No major pro sports league has grown its sponsorship revenue faster than the NHL over the past five seasons — 70% growth, from $1 billion to $1.7B, outpacing the NFL, NBA, MLB, and MLS over the same period.
Total team sponsorship revenue grew +10% YoY while deal counts stayed the same and average deal size jumped 11%. Brands are investing in deeper, more integrated team partnerships rather than spreading across more logos — a focus story, not a contraction.
Second season of play — built out all three uniform tiers (SME Steel, 1Password, Filevine)
New Primary Jersey Patch with Game 7 — MSG's most-watched property
New venue naming rights with Benchmark International
New venue naming rights with Grand Casino
Twilio lands helmet real estate with the LA Kings, joining a tech-heavy roster that ranks among the league's more active tech markets.
Financial is the runaway #1 category at $251M in spend — far ahead of Auto ($150M). Seven of the top 10 individual deals are Financial brands: Scotiabank, JPMorgan, UBS, First National, TD, Prudential, alongside Crypto.com's historic naming rights deal with the LA Kings. The category now spans banks, credit cards, fintech, and insurance — fully institutionalized across the NHL.
Deal count across the top 10 teams over three seasons (2023–24 → 2024–25 → 2025–26). Four of the top five gainers are Canadian clubs, with St. Louis the lone U.S. team in the mix — growth driven by category expansion and deepening local sponsor benches, not expansion teams.
Edmonton Oilers+22.9%Ottawa Senators+19.4%Calgary Flames+17.8%Montreal Canadiens+15.2%St. Louis Blues+13.9%Franchise Spotlights
Vegas owns the top spot on volume — driven by a deliberate "volume over exclusivity" strategy, hyper-local community focus, and the commercial explosion of Las Vegas as a sports capital. Add a reigning Stanley Cup and the Knights have turned the youngest market in the league into its deepest sponsorship book.
The largest % gain among top-10 teams (109 → 121 → 134 deals across 2023–24 → 2024–25 → 2025–26). Back-to-back Stanley Cup Final runs, status as the first NHL club to activate Designated Era Deals (DEDs), a top-10 league-wide social following, and recognition as the most engaging Canadian team on social have stacked with Rogers' marquee deal, Play Alberta on the patch, and a deepening roster of Canadian financial and energy partners — turning McDavid's market into the league's fastest-scaling sponsorship book.
Toyota built the NHL's deepest team-level footprint at 19 markets. Molson Coors reaches 16 teams through 12 distinct child brands — one of the most sophisticated multi-brand strategies in pro sports. And Lyft went from one NHL deal to 15 in a single season.
| Rank | Brand | Category | Teams | YoY Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Toyota | Auto | 19 | +2 |
| #2 | Molson Coors Brewing Company | Beverage — Alcohol | 16 | +2 |
| #3 | Gallo | Beverage — Alcohol | 15 | +1 |
| #4 | Ford Motor Company | Auto | 15 | 0 |
| #5 | Lyft | Transportation | 15 | +14 |
| #6 | Diageo | Beverage — Alcohol | 14 | +1 |
| #7 | Stateside Brands | Beverage — Alcohol | 13 | +2 |
| #8 | Waste Management | Construction & Industrial | 11 | +1 |
| #9 | McDonald's | Quick Serve Restaurants | 10 | 0 |
| #10 | Chick-fil-A | Quick Serve Restaurants | 10 | +1 |
Through Toyota and Lexus, the brand has built a coast-to-coast footprint that includes LA, Dallas, Seattle, Nashville, Pittsburgh, and a Vegas jersey patch (Away). Fifteen of those deals include 10+ assets — proof the team-level approach can scale.
Coors Light, Miller Lite, Blue Moon, Molson Canadian, VIZZY, Topo Chico — each market gets a brand tuned to it. Canadian teams skew toward Molson Canadian; US markets lean Coors Light. A portfolio strategy, not a national buy activated locally.
The most aggressive new-brand rollout of 2025–26. Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Florida, Seattle — high ridership, high arena attendance, high youth overlap. Lyft isn't testing hockey. They're committing to it.
Average deal size jumped from $475K to $529K (+11%) while deal counts changed minimally.
Healthcare added +25 net sponsorship deals (+20%) — the largest structural category expansion of the season.
47 new healthcare deals entered. The names tell the story: FreeStyle Libre (4), Wegovy (3), Novo Nordisk (2), AstraZeneca.
Construction & Industrial's +9.4% is the real estate story of the season.
C&I grew from 234 to 256 deals — a +22 net increase driven by new franchise entry (Utah) and category deepening by Caterpillar (expanding to Carolina, Chicago, Detroit, and NHL), PCL Construction (Minnesota), PPG Industries (NHL), and Renewal by Andersen (Seattle, Minnesota).
A patch was carried on 28 of 32 teams — Game 7 to the Rangers, the construction category takes inventory. Meanwhile 20 new uniform deals were signed this season — 9 on jerseys and 11 on helmets. In total, 87 uniform deals are now active (41 jersey patches and 46 helmets), meaning nearly every available spot is taken.
| Team | Patch sponsor | Category | Asset | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calgary Flames | Suncor | Utilities | Home | NEW PATCH |
| New York Islanders | Vanda Pharmaceuticals | Healthcare | Home | NEW PATCH |
| New York Rangers | Game 7 | Media | Home | NEW PATCH |
 Philadelphia Flyers | Penn Medicine | Healthcare | Home | NEW PATCH |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | First National Bank | Financial | Home | NEW PATCH |
| Utah Mammoth | SME Steel / 1Password | Construction / Tech | Home / Away | NEW PATCH |
| Vegas Golden Knights | Toyota / Circa Sports | Auto / Gaming | Home / Away | NEW PATCH |
| Washington Capitals | Coupang | Retail | Home | NEW PATCH |
 Buffalo Sabres | Stark Tech (starts 2026–27) | Technology | Home | SWITCHED |
 Columbus Blue Jackets | — (no PJP for 2026–27) | — | — | VACANT |
 Dallas Stars | — (no PJP for 2026–27) | — | — | VACANT |
 San Jose Sharks | — (no PJP for 2026–27) | — | — | VACANT |
A media brand literally named after hockey's defining moment just landed hockey's biggest stage. Game 7 puts their logo in front of the most-watched team in the league by national broadcast metrics — a brand positioning statement, not just a patch deal.
SME Steel (Utah PJP Home) and Nucor (Carolina) signal a category-first move: industrial brands traditionally occupy signage and arena rights. Their entry into primary jersey patch inventory tracks the +22 deal surge in C&I overall.
Columbus, Dallas, and San Jose remain without a Primary Jersey Patch heading into 2026–27 — among the league's most attractive available inventory. Buffalo signed Stark Tech, officially starting at the beginning of 2026–27.
Construction & industrial leads new entrants. Pharma is reshaping healthcare from the inside. Prediction markets are emerging as a watch-list subcategory — early-stage, much like Betting was a few seasons ago. And Lyft's 14-deal entry is the single largest brand rollout of the season.
Prediction markets are a new sub-category in real time. Kalshi (4 new deals) and Polymarket (2) entered under Gaming → Prediction Markets — a distinct product from sports betting, with a different regulatory profile and a younger, more tech-forward audience. PokerStars exited 3 deals as traditional online poker stepped back.
Jack Hughes leads the NHL with 13 unique brand partners — the most by any player in the last five seasons. Four of the ten most-endorsed players share two last names: the Hughes and Tkachuk families are the NHL's first endorsement dynasties.
More active brand endorsements than any NHL player in the last five years. TurboTax, Raising Cane's, TCL, Ralph Lauren — a cross-category portfolio that positions him as a generalist audience driver, not just a hockey star. Hughes also scored the game-winning goal for Team USA to clinch gold at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics — a global moment that reset his brand ceiling overnight.
Connor Bedard enters his entry-level contract extension year with a portfolio that already crosses every major endorsement vertical:
Contract year endorsement spikes are well-documented — expect the Bedard portfolio to expand before next season opens.
| # | Athlete | Followers | Sponsorship Deals | YoY Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Jack Hughes | 1.4M | 13 | +11 |
| #2 | Connor McDavid | 2.0M | 11 | +6 |
| #3 | Max Domi | 546K | 9 | +4 |
| #4 | Quinn Hughes | 610K | 8 | +6 |
| #5 |  Nathan MacKinnon | 536K | 6 | +4 |
| #6 |  Matthew Tkachuk | 397K | 6 | 0 |
| #7 | Sidney Crosby | No social media | 6 | +3 |
| #8 | Brad Marchand | 630K | 6 | +6 |
| #9 | Leon Draisaitl | 461K | 6 | 0 |
| #10 |  Connor Bedard | 867K | 5 | 0 |
Two views: who is gaining followers fastest right now, and which established names carry massive social reach without commensurate brand activation. Macklin Celebrini grew 247%.
The 2026 Winter Games reset the NHL endorsement board. USA's gold-medal core — Jack Hughes, Auston Matthews, and Quinn Hughes — now carry a global, non-hockey audience that lifts asking prices for any deal renewing into 2026–27. McDavid and MacKinnon's silver-medal narrative gave Canadian brands (Tim Hortons, CIBC, Canadian Tire) a rare nation-of-origin storyline to activate against. Olympic exposure is the single biggest near-term multiplier on individual brand value — and the window to lock in pre-Olympic pricing has already closed for the top tier.
No major pro sports league has grown its sponsorship revenue faster than the NHL over the past five seasons — 70% growth, from $1 billion to $1.7 billion, outpacing the NFL, NBA, MLB, and MLS over the same period. NHL sponsorship reached a record $1.7B, up +9.7% YoY and +25.9% over two seasons. Average deal size jumped from $475K to $529K (+11%) while deal counts stayed the same — a focus story, not a contraction.
Toyota owns the deepest footprint at 19 of 32 markets. Molson Coors reaches 16 teams via 12 child brands. Lyft's 14-deal rollout took Transportation from 84 to 98 deals (+16.7%) — the season's most aggressive new entry. And Kalshi (4) and Polymarket (2) launched Prediction Markets as a distinct subcategory — 6 deals across 6 teams. Does it follow the Betting & Daily Fantasy growth arc, or does regulation cap it first?
The PJP market grew from 27 of 32 teams to 28 in 2025–26 — 41 active patch deals (+4 YoY). Game 7 landed the Rangers' patch, Utah Mammoth signed both PJP slots (SME Steel + 1Password) in its first full season, Penn Medicine, First National Bank, Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Toyota and Coupang all joined. Construction & Industrial brands captured patch inventory for the first time. Columbus, Dallas, and San Jose remain open for 2026–27.
Hughes' 13 unique brand partners (TurboTax, Raising Cane's, TCL, Ralph Lauren, DoorDash) is the broadest active endorsement portfolio in the NHL. Connor McDavid follows at 11, Max Domi at 9. Connor Bedard sits at 5 in a contract year, with Gatorade, Hyundai, CIBC, Sherwood, and lululemon already secured. Two sets of brothers in the top 10 — Hughes and Tkachuk — are the league's first endorsement dynasties. Macklin Celebrini grew followers +247% from prospect buzz to legitimate endorsement asset.
Request a walkthrough of the SponsorUnited platform and see how SPND can power your sponsorship strategy.
Request a demo