The definitive read on where $1.7B in NHL brand spend is moving — who's consolidating, who's entering, and what it means for the next sponsorship cycle.
Total team sponsorship revenue grew +10% YoY while deal counts stayed the same and average deal size jumped 11%. Brands are writing bigger checks, not adding more logos — a focus story, not a contraction.
Inaugural full season — 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 adds helmet signage — enterprise tech in the league's most tech-saturated market
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. The biggest movers explain themselves: new franchises, new venues, new contention.
Edmonton Oilers+22.9%Ottawa Senators+19.4%Calgary Flames+17.8%Montreal Canadiens+15.2%St. Louis Blues+13.9%Franchise Spotlights
Utah's inaugural full season closed three uniform slots simultaneously — SME Steel (PJP Home), 1Password (PJP Away), and Filevine (Hat/Helmet). Construction, Technology, and Legal each found a founding-partner story with no legacy relationships to displace. Team follower growth: +471%.
The largest % gain among top-10 teams (109 → 121 → 134 deals across 23–24 → 25–26). Rogers' marquee deal, Play Alberta on the patch, and a deepening roster of Canadian financial and energy partners turned 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). 15 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 25–26. 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 stayed the same. The NHL's biggest spenders are concentrating budgets into fewer, higher-value relationships.
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).
28 of 32 teams carried a patch — Game 7 to the Rangers, Construction takes inventory. 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 26–27) | Technology | Home | SWITCHED |
 Columbus Blue Jackets | — (no PJP for 26–27) | — | — | VACANT |
 Dallas Stars | — (no PJP for 26–27) | — | — | VACANT |
 San Jose Sharks | — (no PJP for 26–27) | — | — | VACANT |
A media brand literally named after hockey's defining moment just landed hockey's biggest stage. MSG 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 26–27 — among the league's most attractive available inventory. Buffalo signed Stark Tech, officially starting at the beginning of 26–27.
Construction & Industrial leads new entrants. Pharma is reshaping Healthcare from the inside. 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%. Evgeni Malkin has 1.9M followers and zero current deals.
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.
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. The league's biggest spenders (Molson Coors, Disney, Microsoft) are rationalizing portfolios and activating under flagship names. 90.3% net retention rate. The window for entry-level deals at top properties is narrowing.
Toyota built the NHL's deepest team-level footprint — 19 of 32 markets, 15 of those deals with 10+ assets. Molson Coors reaches 16 markets through 12 distinct child brands, a portfolio strategy tuned market-by-market. And Lyft's coordinated 14-deal entry took Transportation as a category from 84 to 98 deals (+16.7%) — the most aggressive new-brand rollout of the season.
The PJP market grew from 27 of 32 teams to 28 in 25–26 — 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 26–27.
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.
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