RALEIGH — The NHL’s postseason viewership heater is poised to hit another crescendo with the Stanley Cup Final, beginning Tuesday with the Golden Knights and Hurricanes.
The prior two months of the league playoffs have already seen a run of audience increases reaching historic levels. The first round averaged 1.8 million viewers, up 68% from 2025. The second round averaged 1.9 million viewers, soaring 55% from a year ago, and setting a league record.
The conference finals, meanwhile, showed a similar trend as ESPN coverage of the Golden Knights and Avalanche averaged 2.2 million viewers, up 44% from a year ago and the best such figure since 2015. TNT Sports, meanwhile, averaged 2 million for the first four games of the Eastern Conference Final between the Hurricanes and Canadiens, up 49% from 2025.
The audience trend is set to accelerate in the Stanley Cup Final for several key reasons:
It’s Disney’s turn to air the event this year in an annual rotation with Warner Bros. Discovery-controlled TNT Sports that began in 2021. ABC will be a central component of this year’s coverage, and that broadcast element will lead to significantly greater television reach than the odd-numbered years in which TNT Sports airs the Stanley Cup Final.
