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NHL ratings surge goes beyond Connor Bedard effect
The arrival of Connor Bedard clearly attracts eyeballs, but that's not the only factor driving strong ratings for the NHL.
One of the biggest early takeaways of the NHL season so far is that casual and hardcore fans alike are interested in watching Connor Bedard play.
That's not altogether surprising, as generational prospects don't grow on trees. Bedard's debut drove massive ratings on ESPN, and considering the game featured a rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks team and a middleweight playoff contender without notable recent history in the Pittsburgh Penguins, he can take most of the credit.
While Bedard's debut was a one-off event, there appears to be a pattern of rising ratings around the NHL that has nothing to do with the skilled rookie.
The opening night doubleheader games between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Nashville Predators, as well as the late Vegas Golden Knights-Seattle Kraken matchup, averaged 909,000 viewers — a 40% uptick from the 2022-23 openers (Lightning-New York Rangers and Golden Knights-Los Angeles Kings).
The NHL also has some other significant ratings wins to point to in the early going. Tuesday night's battle between the Kraken and the Colorado Avalanche was the network's most-viewed late-night regular-season game since 2015. That matchup had some juice following a contentious series between the two in the 2023 playoffs, but it's hardly the first rivalry game to come on the air in the last eight years.
Earlier the same night, the Lightning-Buffalo Sabres game had average viewership 11% higher than last year's "comparable games."
Those results show that increased interest in the NHL isn't a Bedard-only phenomenon, which is a good sign for rights holders like ESPN.
We're too early in the season to know how far this trend will go, but there are indications that ESPN is making an NHL push. A hockey-themed segment on one of the network's flagship shows would've been virtually unheard of in recent years, but Pat McAfee was championing the NHL last week:
ESPN is also launching a show called "Frozen Frenzy" next week that takes fans around the NHL in a similar mold to "NFL Red Zone."
What effect moves like this will have remains to be seen, but the NHL has some positive momentum early in the season — and it's not just the Bedard effect at work.
