Best NHL APIs in 2026

The 2025-2026 NHL season has wrapped up and the Carolina Hurricanes' Stanley Cup championship run brought a fresh wave of interest in hockey data. The league continues to expand its international presence with regular season games played in Europe and Mexico. More data is available than ever, and demand for hockey APIs is growing alongside it.

Fantasy hockey and sports betting continue to expand across North America. The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina featured NHL players on the international stage for the first time since 2014, driving renewed global interest in hockey data. College hockey also draws significant attention with 10+ NCAA Division I conferences and the Frozen Four tournament.

More platforms, more users, and more betting markets means more demand for live scores, player stats, odds, highlights, and game events through reliable APIs. Choosing the right NHL API matters, because providers differ in data depth, pricing, college hockey coverage, and whether features like video highlights or betting odds are included or sold separately.

Highlightly

Highlightly bundles NHL data and video highlights into a single API. You get live scores, game statistics, player data, lineups, standings, predictions, and odds from 85+ bookmakers. Coverage includes the full NHL season with the regular season, Stanley Cup Playoffs, Stanley Cup Finals, NHL Preseason, and the NHL All-Star Game. NCAA Division I college hockey is also included, covering 10+ conferences including Hockey East, Big Ten, NCHC, ECAC, CCHA, WCHA, and more.

The standout feature is video content. Goals, saves, big hits, game recaps, press conferences, and post-game interviews are all available through the same API with metadata and embed links. Clips are categorized as verified or unverified depending on the source. A geo-restriction checker lets you verify whether a clip can be shown in a given country before serving it. No other NHL API reviewed here includes video content.

Live scores include period-by-period breakdowns, overtime tracking, and shootout results. Game statistics cover shots on goal, hits, penalties, faceoff wins, power play efficiency, blocked shots, and full team-level breakdowns. Player endpoints include detailed profiles, season statistics, career summaries, and per-game performance data across all NHL and NCAAH rosters. Odds cover moneyline, puck line, totals, and period betting with pre-game and live in-game markets from 85+ bookmakers.

Pricing starts with a free tier at 100 requests per day. The free plan includes core data like scores, standings, player stats, lineups, and highlights. Odds and the geo-restriction checker are not available on the free plan. Paid plans begin at $7.99 per month for 7,500 daily requests and unlock the full API including odds and geo-restrictions. The top tier is $44.99 per month for 65,000 daily requests. Annual discounts of up to 40% are available through the Highlightly platform. Custom plans are also offered. There are no SDKs, so everything runs through the standard REST API.

Highlightly is a newer entrant compared to established providers like BallDontLie or API-Hockey. The developer ecosystem is smaller, with fewer community wrappers and third-party integrations. However, it is the only NHL API in this list that combines structured game data with video highlights in a single subscription. NCAA Division I hockey coverage across 10+ conferences is included by default, which several other providers either do not offer or charge separately for.

BallDontLie

BallDontLie is a multi-sport data platform covering 20+ leagues including NHL. The NHL API provides teams, players, games, box scores, play-by-play, standings, injuries, season stats, betting odds, and player props spread across different pricing tiers. The platform provides Python and JavaScript SDKs, an MCP server for AI assistants, and a Google Sheets integration. Every sport ships with a complete OpenAPI specification for AI-assisted development.

BallDontLie also offers StoryStats for NHL, a content API that generates pregame, live, and postgame narrative content. Webhooks are available for real-time NHL notifications with events namespaced as nhl.* and delivered to your endpoint within milliseconds of something happening on the ice.

Pricing is per sport. The NHL free tier is limited to teams and players only. Games, standings, and box scores are not available on free. The ALL-STAR plan at $9.99 per month adds games, standings, and box scores with a rate limit of 60 requests per minute. The GOAT plan at $39.99 per month unlocks everything else including play-by-play, player injuries, season stats, stats leaders, betting odds, and player props at 600 requests per minute. A 48-hour free trial of the GOAT tier is available. Payment method is required at signup but you can cancel anytime before the trial ends. Each sport is a separate subscription. An ALL-ACCESS tier at $299.99 per month gives access to every endpoint across every sport.

The trade-off is that the NHL free tier is very limited. You only get teams and players. Even basic game data requires the $9.99 tier. Betting odds and most deeper endpoints require the $39.99 tier. There is no video or highlights content. BallDontLie is a strong choice for developers who want SDKs, AI agent integration, or Google Sheets access alongside their NHL data.

API-Hockey

API-Hockey is part of the API-Sports family, the same company behind API-Football. It covers 245+ hockey leagues and cups worldwide, including the NHL, KHL, SHL, Liiga, AHL, and international tournaments like the IIHF World Championship. Endpoints include leagues, teams, standings, games, head-to-head, game events, and odds. The platform is available on RapidAPI and uses the same interface and pricing model as the rest of the API-Sports ecosystem. Free widgets are available for embedding livescores and standings.

Paid plans do not gate features. Everything is available once you subscribe. Pricing starts with a free tier at 100 requests per day. All endpoints are accessible on every plan. The Pro plan is $19 per month, Ultra is $29 per month for higher request volumes, and Mega is $39 per month. There are no overage charges. Once you hit your daily limit, requests simply stop. All plans are prepaid with no auto-renewal.

The trade-off is that the hockey-specific community around API-Hockey is smaller than BallDontLie. There is no video or highlights content. Each sport under the API-Sports umbrella requires a separate subscription. The main advantage over other providers here is the breadth of international hockey coverage. If you need KHL, SHL, Liiga, or World Championship data alongside the NHL, API-Hockey covers all of them from a single integration.

SportsDataIO

SportsDataIO is an enterprise-grade sports data provider with real-time coverage of every NHL game. The platform includes fantasy projections, depth charts, news feeds, editorial content, and a predictive engine called BAKER for forecasting across games, seasons, and careers. The historical database goes back decades. Defense vs. Position analytics are available for teams building advanced matchup models and projection systems.

A self-serve "Discovery Lab" tier is available at $99 to $149 per month with daily call caps and next-day delayed data, aimed at personal projects and hobby apps. A free trial provides scrambled but realistic data so you can test endpoint structure and response formats before committing. Full commercial access with real-time data, SLA, and dedicated support requires a sales conversation. Industry estimates place production starting costs at $500 to $1,000 or more per month.

SportsDataIO is aimed at enterprise companies with dedicated data budgets, though the Discovery Lab now offers a lower entry point for smaller teams. If you are building a large-scale fantasy platform, betting product, or media application, SportsDataIO is worth evaluating either through the Discovery Lab or their sales team.

Sportradar

Sportradar is one of the largest sports data companies in the world and is an official NHL data partner. Coverage includes the full NHL season with real-time push feeds alongside standard REST endpoints. Data depth includes play-by-play commentary, advanced analytics, and shift charts. Sportradar also covers international hockey leagues through separate products.

Pricing operates on a B2B contract model and is not publicly listed. A 30-day developer trial is available with real production data at reduced rate limits. Industry estimates place starting costs at $500 to $1,000 or more per month for a single sport. Multi-sport packages scale from there.

The accuracy and depth of data reflect official league partnerships, but the cost and onboarding process are built for larger organizations. Sportradar is the right fit for broadcasters, major betting operators, and enterprise platforms that need the highest possible data fidelity and can commit to a B2B relationship.

Choosing the right NHL API

The right choice mostly comes down to what you are building. If you need video highlights alongside stats, Highlightly is the only option here that offers both in a single API. If you want SDKs, AI agent integration, or Google Sheets access, BallDontLie has the strongest developer tooling in this space.

If you need international hockey coverage across the KHL, SHL, Liiga, and World Championship alongside the NHL, API-Hockey covers 245+ leagues from a single integration. For enterprise use cases, SportsDataIO and Sportradar are the established names. Sportradar is the official NHL data partner.

For prototyping and early development, the free tiers from Highlightly and API-Hockey are the most practical starting points. Highlightly offers 100 requests per day with no credit card required. API-Hockey also offers 100 requests per day through the API-Sports platform. The NHL offseason is a good time to build and test against historical data before the 2026-27 season begins in October.

Conclusion

All of these APIs can handle basic NHL data like scores, standings, and schedules. The real differences come down to data depth, pricing models, and whether features like video highlights, betting odds, or college hockey coverage are included or sold separately.

If you are just getting started, free tiers from providers like Highlightly and API-Hockey are usually enough to test an idea before committing to a paid plan. For more information on Highlightly's NHL coverage, see the official API documentation.