The 20 Best Films About Hockey. In this series of sports-themed articles, we’ll be reviewing the best sports films from auto racing and baseball to tennis and surfing. These Best Of lists will include both popular and lesser-known films from a specific sports film subgenre and our plan is to release each list monthly near a major sporting event.
With the NHL season underway and the 2026 Winter Olympics just around the corner, this is the perfect time to review the best films about hockey. Hockey, or Ice Hockey, has been a major sport covered in films from Team USA’s upset of the USSR Men’s Hockey Team at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid in Miracle on Ice (1981) and Miracle (2004) to biopics covering hockey legends Maurice “The Rocket” Richard in The Rocket (2005) to Gordie Howe in Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story (2013). Hockey in film has also produced some of the funniest comedies of the Sports Comedy subgenre with films such as Slap Shot (1977), Happy Gilmore (1996) and Goon (2012).
Once we’ve completed the list of best films by individual sport, we’ll have a cumulative article with the absolute 50 best sports films. For now, you can view our tentative schedule below and we’ll try to fit in some articles for some other sports such as Volleyball and Rowing that aren’t typically depicted in many films:
- Best Films About Football
- Best Films About Baseball
- Best Films About Surfing
- Best Films About Basketball
- Best Films About Summer Olympic Sports
- Best Films About Soccer
- Best Films About Running
- Best Films About Tennis
- Best Films About Auto Racing
- Best Films About Hockey
- Best Films About Wrestling
- Best Films About Boxing, MMA & Competitive Martial Arts
- Best Films About Winter Olympic Sports
- The 50 Best Sports Films
For our rankings we’re going to use some criteria to help define and refine our list. First, the film must primarily be about hockey. If the film has elements of hockey but is primarily about another sport, it will rank lower on our list. The Cutting Edge (1992) is an example of a film here that is about figure skating though has background elements of hockey. As a result, it will rank lower on our list.
Second, the more scenes of hockey action shown in the film, the higher it will rank on our list.
Third, other sports with similarities to hockey, such as curling, also won’t be listed here. But we would recommend checking out Men with Brooms (2002) for the definitive film about curling.
Fourth, we will include Happy Gilmore (1996) and Happy Gilmore 2 (2025) on this list even though both films are primarily about golf. We’re including these films because hockey elements are prominent throughout the film with Happy’s golfing style. Alternatively, we won’t be listing Strange Brew (1980) because even though it does have a pivotal scene in the film involving hockey, it’s primarily a quirky Buddy Comedy.
Fifth, like other sports film lists, we won’t be listing documentaries. However, we highly recommend checking out Red Army (2014) as it’s one of the best sports documentaries out there chronicling the influence of soviet-style hockey on the sport in the 1990s.
And sixth, we had to follow our rule for all of KBZ’s film listings where we only list films that have a 4.0/10 or higher rating and were released after 1970.
Our complete list of Sports Dramas features over 587+ films from 1942 – 2024 and our complete list of Sports Comedies features over 254+ films from 1968 – 2024. Though we don’t yet break down films by sports discipline, we will list every individual sport-related film in their respective articles. You can also subscribe to our newsletter to get updated as we release future articles on each sport and add the latest and greatest subgenre films to our collection.
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The 20 Best Films About Hockey
Films that didn’t make our list (and only for completists): Paperback Hero (1972), The Boy Who Drank Too Much (1980), Gross Misconduct: The Life of Brian Spencer (1993), H.E. Double Hockey Sticks (1999), Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice (2002), Go Figure (2005), Pucked (2006), Waking Up Wally: The Walter Gretzky Story (2006), Slap Shot 3: The Junior League (2008), The Love Guru (2008), Sticks and Stones (2008), The Puck Hogs (2009), Tooth Fairy (2010), Score: A Hockey Musical (2010), The Swap (2016) and Goalie (2019).
Honorable Mentions: Winter Comes Early (1971), The Rookies (1989), D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994), D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996), Ice Angel (2000), Breakaway (2011), The Pee-Wee: The Winter That Changed My Life (2012), Hello Destroyer (2016), Run-Off (2016), Odd Man Rush (2020), Checkin’ It Twice (2023), Riviere (2023), Minor Leaguer (2024) and Happy Gilmore 2 (2025).
Ranks 20-1:
#20 Miracle on Ice (1981) Where to Stream / Buy: YouTube
#19 The Deadliest Season (1977) Where to Stream / Buy: YouTube
#18 Goon: Last of the Enforcers (2017) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#17 Hockey Night (1984) Where to Stream / Buy: YouTube
#16 Les Boys (1997) Where to Stream / Buy: N/A
#15 MVP: Most Valuable Primate (2000) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#14 Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story (2013) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#13 Touch and Go (1986) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#12 The Cutting Edge (1992) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#11 Indian Horse (2017) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#10
Mystery, Alaska
Plot: Comical tale about the residents of a small, remote Alaskan town and their preoccupation with ice hockey. Excitement comes to the town when, as part of a publicity stunt, the professional stars of the New York Rangers come to Alaska to face off against the local amateur team in a televised match. Small-town intrigues and petty rivalries must be shelved if the locals are to put up a respectable defense.
KBZ’s Take: Though Mystery, Alaska focuses on character development and relationships within the small town, it eventually gets to the hockey match between the New York Rangers and the locals. But it’s worth the wait as the third act has some of the best hockey action of the sports subgenre.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: A look at the life and career of Russian hockey player Valeri Kharlamov, all the way from his meteoric rise to stardom, his career defining game in 1972, through to his tragic, untimely death.
KBZ’s Take: This Russian film is notoriously difficult to find but if there’s one film on our list we would encourage you to seek out, this is it. The film is a by-the-numbers biopic based on an interesting sports figure not covered in western films – Valeri Kharlamov. But our recommendation of the film is based on some of the most unique and exhilarating cinematography of hockey action – especially during the decisive 1972 Summit Series between the Russians and Canadians.
Where to Stream / Buy: N/A
Plot: After reckless young lawyer Gordon Bombay gets arrested for drunk driving, he must coach a kids hockey team for his community service. Gordon has experience on the ice, but isn’t eager to return to hockey, a point hit home by his tense dealings with his own former coach, Jack Reilly. The reluctant Gordon eventually grows to appreciate his team, which includes promising young Charlie Conway, and leads them to take on Reilly’s tough players.
KBZ’s Take: Like every sports film subgenre we cover, there’s usually a kids-focused comedy about the sport. And for hockey, there’s no better series of films than Disney’s The Mighty Ducks franchise.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#7
Net Worth
Plot: When a former teammate dies penniless because he couldn’t access his pension, a star ice hockey player fights for player’s rights against the unscrupulous team owners.
KBZ’s Take: Though we’re ranking films on this list primarily for their sequences of hockey gameplay, we had to make an exception for Net Worth. The film is light on actual hockey action but it’s one of the best films of the subgenre that dramatizes the real-life true story of Ted Lindsay and his efforts to unionize players in the NHL. It’s an important story about the NHL that any hockey fan should check out.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: Working-class Quebecois hockey player Maurice Richard (Roy Dupuis) becomes a hero to French Canadians as he stars for the famous Montreal Canadiens in the 1940s and ’50s. One of the few French players in an English league, Richard has a chip on his shoulder and suffers subtle racial discrimination at the hands of the owner and other players. When his temper boils over during a game in Boston, he is suspended by league president Clarence Campbell (Tedd Dillon), and his fans riot in the streets.
KBZ’s Take: Maurice Richard is one of the earliest stars of the NHL as the first player to score 50 goals in one season while also playing in 13 All-Star games. Though he’s much more well known in Canada than the U.S., this is an important biopic of the hall-of-famer and one of the best to ever play the game.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#5
Goon
Plot: Doug Glatt, a slacker who discovers he has a talent for brawling is approached by a minor league hockey coach and invited to join the team as the muscle. Despite the fact that Glatt can’t skate his best friend, Pat, convinces him to give it a shot, and Glatt becomes a hero to the team and their fans, until the league’s reigning goon becomes threatened by Glatt’s success and decides to even the score.
KBZ’s Take: Seann William Scott has been in quite a few raunchy comedies from the American Pie film franchise to raunchy sports comedies Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach (2009) and Goon. Though Goon isn’t quite as raunchy as his other films, it’s mix of crude humor, vulgar language and very violent scenes of hockey make it a natural successor to Slap Shot (1977) and a must-see film for fans of adult sports comedies.
Additional Lists: The Funniest Raunchy Sports Comedies #7
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#4
Youngblood
Plot: A skilled young hockey prospect hoping to attract the attention of professional scouts is pressured to show that he can fight if challenged during his stay in a Canadian minor hockey town. His on-ice activities are complicated by his relationship with the coach’s daughter.
KBZ’s Take: In the 1980s, there were a string of sports films starring the teen heartthrobs of the decade from Tom Cruise in All the Right Moves (1983) to Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid (1984). They all followed a certain formula and were mainly showcases for their young and popular stars.
While Youngblood had two of the biggest stars of the decade in Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze, it does rise above its formulaic plot with one of the best villains of the sports subgenre in Carl Racki (George Finn).
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: Failed hockey player-turned-golf whiz Happy Gilmore — whose unconventional approach and antics on the grass courts the ire of rival Shooter McGavin — is determined to win a PGA tournament so he can save his granny’s house with the prize money. Meanwhile, an attractive tour publicist tries to soften Happy’s image.
KBZ’s Take: Happy Gilmore is one of those unique sports films that is a classic film of two sports subgenres – golf and hockey. Though the film is primarily about golf, hockey themes are interwoven through the film from Happy’s style of play to his hilarious and classic ‘hockey-style’ fight with Bob Barker. It’s one of the funniest sports comedies of the entire subgenre that fans of any sport shouldn’t miss.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#2
Slap Shot
Plot: To build up attendance at their games, the management of a struggling minor-league hockey team signs up the Hanson Brothers, three hard-charging players whose job is to demolish the opposition.
KBZ’s Take: Slap Shot might not seem like a raunchy comedy 48 years later, but it set the standard at the time for raunchiness in both Hollywood and the sports subgenre. This was a film that had it all with vulgar language, nudity, sexual situations and some very violent hockey play. It’s also the funniest film about hockey and one of the classic comedies of the 1970s.
Additional Lists: The Funniest Raunchy Sports Comedies #3
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#1
Miracle
Plot: When college coach Herb Brooks is hired to helm the 1980 U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey team, he brings a unique and brash style to the ice. After assembling a team of hot-headed college all-stars, who are humiliated in an early match, Brooks unites his squad against a common foe: the heavily-favored Soviet team.
KBZ’s Take: Miracle was an easy pick for our #1 slot here as it’s the best film about hockey with one of the most inspirational stories of the subgenre. This is a classic sports underdog tale with Cold War themes playing throughout the buildup of the match between Team USA and the Soviets.
But where the film truly excels is in the recreation of the iconic Olympics match with some of the best cinematography and action of the entire sports subgenre. This is a film that is a must-see for any sports fan and one of the best sports films of all time.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
