Blue Jackets fans finally have an answer to one of the summer’s biggest questions: where to watch the team this season.
For the 82 games not picked up nationally, Columbus will move to Amazon Prime under a new arrangement with the NHL and six clubs that are building their own networks after the collapse of regional sports networks. The Blue Jackets are branding their setup the “Blue Jackets Hockey Network,” and it will cost $19.99 a month or $99.99 for the full season.
That package is separate from a regular Amazon Prime membership, and fans do not need a basic Prime subscription to buy the Blue Jackets offering and stream games through the Prime app.
There will also be some free access. A club spokesperson said an unspecified number of games will be available over the air, just as they have been in recent seasons. The team plans to announce those games, along with the channels carrying them, closer to the start of the season.
“Our priority is to make sure our fans have access to our games on television in all of the ways they have been accustomed to in the past and this new venture ensures that will happen,” Blue Jackets chief operating officer Cameron Scholvin said. “Whether you have watched games through a cable or satellite provider or on a streaming service, you will continue to be able to do so.”
The Blue Jackets will have two nationally televised games this season: Nov. 10 against the Florida Panthers on ESPN+ and April 8 at Philadelphia on TNT. Every other game will be available through the new Amazon Prime agreement.
The broadcast team is also set. TV play-by-play announcer Steve Mears and analyst Jody Shelley were previously confirmed to be back for 2026-27.
Shelley also works national broadcasts as an analyst for Amazon. The Athletic confirmed Tuesday that TV studio analyst Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, studio host Brian Giesenschlag and rinkside reporter Dave Maetzold have all agreed to contracts for next season and beyond.
Fans will be able to watch at home or on mobile devices through Amazon Prime. Out-of-market games will still be available through NHL Center Ice or an ESPN+ subscription.
The club said its coverage will continue to include a 30-minute pregame show and a postgame show.
In Other News...
Kirill Marchenko Just Became A Bigger Blue Jackets Question
Kirill Marchenko has gone from useful piece to a name that can sit in the middle of bigger league conversations, and that alone says something about where the Blue Jackets are headed. Edmonton is reportedly looking at the winger as a possible scoring add, which is the kind of outside interest that tends to follow players who can give a lineup real top-six help. For Columbus, it is another reminder that Marchenko is becoming the sort of asset other teams notice quickly.
The Jackets do have some control here, since Marchenko is signed through the 2026-27 season, and that makes any hypothetical move a costly one. Still, the longer Columbus fights to find its footing, the more this becomes a storyline to watch, especially if negotiations around his future start to drift. Nothing is close right now, but the possibility of a deadline push will keep his name in the conversation as the season develops. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Fans Can Finally Settle The No. 29 Debate
The Blue Jackets have cycled through a long line of No. 29 wearers since Krzysztof Oliwa first took it in 2000-01, and the number has picked up enough history to make it worth revisiting. Over the years, players like Alexander Selivanov and Marc Methot gave the sweater a different kind of footprint, while later names kept it moving through changing roles, trades and career stops around the NHL.
Patrik Laine stands out in the discussion because his time in Columbus gave No. 29 a far more memorable offensive identity than most of its previous holders. And with Jack Williams now in the number after signing as a free agent in 2025, the jersey has a fresh chapter attached to it, one that gives Blue Jackets fans a current name to watch as the season unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Face A Marchenko Question That Wont Go Away
Kirill Marchenko keeps surfacing in the kind of trade chatter that tends to follow productive, young wingers with a growing reputation around the league. Podcast hosts Tony Marinaro and Jimmy Murphy have floated the idea that Montreal could be one of the teams keeping an eye on him, which only adds to the noise around a player the Blue Jackets have no interest in moving lightly.
Don Waddell has been clear that Columbus does not plan to trade Marchenko unless the situation changes at the players end, either through a request or a refusal to sign an extension. For now, the expectation is that he stays put and arrives in camp with the rest of the group, but as long as the speculation keeps circling, this remains one of those questions that is not going away anytime soon. [Read more 🡒]