Hockey is one of the big four when it comes to North American sports. It's also quickly rising in popularity. It has embraced new technology much like other sports. You can stream games, find schedules, and follow the sport in all kinds of ways with your smartphone.
- TuneIn
- Yahoo Fantasy Sports
- YouTube
- Minor league hockey apps
- Basically any live TV app
The Athletic
Price: Free / $9.99 per month / $60.00 per year
The Athletic is a newer sports publication. It works like an online newspaper and it's not even remotely free. The site works by publishing all kinds of op-eds, news, and other stories about various sports and hockey is one of them. You pay the subscription and get unmitigated access to the whole site. It's a lot of money to ask for. However, their coverage is top notch and many other publications source this place all the time. It's easy one of the best hockey apps for news. We recommend the yearly subscription if you go all in because it is a significant price break from the monthly version.
Feedly
Price: Free
Feedly is a news reader. It also makes for one of the better hockey apps. You can follow a variety of sources without downloading their individual apps. That should save you a ton of time, space, and sanity. It's also useful for basically any other topic as well as hockey. You can conceivably set up your entire news feed in this thing with a little patience. Included is support for phones and tablets. There is also a web interface for your computer. It also integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, and other places. That makes following the news and sharing it even easier. There is a subscription, but it's entirely unnecessary.
NHL app
Price: Free / Varies
The official NHL app is a bit of an obvious choice for hockey apps. It features a bunch of stuff and that includes schedules, news, trades, editorials, scores, and more. The app also gives you a team-specific feed if you only want to follow one team. The app is a little clunky, but there are no major problems. Additionally, the NHL app offers a live streaming service for out-of-market games not covered by your basic cable. The price fluctuates every year, but it's usually not more than around $49.99 per year.
Pocket Casts
Price: $3.99
Pocket Casts is probably the best podcast app out there. It's a great way to listen to various hockey podcasts. There are quite a few good ones. They include 31 Thoughts, Hockey Central at Noon, Puck Soup, Biscuits: A Hockey Podcast, and, for you super hockey nerds out there, the PDOcast is outstanding. The app lets you sync between devices as well. It also has a clean interface, no hidden costs, and various other customization options. You can download for offline listening to stream directly. The app underwent a redesign in the recent past. Should you not like it, we recommend Doggcatcher as a backup option.
SofaScore
Price: Free / Up to $2.99
SofaScore is probably the best sports scores app on Google Play. It's simple, effective, and it covers a ton of sports and leagues all around the world. You simply select the sports you want to follow and the app shows you those scores. It's mostly for fans of European football because it has more of those leagues than any other sport. However, it covers hockey, American football, motorsports, and even some niche stuff like snooker and darts. The UI is also clean and we didn't find any issues with it. The premium version goes for $2.99 as an in-app purchase. It's one of the better hockey apps for scores.
TuneIn Radio
Price: Free / $9.99 per month
TuneIn Radio is among the best radio apps. It features tons of stations, including FM and AM stations along with various podcasts. It also includes live sports coverage and that includes the NHL. It's an excellent source for news, talk radio, live sports radio, and more. The free app comes with most radio stations and podcasts. The premium version is a monthly subscription. It adds more features. Unfortunately, the live stuff may require a subscription if it's not on your local radio channels.
Price: Free
Twitter is surprisingly good when it comes to hockey and NHL news and updates. Each NHL team has its own Twitter handle. Most of them are run by some really fun people. It's a great place to see scores, highlights, and hot takes on big news. You won't get in-depth information on Twitter (no one does), but it's good for at-a-glance stuff. In addition, most hockey leagues have their own Twitter handles as do most minor league teams. Every hockey writer and personality has one as well. Many of them post highlights, links to news articles, and score updates. Just be careful because there are a bunch of awful people on Twitter.
Yahoo Fantasy Sports
Price: Free
Yahoo Fantasy Sports is probably the best fantasy sports platform for hockey fans. It has a decent set of features. You can create leagues, perform drafts, manage your roster, browser and pick up free agents, and more. It also includes a messaging service. That way you can trash talk with the other GMs. It even has GIF support. The app is a bit buggy and probably always will be. Make sure to double check your rosters from a computer on occasion to make sure the app is actually setting them properly.
YouTube
Price: Free / $12.99 per month
YouTube is an excellent (if extremely obvious) source for hockey videos. You can find old and new highlights, recaps, commentary, and various other moments. That includes some big moments like Ray Bourque's epic Cup raise or Bobby Orr's legendary leap. Plus, you can find some stuff like NWHL games on its official YouTube channel, although new games should be broadcast on Cheddar this upcoming season. There is just a ton of stuff here for hockey fans. You already know that it's free with advertising. You can remove ads for $12.99 per month. However, that's asking a lot for what amounts to binge watching Pavel Datsyuk deke the socks off of Tomas Vokoun.
Bonus: HockeyTech Canada
Price: Free
HockeyTech Canada is a name you may not immediately recognize. However, they have a ton of hockey apps. In fact, this is the developer that runs all of the official minor league hockey apps. That includes the OHL, WHL, USHL, AHL, QMJHL, and several team apps. These apps are useful for schedules, scores, player stats, standings, and more. These are essential for the hardcore hockey fan watching for the next Conner McDavid. All of the apps are free to download.
Bonus: Live TV apps
Price: Free / Varies
There are several new Internet TV services making their rounds. Some of the bigger names include Hulu, SlingTV, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV. At least one of these have your local and national sports stations on display for a fraction of the cost of cable. That sounded like an advertisement, our bad! You can browse around the services and find the one that has the channels you need. Most of them should have NBC Sports, Fox Sports, USA, and others. Those are generally the channels showing NHL games. We have our favorites in a separate list linked at the button if you want more details.
10 best sports news apps for Android!
If we missed any great hockey apps or NHL apps, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists!
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