsnet+, hosted by David Amber with Luke Gazdic and Justin Williams. Households that receive Sportsnet through a television provider need a $12.99 a month add-on to see it.

5. 150 blackouts lifted. Sportsnet has removed more than 150 regional blackouts, converting games that were previously restricted to one market into national broadcasts. That is the first meaningful loosening of Canadian regional exclusivity in years, and it is good news for anyone who moved provinces and still follows their old team.

6. An 84-game season. Every club plays 84 games rather than 82, with two extra divisional matches. It is the first 84-game NHL schedule since 1993-94. The season also has no Olympic break this time, so the calendar runs straight through from late September to April 10, when all 32 teams play on the final day.

Where every game airs this season

Here is the whole Canadian picture in one place. “How you get it” matters as much as the rights, because two of these routes are streaming-only and cannot be received on a television channel at all.

Rights holder	What it carries in 2026-27	How you get it
Sportsnet (linear)	550+ national games, Saturday Night Hockey doubleheaders, tentpole events, most of the playoffs	Cable, satellite or IPTV carrying Sportsnet East, Ontario, West, Pacific, One, 360
Sportsnet+	Monday Night Hockey exclusively, out-of-market games, streaming of national games	Own subscription, or a $12.99 monthly add-on through a TV provider
Prime Video	Wednesday Night Hockey, 26+ national games, English and French; 2 first-round and 1 second-round playoff series	Prime membership only — not on any channel
TSN	Regional packages for the Maple Leafs, Senators, Jets and Canadiens	Cable, satellite or IPTV carrying TSN 1 to 5
TVA Sports	French national rights, up to 350 regular-season games, all Canadiens playoff games	Cable, satellite or IPTV carrying TVA Sports; also TVA Sports Direct
RDS	45 regional Canadiens games in French per season	Cable, satellite or IPTV carrying RDS
CBC	Nothing. No NHL games this season	—

The important line in that table is the Prime Video row. A licensing exclusive held by a streaming service is not a blackout that a better channel lineup can route around — the game simply does not exist on any feed. Cable, satellite and IPTV are all equally shut out of those 26-plus Wednesday games and those three playoff series. Any service that tells you otherwise is describing something it cannot deliver.

Which channel carries your team

Regional rights are separate contracts from the national deal, and they mostly survived the reshuffle intact. TSN holds the English regional packages in the east, Sportsnet holds them in the west, and RDS holds the French regional Canadiens package.

Team	Regional English	Regional French	National games
Toronto Maple Leafs	TSN4, plus Sportsnet Ontario	—	Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, Prime Video
Montreal Canadiens	TSN2, 50 games	RDS, 45 games	Sportsnet, TVA Sports, Prime Video
Ottawa Senators	TSN5	RDS	Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, Prime Video
Winnipeg Jets	TSN3	—	Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, Prime Video
Vancouver Canucks	Sportsnet Pacific	—	Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, Prime Video
Edmonton Oilers	Sportsnet West	—	Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, Prime Video
Calgary Flames	Sportsnet West	—	Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, Prime Video

Two details are worth knowing. TSN’s regional territories are geographic, not national: TSN4 serves Ontario outside the Ottawa Valley, TSN5 serves the Senators market in eastern Ontario and beyond, and TSN3 covers Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and parts of northwestern Ontario. And Sportsnet’s western regional deals run well into the 2030s, so Canucks, Oilers and Flames coverage is the most stable arrangement in the country.

Following one team across a season still means three or four different feeds. A Leafs supporter in Toronto needs TSN4, Sportsnet Ontario, the national Sportsnet feeds, Sportsnet+ for the Monday games and Prime Video for the Wednesday ones. Our earlier guide to watching NHL hockey in Canada without cable explains the mechanics of that split; this article is the 2026-27 version of the map.

How blackouts work now that 150 games have been lifted

A blackout is a licensing rule, not a punishment. When a team sells its regional rights, the buyer gets exclusivity inside that territory, so the national feed goes dark there. The game is always on some channel — just not always the one you happen to be watching.

What changed this season is the volume. Sportsnet lifting more than 150 previously restricted games means a large slice of the schedule now airs nationally instead of being locked to a single market. In practice:

• Fewer surprises. Games that used to vanish from the national feed in your province are now simply on.
• Regional exclusivity still exists. The TSN and RDS regional packages are unaffected. A Canadiens game on TSN2 is still a TSN2 game.
• The new exclusivity is streaming, not regional. Wednesday nights on Prime Video and Mondays on Sportsnet+ are country-wide exclusives. They are not regional blackouts, and no channel lineup can reach them.

That is a real shift in how you should think about coverage. Two years ago the way to see everything was to carry every regional feed. This season, carrying every feed gets you most of the way, and the rest sits behind two streaming services.

The practical answer for a channel-based service is still the same: carry all of them. IPTV MN lists TSN 1 through TSN 5, Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific, Sportsnet One, 360 and World, RDS, RDS2 and RDS Info, TVA Sports and TVA Sports 2, plus NHL Network, in a single subscription. The complete lineup is on the channels list, and it is worth reading before you take anyone’s word for what is included.

Opening week and the dates worth writing down

The 2026-27 schedule opens with a Canadian doubleheader, which is a friendlier start than most seasons get.

Date	Event	Where in Canada
Tue, Sept 29	Canadiens at Maple Leafs, 7 pm ET	Sportsnet
Tue, Sept 29	Canucks at Oilers, 10 pm ET	Sportsnet
Wed, Sept 30	First Wednesday Night Hockey	Prime Video only
Sat, Oct 3	First Saturday Night Hockey doubleheader	Sportsnet
Mon, Oct 5	First Monday Night Hockey	Sportsnet+ only
Sun, Oct 25	Heritage Classic: Jets host Canadiens, Princess Auto Stadium, Winnipeg	Sportsnet
Feb 5-7, 2027	All-Star Weekend, UBS Arena, Elmont, New York	Sportsnet
Sat, Apr 10, 2027	Final day, all 32 teams in action	Sportsnet

Opening night is an Original Six match at Scotiabank Arena followed by a Pacific Division game at Rogers Place, both on Sportsnet, which means a single Sportsnet feed covers the entire Canadian opening night. The following evening is the awkward one: the season’s first Wednesday game is on Prime Video and nowhere else.

The Heritage Classic on October 25 is the outdoor game to plan around. The Jets host the Canadiens at Princess Auto Stadium, home of the CFL’s Blue Bombers, and it is the second Heritage Classic staged at that ground. If you are in Manitoba, our IPTV in Winnipeg page covers local channel availability; if you are following the Canadiens from the other side of the country, the French feeds matter as much as the English ones.

All-Star Weekend runs February 5 to 7 at UBS Arena, with a new five-team round-robin format built around Canada, the United States, Sweden, Finland and a Rest of the World side. Sportsnet carries the tentpole events, including the Heritage Classic, the Winter Classic, the Stadium Series and All-Star Weekend.

What it costs to follow the season in 2026-27

Prices went up on both major sports streaming services during 2026, which changes the arithmetic from previous seasons. These are the current Canadian rates.

Route	Current price	What it misses
Sportsnet+ Standard	$34.99 a month, $269.99 a year	TSN regional games, TVA Sports, Prime Video Wednesdays
Sportsnet+ Premium	$44.99 a month, $344.99 a year	TSN regional games, TVA Sports, Prime Video Wednesdays
TSN+	$29.99 a month, $249.99 a year	All Sportsnet national and regional games
Prime Video	$9.99 a month, $99 a year	Everything except its own Wednesday and playoff games
Sportsnet+ add-on via a TV provider	$12.99 a month on top of your TV bill	Nothing extra — it unlocks Monday nights and out-of-market games
Cable or satellite TV	$85 to $130 a month after the promotion ends	Prime Video Wednesdays; Monday nights without the add-on
IPTV MN, 12-month single-screen plan	$77 a year, which is $6.42 a month	Prime Video Wednesdays; Sportsnet+ streaming exclusives

Sportsnet+ Standard moved to $34.99 monthly and $269.99 annually with the first billing cycle on or after September 22, and Premium to $44.99 monthly and $344.99 annually. Premium is the tier that adds every out-of-market game and a choice of home or away broadcast feed. TSN+ rose to $29.99 monthly and $249.99 annually in April.

Stack the two sports services and you are at roughly $520 a year before you add Prime. Add cable instead and a typical mid-tier Canadian television bill lands between $1,020 and $1,560 over twelve months once promotional pricing expires — our line-by-line look at a real Canadian cable bill shows where that money goes. Against those figures, a twelve-month IPTV plan at $77 is the cheapest way to hold all the linear feeds at once. The pricing page lists every option, including $127 for a two-screen year and $178 for three screens, and a single month at $17 if you only want the playoffs.

Be clear-eyed about what the cheap option does not solve. It holds the channels. It does not, and cannot, include the Prime Video Wednesday games or the Sportsnet+ streaming exclusives, because those are not channels.

How to watch the 2026-27 season without a cable contract

For a household that wants the linear feeds without a two-year contract or a rented receiver, the combination that covers the most hockey this season looks like this:

1. An IPTV subscription for every channel feed. TSN 1 to 5, all four Sportsnet regional feeds plus One, 360 and World, TVA Sports and RDS. That covers Saturday Night Hockey, every regional game in the country and the large majority of the playoffs.
2. A Prime membership for Wednesdays. At $9.99 a month or $99 a year it is the only route to those 26-plus games and the three exclusive playoff series.
3. Optionally, Sportsnet+ for Monday nights if Monday hockey matters to you specifically.

That is honest rather than tidy. The old promise that one subscription could cover every Canadian NHL game stopped being true the moment a streaming service bought exclusive weeknights, and any provider still making it is overselling. Our page on the best IPTV in Canada sets out the standard to hold a provider to, and the help centre answers the practical questions that come up before you pay.

Who this suits, plainly:

• It suits you if you follow one or more Canadian teams, want the regional feeds, and are happy watching on an app rather than a set-top box from a carrier.
• It suits you if you moved provinces and want your old team’s games, which the 150 lifted blackouts now make far easier.
• It does not suit you if your internet is slow, drops out often, or sits under a tight monthly data cap. Live hockey is the least forgiving thing you can stream.
• It does not suit you if you want the Wednesday Prime Video games included in a single bill. No channel-based service can do that.
• It does not suit you if you want one regulated Canadian carrier to bill your television alongside your phone and internet.

If you are weighing the whole decision rather than just the hockey, our honest verdict on whether IPTV is the best choice in Canada covers the cases where the answer is no.

Following the Canadiens in French: the hardest case this season

French-language coverage is where the reshuffle bites hardest, and Canadiens supporters have the most complicated season in the country.

Quebecor’s twelve-year sublicence gives TVA Sports the French national rights to up to 350 regular-season games a year, including 32 Canadiens games and every Canadiens playoff game, shown on TVA Sports and its TVA Sports Direct platform. RDS renewed for 45 regional Canadiens games a season, down from 60. Prime Video carries seven Canadiens games in French as part of its Wednesday slate.

Add those up and the arithmetic is uncomfortable: seeing all 84 Canadiens games in French this season means access to three different services — TVA Sports, RDS and Prime Video. Neither cable nor IPTV changes that, because one of the three is a streaming exclusive.

What a full channel lineup does fix is the first two. Carrying TVA Sports, TVA Sports 2, RDS, RDS2 and RDS Info in one subscription covers the national French schedule and the regional Canadiens package together, which is more than most single television packages manage. Francophone households outside Quebec benefit most, since a Vancouver or Calgary cable package rarely carries the French sports networks at all. There is more on regional availability on the IPTV in Montreal page and on the coverage page, which also explains how the programme guide handles all six Canadian time zones.

A worked example. A francophone family in Calgary wants every Canadiens game. On a local cable package they would get the national Sportsnet feeds in English and little else in French. With a full lineup they get RDS and TVA Sports in Alberta, with the guide showing Mountain Time, and they add Prime for the Wednesday games. The IPTV in Calgary page covers what is available locally.

Getting set up before puck drop

If you want this working before the opening doubleheader, the realistic timeline is about fifteen minutes.

1. Test it first. Ask for a 24-hour free trial on the free trial page or through live chat. No card is needed, and testing during an actual game at around 8 pm is the only test that means anything.
2. Install a player on your main television. The installation guides cover each device: about five minutes on an Amazon Fire TV Stick, quicker on Apple TV or Android TV where the app is already in the store, and many recent Samsung and LG televisions need no extra box at all.
3. Wire the television to the router. An Ethernet cable removes the most common cause of a stutter during a fast break. Live sport has almost no buffer to fall back on, which is why Wi-Fi problems show up during hockey before anything else.
4. Find your feeds before the game, not during it. Add TSN4 or Sportsnet Pacific or RDS — whichever carries your team — to your favourites list so you are not scrolling at 7 pm.
5. Learn the backup line. A second server address comes with every subscription, so if one route has trouble mid-period you can switch in about thirty seconds.
6. Pick a plan when you are satisfied. Payment is by Interac e-Transfer from your own bank app in Canadian dollars, and the login is emailed once the transfer lands, usually inside ten minutes. The IPTV subscription page sets out exactly what arrives.

Two practical notes for game night. Speeds first: budget 8 to 12 Mbps per screen for HD, 15 to 20 Mbps for Full HD and 25 to 40 Mbps for 4K, and add them together if two people are watching different games. Second, if the picture does stutter, work through the buffering fixes guide in order rather than guessing — it is usually the local network rather than the source.

Should something not work on your setup, the refund policy gives you seven days.

Is watching NHL hockey this way legal in Canada?

The technology is legal, and it is what Canadian carriers use for their own television. Bell Fibe TV and Rogers Ignite TV are both IPTV; internet delivery is the mainstream method rather than a fringe one. The what is IPTV page explains how it works.

What matters legally is the licensing of the content a particular service carries, not the delivery method. IPTV MN supplies network access and reseller services and does not host, record or broadcast any media itself. Subscribers are responsible for making sure their own viewing complies with the Copyright Act and the Broadcasting Act. The full position is in our disclaimer.

Frequently asked questions

Is NHL hockey still on CBC in 2026-27?

No. For the first time since Hockey Night in Canada arrived on television in 1952, CBC is not airing NHL games. Sportsnet has taken the Saturday national doubleheader and renamed it Saturday Night Hockey. The Hockey Night in Canada brand itself remains with CBC, but there are no games attached to it this season.

Which channel shows my team’s regional games this season?

In the east, TSN holds the regional English packages: TSN4 for the Maple Leafs, TSN5 for the Senators, TSN3 for the Jets and TSN2 for 50 Canadiens games. In the west, Sportsnet Pacific carries the Canucks and Sportsnet West carries the Oilers and Flames. RDS has 45 regional Canadiens games in French.

Do I need Prime Video to see every NHL game in Canada?

For the Wednesday games, yes. Prime Video is the exclusive Canadian home of Wednesday Night Hockey, with at least 26 national games a season plus two first-round and one second-round playoff series. Those games are not carried on any television channel, so no cable, satellite or IPTV package can include them.

How many NHL games does Sportsnet show nationally this season?

More than 550, which Sportsnet describes as 35% more national broadcasts than last season, and it has lifted over 150 regional blackouts so that previously restricted games now air nationally. Sportsnet also carries the tentpole events and most of the Stanley Cup playoffs, apart from the three early-round series that belong to Prime Video.

Why does the NHL season have 84 games now?

The league expanded the regular season from 82 to 84 games for 2026-27, adding two extra divisional matches for every club. It is the first 84-game schedule since 1993-94. The season runs from September 29, 2026 to April 10, 2027, with all 32 teams playing on the final day.

What internet speed do I need to stream hockey reliably?

Roughly 8 to 12 Mbps per screen for HD, 15 to 20 Mbps for Full HD and 25 to 40 Mbps for 4K. Steadiness matters more than peak speed, because live hockey has almost no buffer to absorb a drop-out. A wired connection from your router to the television helps more than any speed upgrade.

Where this leaves you this season

The 2026-27 season is the most fragmented the NHL has been in Canada for a long time. Sportsnet is bigger nationally, CBC is gone, two weeknights sit behind streaming exclusives, and French coverage is split three ways. Nobody sells a single product that covers all of it, and it is better to know that now than to find out in the middle of a Wednesday game.

What you can still do is hold every linear feed in one place for far less than a cable bill: all five TSN channels, every Sportsnet regional feed, RDS and TVA Sports, with a guide that knows what time zone you are in. If that is the part of the season you care about, take the 24-hour free trial, watch a game on your own television at 8 pm, and check the specific feed your team plays on before you spend anything. The plans and prices are there when you have made up your mind, and live support can confirm a channel is in the lineup before you do.