The NHL API for developers ballers.
Live and historical NHL scores with period-by-period linescores, expected-goals leaderboards, skater and goalie season stats, player props with live sportsbook lines, and a matchup endpoint that assembles the full preview in one call. Twelve seasons of data, free to start.
1,000 req/day free (2,000 with GitHub). No credit card.
NHL · expected-goals analytics · skater + goalie stats · player props
Seasons: 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26
Stats included
Every hockey stat field the API returns today — 76 in total, grouped by how they are produced. Each group carries its own freshness, because a sport is rarely uniformly current.
Per-game player stats
HistoricalHeld and queryable, but not currently being ingested. Last ingested 2026-06-06.
- Endpoint
- /v1/players/:id/stats
- Last updated
- 2026-06-06
Fields (30)
Assists, Blocked Shots, Even Strength Goals Against, Even Strength Saves, Even Strength Shots Against, Even Strength Line, Faceoff Win %, Giveaways, Goals, Goals Against, Hits, Penalty Minutes, Plus/Minus, Points (goals + assists), Power Play Goals, Power Play Goals Against, Power Play Saves, Power Play Shots Against, Power Play Line, Save %, Saves, Shifts, Shorthanded Goals Against, Shorthanded Saves, Shorthanded Shots Against, Shorthanded Line, Shots Against, Shots on Goal, Takeaways, Time on Ice
Season player stats
HistoricalHeld and queryable, but not currently being ingested. Last ingested 2026-06-06.
- Endpoint
- /v1/nhl/leaders
- Last updated
- 2026-06-06
Fields (34)
Assists, Blocked Shots, Faceoff Losses, Faceoff Wins, Games Played, Giveaways, Goals, Goals Against, Hits, Penalty Minutes, Plus/Minus, Points (goals + assists), Power Play Goals, Saves, Shifts, Shots Against, Shots on Goal, Shutouts, Takeaways, Time on Ice Seconds, Individual Goals, Individual Points, Primary Assists, Secondary Assists, Individual Shots on Goal, Individual xGoals, Individual xGoals (adjusted), Individual xGoals (with rebounds), Ice Time (seconds), On-Ice xG Against, On-Ice xG For, On-Ice xG %, Situation, Team Abbr
Goalie fields (15)
Freezes, High-Danger Goals, High-Danger Shots, High-Danger xGoals, Low-Danger Goals, Low-Danger Shots, Low-Danger xGoals, Medium-Danger Goals, Medium-Danger Shots, Medium-Danger xGoals, Rebounds, X Freezes, Expected Rebounds, Expected Goals (xG), xGoals (flurry-adjusted)
Team stats (per game)
HistoricalHeld and queryable, but not currently being ingested. Last ingested 2026-08-07.
- Endpoint
- /v1/matches/:id/statistics
- Last updated
- 2026-08-07
Fields (15)
Blocked Shots, Faceoff Win %, Faceoffs Won, Giveaways, Hits, Penalties, Penalty Minutes, Power Play Goals, Power Play Opportunities, Power Play %, Score, Shootout Goals, Short Handed Goals, Shots Total, Takeaways
Not included
- Not shown here — player_per_game_eav: a SECOND source for per-game player stats alongside the primary one; listing both would double-count the same stats.
- Not shown here — play_by_play: play-by-play events, not a stat line — mostly identifiers once classified.
- Not shown here — standings_history: standings snapshots — reference data, not a player or team stat.
- Not shown here — props: betting lines and prices, not stats — they belong on the odds surface.
- player_per_game is not currently ingesting (last 2026-06-06).
- team_per_game is not currently ingesting (last 2026-08-07).
- player_season is not currently ingesting (last 2026-06-06).
Missing a stat?
We build what people actually ask for. If a field you need is not on this page, tell us — requests are how we decide what to add next.
What you can build
Live score widget
Embed NHL scores with period-by-period linescores (overtime included) on any site.
Matchup preview page
Season stats, last-5, records, and linescore for both teams in one /matchup call.
Fantasy hockey tool
Skater and goalie season stats plus current injury status in one feed.
Expected-goals model
Rank skaters by xG and goals-above-expected from the season leaders endpoint.
Goalie dashboard
Save percentage, GAA, and saves per goalie, plus a saves prop market.
Playoff tracker
Conference and division standings with W-L-OTL records through the postseason.
Walk through it end to end: How to build a fantasy hockey app.
Endpoints
On the gateway at api.bigballsdata.com. Authenticate with the bearer token from /dashboard/keys. Click any endpoint to see every field it returns.
13 endpoints · 252 documented fields. Click any row to see every field it returns.
Read live from GET /v1/coverage — the same endpoint you can call yourself. Dates are absolute, not a build timestamp.
Start on the free tier
100 requests per minute and 1,000 per day, free — the highest per-minute burst of any free sports API we checked. Burst is what matters when something asks several questions in a row and waits on each answer.
- Every sport and league we cover — the paid tiers add history depth and premium fields, not more leagues.
- Calls are counted one for one — no credit weighting, no markets-times-regions arithmetic.
- Link GitHub and the daily cap goes to 2,000.
- No credit card.
Or ask your AI tool directly
Connect your account to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Perplexity or any other MCP-compatible tool and ask for hockey data in conversation — scores, standings, player stats and Elo ratings, with no API key to paste and no code to write. Your plan and limits carry over exactly as they do here.
Connect your AI tool →Integrate in a few lines
const API = 'https://api.bigballsdata.com';
const headers = { 'x-api-key': process.env.BBS_API_KEY };
// Recent NHL games with final score + period-by-period linescore.
const res = await fetch(`${API}/v1/matches?sport=ice_hockey&league=nhl&limit=5`, { headers });
const { data: games } = await res.json();
for (const g of games) {
const periods = (g.linescore?.home ?? [])
.map((h, i) => `${h}-${g.linescore.away[i]}`)
.join(' ');
console.log(`${g.away.name} @ ${g.home.name} ${g.score.away}-${g.score.home} [${periods}]`);
}Free covers a real app. Scale when you need to.
1,000 req/day free (2,000 with GitHub). Production starts at $49/mo. Live WebSocket push on Pro+.
Frequently asked
- Is there a free NHL API?
- Yes. Scores with period-by-period linescores, standings, expected-goals leaders, skater and goalie stats, player props, injuries, and a matchup endpoint on the free tier at 1,000 req/day (2,000 with GitHub), no credit card.
- How many seasons of NHL data are there?
- Twelve: 2014-15 through 2025-26. The seasons line on this page is sourced from the coverage manifest, so it never drifts from what the API actually serves.
- Does the NHL API include period scores?
- Yes. Each game carries a linescore object with home and away arrays, one entry per period plus overtime when applicable (e.g. linescore.home = [1, 2, 1]).
- Does the NHL API include expected goals (xG)?
- Yes. /v1/nhl/leaders returns season leaders with expected goals (xG) and goals-above-expected, so you can rank skaters by finishing over or under their xG.
- Can I get goalie stats?
- Yes. /v1/players/:id/stats returns goalie aggregates (save percentage, GAA, saves) alongside skater stats, and "saves" is one of the player-prop markets.
- Does the NHL API include player props?
- Yes. /v1/nhl/players/:player_id/props returns five markets — shots on goal, goals, assists, points, and saves — with the line, over/under juice, and a rolling hit rate. Every response carries a `freshness` block derived from the line’s own timestamp: `data_as_of`, its age in days, and a status of live, recent or stale. The NHL is between seasons right now, so the most recent lines are from June and report as stale — check `freshness.status` rather than assuming a returned line is a current price. Live pricing resumes with the season.
- Does it include full game betting odds (moneyline / puck line)?
- Historically, yes — and it is the deepest odds archive we hold for any sport. Opening and closing snapshots for 1,204 of 1,391 finished NHL games (87%) are served by /v1/odds/historical on the Pro plan, which is what you want for backtesting against real closing lines. What is NOT available is current per-game pricing: /v1/matches/:id/odds returns nothing for finished NHL games, and no new NHL prices have been written since 18 June 2026 because the league is between seasons. Player props with lines are served now via the props endpoint; full-game pricing resumes closer to the 2026-27 opener.
- Does the NHL feed cover the playoffs?
- Yes. The same endpoints serve regular season and postseason; standings reflect division and conference during the season and series records in the playoffs. The NHL is between seasons right now — the 2026-27 season resumes in October — and twelve seasons of history are available immediately.