- Saturday Night Hockey debuts Oct. 3 with Ron MacLean hosting Kevin Bieksa, Elliotte Friedman and Colby Armstrong
- Monday Night Hockey moves behind a $12.99 Sportsnet+ add-on beginning Oct. 5
- Read below for the full Sportsnet broadcast plan, including 550-plus games and 150 lifted blackouts
Hockey Night in Canada is finished, and Sportsnet has finally told us what replaces it.
Rogers unveiled its 2026-27 broadcast plans Wednesday, and the Saturday slot now belongs to a show called Saturday Night Hockey. It debuts Oct. 3 with Ron MacLean hosting and a panel of Kevin Bieksa, Elliotte Friedman and Colby Armstrong. The look is familiar, the name is not.
Sportsnet president Greg Sansone pitched the show as a Canadian-teams-first product. He said Saturday Night Hockey will put those seven clubs “front-and-centre” every week.
That four-man desk is a trim from what viewers watched last year. Kelly Hrudey and Jennifer Botterill both sat on the expanded panel, and Hrudey said in August that Sportsnet did not renew his contract.
Friedman and Bieksa were the bigger unknowns. Their deals expired Aug. 31, leaving the two most recognizable voices on the Saturday broadcast technically available for more than a week while the rumors piled up.
Both are staying put, and we celebrated accordingly:
The other headline is a wallet issue. Monday Night Hockey returns Oct. 5 with David Amber hosting Luke Gazdic and Justin Williams, and it streams exclusively on Sportsnet+.
Cable subscribers do not get it for free. Rogers is charging an extra $12.99 per month to add Monday Night Hockey and more than 100 additional U.S. matchups, with that package going on sale Sept. 15. Wednesday games remain exclusive to Amazon Prime Video.
Here is what Rogers is promising across the season:
- 550-plus games available nationally, a 35 percent jump in national broadcasts
- 150 regional blackouts lifted, opening up games fans could not previously watch
- Sept. 29: Opening night doubleheader, Canadiens and Maple Leafs first, then Canucks and Oilers
- Oct. 3: Saturday Night Hockey premiere
- Oct. 5: Monday Night Hockey premiere on Sportsnet+
Chris Cuthbert, Craig Simpson and Kyle Bukauskas handle the Montreal-Toronto opener, per Daily Faceoff, with Jack Michaels, Louie DeBrusk and Gene Principe taking the Vancouver-Edmonton nightcap.
Ninety-five years of the Hockey Night brand ends here. The theme song is different, the logo is different, and Canadian fans will spend October deciding whether any of that matters once the puck drops.
