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May 15, 2026 2:02pm PT

How to Watch the 2026 IIHF World Hockey Championship Tournament Live Online for Free

By Tim Chan

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Tim Chan

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After a dominant Winter Olympic Games, which saw Team USA take home the gold medal, the world’s best hockey nations are once again facing off on the ice for the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championship.

This year’s event takes place from May 15 to 31 in Switzerland, with 16 countries competing, including the U.S. men’s team, who are the defending champions.

How to Watch the 2026 IIHF World Hockey Championship Online Free

Want to watch the World Hockey Championship? This year’s tournament airs in the U.S. on the NHL Network, which you’ll find in select specialty cable packages. Don’t have cable? There are also a few ways to livestream the IIHF World Championship online.

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1. DIRECTV

DIRECTV is a streaming service that offers dozens of live television channels that you can watch online without needing a cable subscription. NHL Network is included in DIRECTV’s MySports genre pack, which is currently on sale for $44.99/month (regularly $64.99/month) for your first two months of service.

GET: DIRECTV 5-DAY FREE TRIAL

The deal gets you access to a live NHL Network feed so you can watch the World Hockey Championship online without cable. You also have access to more than two dozen other sports and broadcast channels, including MLB Network, NBA TV, ESPN and FS1. And your monthly price includes a subscription to ESPN Unlimited.

The NHL Network is available on a number of other DIRECTV packages, including their Ultimate and Premier tiers, the latter of which gets you more than 185 live TV channels to stream online. Don’t want to commit? Test drive DIRECTV with a five-day free trial here and use it to livestream the Ice Hockey World Championship online for free.

2. Fubo

One of our favorite live streamers for sports is Fubo, which carries a live NHL Network feed as part of its Fubo Ultra package. Regularly $83.99/month, the Ultra package is marked down to $53.99 for your first month of service, with NHL Network and more than 260 other live TV channels included. Use Fubo to livestream the World Hockey Championship online in the U.S. Fubo offers a free trial that you can use to stream the hockey games free for five days.

GET: FUBOTV 5-DAY FREE TRIAL

3. Sling

Sling doesn’t have a free trial, but it’s one of the most affordable live TV streamers online. Sling offers NHL Network as part of its Sports Extra package, which you can add on to any Sling plan for an additional $11/month. We recommend going with the $20 Essentials plan, which gets you sports coverage on ESPN along with 10+ other channels. Then add on the Sports Extra package to get NHL Network, MLB TV, NBA TV and more.

GET: SLING ESSENTIALS & SPORTS EXTRA $31+

Note: Sling pricing and availability may vary by region. See all plan details online at Sling.com.

How to Watch 2026 World Hockey Championship With VPN

You can also watch the IIHF Ice Hockey Championship online using a virtual private network (VPN), which lets you access live feeds from outside the U.S. Specifically, you can use a VPN to livestream the hockey tournament on IIHF.TV.

GET: EXPRESSVPN SUBSCRIPTION DEAL $3.49+

We recommend ExpressVPN which has pricing from just $3.49/month. Set your IP location to the United Kingdom to access the IIHF TV live feeds. Or you can also set your location to a Scandinavian country to watch the hockey games online through Viaplay.

2026 World Hockey Championship Teams, Favorites

There are 16 teams entered in this year’s tournament. Group A includes USA, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Hungary and Great Britain. Group B features Canada, Sweden, Czechia, Denmark, Slovakia, Norway, Slovenia and Italy.

Team USA’s roster includes Matthew Tkachuk, who won Olympic gold in February, along with NHL stars like Seattle Kraken defenseman Ryan Lindgren and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Mathieu Olivier. Detroit Red Wings star Justin Faulk is the U.S. team captain. Of course, not all the NHL stars are available for the World Hockey Championship, as the Stanley Cup playoffs are still taking place. The Buffalo Sabres’ Tage Thompson is one of those athletes; Thompson scored in overtime in last year’s final to give the U.S. a 1-0 victory over Switzerland, for only its third world championship title, and the first since 1960.

Other stars, like U.S. Olympic hockey hero Jack Hughes, have decided to sit this year’s tournament out.

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