Avalanche get spotlight with second-most national TV games

While most of Denver is focused on watching the Broncos and the Colorado Buffaloes take to the gridiron this week, the Colorado Avalanche are getting ready for a very important 2025-26 campaign, set to kick off in 41 days. The Avs had their full scheduled released last month, and had their national TV games announced on Wednesday.

The Avalanche will play in 17 nationally televised contests this year, tied for the second-most in the NHL. The only team with more? Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. The Avs have more games on national airwaves than the back-to-back defending champion Florida Panthers, the Dallas Stars and the Edmonton Oilers. Other teams with 17 national games are the Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings.

US National TV Games for 2025/26 NHL season, by team

• 72 exclusive games on TNT Networks

• 100 games exclusive on ESPN Networks:
– 16 on ABC
– 37 on ESPN
– 47 on ESPN+

📺 ESPN: https://t.co/kRJEQLR1nH
📺 TNT: https://t.co/tg9llb2zLg pic.twitter.com/QYmgqXTxgg

— NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) August 27, 2025

The NHL and its broadcast partners (ESPN, TNT) understand that the Avalanche have two of the most exciting players in the league in Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, and there’s a good team around them that should compete for a division title this season.

Last season, the Avalanche also played in 17 national TV games. They went 9-8 in those contests, but a strong end to the season picked up their record after they were 5-8 following a loss to Toronto on March 19.

Last season, two games were on ESPN+ / Hulu, which made it so fans had to have a paid subscription to one of those platforms to catch those games. Four games on TNT were also blacked out so the local broadcast partner, Altitude TV, could carry them exclusively. While watching games on that platform isn’t as much of an issue for local fans as it was in previous years after the broadcasting company finally struck a deal with Comcast, the channel still isn’t carried on YouTube TV, a major streaming service that has taken over the broadcast industry recently.

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The games that are on TV that will be blacked out for folks in the Denver area have not been announced yet, but are being determined, per Avalanche vice president of media and player relations Brendan McNicholas.

For the third consecutive season, the @Avalanche will make 17 appearances on U.S. national television. That includes eight games on @NHL_On_TNT and six on @espn and three on ABC pic.twitter.com/rncmikG2t2

— Brendan McNicholas (@bmcnich) August 27, 2025

Notable national TV games include opening night against the Los Angeles Kings, which was previously announced, two clashes against the Dallas Stars late in the season (March 18, TNT – April 4, ABC), a showdown with the Panthers (Dec. 11, ESPN) and a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matchup with the Capitals (Jan. 19, TNT). That game is one of four matinee games on the national networks.

The weather has finally cooled down in Denver after what seemed like a never-ending heat wave hung around at the start of the month, a sign that Avalanche hockey will be here before you know it.