What are the best hockey movies of all time? These 10 films are the gold standard according to the scores on IMDb.

Watching the National Hockey League games is a favorite pastime of many people. However, when their favorite teams are not playing or the league is in its offseason, it can feel difficult to get their share of ice hockey content.

Fortunately, there's no shortage of great hockey movies to watch, many of which are currently available to stream. Whether you're partial to goals or fights, the Olympics or pee-wees, old school or new, if you're a hockey fan, there's a perfect movie for you and, according to IMDb, these are the 10 best.

Updated on October 27th, 2021, by Jake Koran: The NHL is back in full swing, and though the playoffs are a long way off, teams are fighting with everything they have to work their way to the Stanley Cup Finals. The best hockey movies are a great way for fans to engage with the sport, even when their favorite team is not playing. Hockey movies are full of inspiring stories, and the best ones are sure to get viewers in the spirit to support their teams!

10 Les Boys II (1998) - 6.2

A sequel to a 1997 film, Les Boys II features much of the same cast from the original. In this movie, the hockey team travels to France to compete in a tournament, and antics naturally ensue. The film presents plenty of hilarious moments that stem mostly from the team members' immaturity, and the variety of personalities keeps the movie interesting.

Though it is largely a comedy, Les Boys II is also a great hockey movie, and the sports sequences are also well done and fun to watch.

9 The Mighty Ducks (1992) - 6.6

A movie that introduced most of the millennial generation to the sport of ice hockey, Disney's The Mighty Ducks stars Emilio Estevez (The Breakfast Club) as Gordon Bombay, a self-centered Minnesota lawyer sentenced to community service in the form of coaching a youth hockey team after he's arrested for drunk driving.

In addition to providing early roles for stars like Joshua Jackson, Marguerite Moreau, and Elden Henson, the movie spawned two sequels (all currently streaming on HBO), an animated series, and an NHL expansion team based out of Anaheim. The film features the flawed Bombay growing to care for these children, and the heart behind The Mighty Ducks is part of what makes it one of the best sports movies for kids to enjoy, as well as adults.

8 Les Boys (1997) - 6.7

Les Boys came out in 1997 and follows an amateur hockey team and the men who play on it. The aging players are often incredibly immature, which is part of what contributes to the comedy of this film. There is a number of subplots involving the players and their childish antics.

The movie features some humor that would be frowned upon today, but other aspects of it have a lot of heart, making it a classic among many fans twenty-four years later. Some would even rank it among some of the more popular but still hilarious sports comedies.

7 Mystery, Alaska (1999) - 6.7

Not the Alaskan-set noir story the title might suggest, Mystery, Alaska follows an amateur hockey team in Mystery, a small fictional Alaskan town obsessed with their weekly pond hockey game played by local citizens every Saturday.

The town gets over-excited when their team is given the opportunity of a lifetime after being chosen to play a televised exhibition game against the NHL's New York Rangers, forcing the town sheriff and team veteran John Biebe (Russell Crowe) to re-evaluate whether he is still fit to lace up his skates, or if it is time to hang them up and relegate himself to coaching.

6 Goon (2011) - 6.8

An enforcer-focused hockey movie, Goon tells the inappropriately comedic story of Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott), an unintelligent but kind-hearted bar bouncer from a brainy family. He attends a minor-league hockey game where he easily wins a fight against a player on the opposing team who angrily stormed into the crowd.

Despite having almost no skating or hockey experience, Doug is asked by the local team's coach (Kim Coates) to join the team after the fight, as they're in dire need of an enforcer to protect their talented but troubled young star (Marc-Andre Grondin). The comedy is entertaining and funny, but it also clearly has a lot of passion behind it, which contributes to the heart of the film.

5 Slap Shot (1977) - 7.3

Considered one of the best comedy movies from the '70s, Slap Shot is a classic. It follows the Charlestown Chiefs, a fictional minor-league hockey team led by player-coach Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman). When Dunlop discovers that his underperforming team is set to disband at the end of the season, he unleashes a new weapon on the league: the Hanson Brothers.

The brothers wreak havoc on the league with their dirty and violent style of play, leading the Chiefs to realize that if they cannot beat teams on the scoreboard, they can still beat the crap out of them on the ice. Newman still calls Slap Shot one of his all-time favorite movies to make, but don't expect the jokes to be politically correct.

4 Indian Horse (2017) - 7.3

A darling of film festivals across Canada, Indian Horse explores disturbing issues that other hockey movies dare not touch. The story follows the life of Saul, a young indigenous Canadian boy growing up in the corrupt, racist, and abusive Canadian Indian residential school system.

Throughout his life, Saul deals with soul-crushing racism and abuse. As he struggles with life-threatening alcoholism, Saul doesn't let the hardships he endures keep him from becoming a great hockey player or finding meaning and happiness amidst the serious circumstances.

3 Miracle (2004) - 7.5

Miracle tells the true story of a team of ragtag American college hockey players who took on a heavily favored Soviet Union team at the height of the Cold War in the 1980 Olympics in what's considered the biggest upset and most important game in American hockey history.

The story of team coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell), who you'll be quoting for weeks, is enough to inspire anyone who's ever been rejected. Brooks was the last player cut from the 1960 U.S. team, the only American team to ever win gold, but he held onto his dream for 20 years before he finally achieved it as head coach. The story is so inspiring that it has been covered several times, also being adapted into one of the best HBO sports documentaries.

2 Legend No. 17 (2013) - 7.5

A Russian movie that never enjoyed a North American release, most readers likely haven't heard of or seen Legend No. 17. Garnering several prestigious Russian film awards, the story follows the life and career of Valeri Kharlamov (Danila Kozlovsky), one of the greatest players in Soviet hockey history.

Although Kharlamov was considered small for a professional player, he made up for his lack of size with exceptional speed, intelligence, creativity, and stick skills, earning him two Soviet League MVP awards and two championships with CSKA Moscow. Kharlamov also won his country Olympic gold medals in '72 and '76 and played on the 1980 Olympic team.

1 The Rocket (2005) - 7.6

A true story based on the career of Maurice "The Rocket" Richard, this biopic shows the struggles the hockey player had to go through to rise to the status he did. Playing for the Montreal Canadiens, Richard believed, along with many others, that French Canadian hockey players were not treated as well as English Canadian players.

The mistreatment led to extensive conflict with the NHL president. The film is a fascinating look into the life of one of the most famous hockey players in history and the impact he had on the game.

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