The Minnesota Wild are back on the road Saturday night in Seattle, trying to snap a two-game skid when they face the Kraken at 9 p.m. It’s another Wild+ night, which means the team-owned network will carry the game as the Wild keep rolling through a new broadcast landscape this season.
That new setup has left a lot of fans stuck on the outside looking in. As of Saturday morning, DirecTV and Comcast Xfinity customers still did not have Wild+ available in any package. Unless you get the games through Charter Spectrum or Fubo, the remaining option is to buy the standalone Wild+ subscription on Amazon Prime Video.
There may be a small sign of movement on the DirecTV front. Late Friday night, after a fan asked Michael Russo of The Athletic about a possible deal and noted that DirecTV’s guide was showing a Wild pregame show, the game and a postgame show, Russo replied that the guide listing had been there all season as a placeholder. He also said talks had picked up lately.
@tonyrossi22 That has been there all season, but I do think there have been very positive talks the last few days 😉
- Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) October 24, 2026
That was a much more optimistic note than Russo had offered earlier in the week. On Oct. 20, when another fan asked for a TV update, he said, “Nope, I’d get Prime or Fubo at this point if you don’t have Spectrum,” which MSF reported at the time.
Even with that more encouraging update, there’s still no deal in hand. Neither the Wild nor DirecTV has announced an agreement, and DirecTV’s customer service account has been telling fans the same thing for weeks.
On Oct. 13 and again on Oct. 23, DIRECTV Help said it is “actively working to restore your access to Wild NHL games soon.”
This mess stems from the Wild’s switch away from FanDuel Sports North after last season. The team had to build Wild+ and negotiate fresh carriage agreements across the board.
The NHL is handling those negotiations for four clubs now operating their own networks: the Wild, St. Louis Blues, Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets.
Before the Oct. 3 home opener, Wild chief revenue officer Mitch Helgerson told reporters that the DirecTV and Comcast talks were not at the same stage, per Jess Myers of the Pioneer Press.
Comcast’s dispute went public on Oct. 2, when the Wild said in a statement that Comcast/Xfinity “wants to put Wild+ on a higher-priced tier than the one that carries other regional sports networks.”
The Star Tribune reported that one sticking point is the NHL’s requirement that Comcast carry all four league-produced team networks on its Premium Ultimate Tier.
The Wild do not have deals with Dish Network or YouTube TV, though neither has carried Minnesota’s regional sports network for several years.
Wild+ is scheduled to air 67 regular-season games, covering every game not picked up nationally by ABC, ESPN, ESPN+/Hulu or TNT. Right now, the network is available through Spectrum, Fubo and several smaller providers, according to the Wild’s broadcast page and the Pioneer Press.
For everyone else in the Wild territory, the Amazon Prime Video option is the fallback. That subscription costs $19.99 a month or $99.99 for the season, works with a free Amazon account, and was laid out by MSF in September. Bars and restaurants also got their own streaming workaround earlier this month.
The next over-the-air broadcast is Nov. 6 against the San Jose Sharks.
In Other News...
Quinn Hughes Just Put Wild Fans On Contract Watch
Quinn Hughes has quickly become a name worth tracking around Minnesota, and not just because of what he has done on the ice this season. The pending free agent said he has enjoyed his time with the Wild and pointed to the strength of the roster as part of what has made the fit feel so natural, which is exactly the kind of remark that tends to get fans looking ahead as much as they are looking at the standings.
The only catch is that Hughes is still taking his time with the next step, even as he plays through the final year of his current contract. He has been productive this season and clearly sounds comfortable in Minnesota, but for now the extension question remains open, leaving the Wild in that familiar spot where a good player and a good situation create optimism without quite delivering certainty. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Are Holding Firm In Dylan Larkin Trade Talks
The Wild have been linked as a possible landing spot for Dylan Larkin, but the talks are still very much in the early, messy stage that usually comes with a player of his caliber. Detroit is looking for young center help in return, which puts Minnesota in the conversation because of the type of prospects it can offer, but the Red Wings are not operating from any kind of urgency and are keeping the market open with interest coming from multiple teams.
For Minnesota, that means the fit is clear enough to keep watching, but the price remains the obstacle. Salary cap issues are part of the equation, and Detroit is believed to want more than a single prospect to move a centerpiece like Larkin, so any serious package would have to be built with extra value beyond the kind of player the Wild would most naturally put on the table. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Offseason Pressure Just Got Tied To Two Star Names
The Connor Hellebuyck trade to New Jersey has already started to ripple beyond the Devils, with analysts Michael Russo and EJ Hradek using it as a lens for what could come next around the league. For the Wild, the conversation has quickly turned into more than a one-off transaction story, because it touches the kind of player movement and contract planning that can reshape a roster in a hurry.
Minnesotas interest in Dylan Larkin is now part of that discussion, while Quinn Hughes remains unsigned and adds another layer to the offseason uncertainty. The broader point, as Russo and Hradek framed it, is that future trade value and draft-pick considerations can change fast when teams start dealing from different timelines, and the Wild are right in the middle of that kind of pressure. [Read more 🡒]