A decade after The Gazette first published its annual guide to how to watch Canadiens games on TV, you might be forgiven for thinking there’s nothing new to write about. Rogers still has two seasons to go on its 12-year $5.2-billion national rights deal with the NHL, and RDS’s regional rights deal doesn’t expire until 2026 either.
But then in April, Rogers announced it was selling some of its national rights to Amazon, which will become the exclusive English-language TV broadcaster for select Monday night games for the last two seasons of the Rogers/NHL deal, starting with the Canadiens’ game Oct. 14 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In total, Amazon will have exclusive English-language rights to 26 regular-season NHL games (one each Monday throughout the season), all involving at least one Canadian team. Five of those games involve the Canadiens (Oct. 14, Nov. 18, Dec. 9, Jan. 6 and April 14).
The good news is they’re Monday night regular-season games, so this doesn’t affect Hockey Night in Canada or the playoffs. And it doesn’t affect French-language or radio rights, so all five of those games will still be on RDS, TSN 690 and 98.5 FM.
The bad news is if you want to watch all 82 games in English, you’ll need subscriptions to not just Sportsnet and TSN (whose streaming services are $20/month each, less if you get yearly subscriptions), but Amazon Prime Video as well. Amazon Prime costs $10/month or $99/year, and also gives you free shipping, music streaming and more perks from the online commerce giant. (NHL games will be at no extra cost to Prime members.)
The Prime Video app is available on most smart TVs, Roku and Chromecast devices, and is an option on newer set-top boxes including Bell Fibe and Videotron Helix. You can also stream the games on iOS and Android.
New this year, both TSN and Sportsnet are available as add-ons on Prime Video, for the same price as their streaming services.
What to expect
Last month, Amazon announced its on-air talent for its NHL broadcasts. Veteran broadcasters Andi Petrillo (Hockey Night in Canada, CBC Olympics) and Adnan Virk (MLB Network, DAZN) will co-host the shows, Seattle Kraken announcer John Forslund will do play-by-play, analysts include Blake Bolden, Shane Hnidy, Thomas Hickey and Jody Shelley, and Mark Messier will also contribute to the broadcasts.
Prime Monday Night Hockey is promising pre-game, intermission and post-game segments, and a feature called “Rapid Recap” that will produce two-minute highlight reels using “machine learning” so people who tune in late can catch up.
Besides the Monday night games, Prime Video will also have a show Thursday nights called NHL Coast to Coast, which will check in live with games around the league. Petrillo will host that show as well.
The basics
Otherwise, the story is the same as last season. Rogers will have 27 Canadiens games nationally, including Wednesday and Saturday evening games. Saturday games will be on CBC if the Canadiens are playing the Maple Leafs and Citytv and Sportsnet East otherwise (though channel assignments could change during the season). Some Saturday games may also be available in Punjabi on OMNI. Games on other days will be on Sportsnet. TSN has 50 Canadiens regular-season games, which will be on TSN2, and RDS has 60 regular-season games. Both are blacked out west of Belleville, Ont., during games. TVA Sports will have its usual 22 games nationally, all Saturdays except Wednesday’s home opener. Sportsnet and TVA Sports also have all playoff games (whether the Canadiens are in them or not) and the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.
The on-air talent also hasn’t changed, with play-by-play announcers Bryan Mudryk (TSN), Victor Findlay (TSN 690), Pierre Houde (RDS), Félix Séguin (TVA Sports) and Martin McGuire (98.5 FM) as the voices of the Canadiens.
If you’re watching from outside the Canadiens’ region (which is all of Quebec, all of Atlantic Canada and eastern Ontario), you’ll need NHL Centre Ice or Sportsnet+ Premium, at $250/year or $35/month, to access all Canadiens games except those available locally on a non-Sportsnet channel. (This means you won’t get access to the Prime Video games.)
If you’re watching from the U.S., you’ll need ESPN+ to watch any games not available locally. There are currently no Canadiens games scheduled for national broadcast in the U.S. on ABC, ESPN or TNT.
For details on how to access Canadiens games from outside the team’s broadcast region, check out our guide at hockeyinsideout.com.
The future
There’s been a lot of speculation on what happens in 2026 when the Rogers/NHL deal ends. Is the Amazon rights deal an indication that Rogers can’t afford the cost? Will Bell sweep in with a more aggressive offer to win the national rights back? Will Amazon or another streaming service take away the NHL from Canada’s legacy TV broadcasters? We don’t know yet. All we can tell you is we’ll probably be back to tell you how to watch.
To download printable versions of this schedule for local or out-of-region viewing, go to hockeyinsideout.com.