The Colorado Avalanche, it turns out, were worth more than their weight in impressions this season.
A report to be released today by Zoomph and STN Digital, two firms that specialize in quantifying the previously unquantifiable, found that the Avalanche generated $27.7 million in social media value during the 2025-26 regular season, the highest figure among the National Hockey League's 32 teams. The Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Montreal Canadiens also exceeded $20 million, which in the parlance of the industry means their posts were seen, shared, and engaged with at rates that would have cost real money to replicate through paid advertising.
The league's teams collectively generated $364.5 million in value across Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and YouTube, according to the report. Social media value, for those keeping score at home, represents the estimated worth of an organic post, calculated using impressions, video views, and engagements, and derived from what the report calls "industry-standard rates." (The standard, one assumes, being whatever the industry has agreed to call standard this quarter.)
Facebook accounted for one-third of the total value, the largest share among the five platforms, though Instagram drove 59 percent of all engagements — a reminder that the platform where people actually do things is not always the platform where the numbers look biggest.
The report also examined sponsorship visibility, finding that the Penguins and First National Bank generated more than $823,000 in jersey patch value on social media alone. The jersey patch, which entered the N.H.L. only recently after years of resistance, has now joined the digital conversation in earnest.
Whether $27.7 million in social media value translates to anything so old-fashioned as ticket sales or merchandise revenue remains, as always, a question for a different kind of report.
Original story published in sportsbusinessjournal.com: "Zoomph/STN Digital: Avs delivered the NHL's most social media value during 2025-26"