As fans begin to ready themselves for long awaited upcoming NHL action, preparations must be made before you can be truly ready for the season. Once dormant fans must now ready themselves promptly for an action packed short season. Team jerseys must be cleaned, man caves need to be organized, trips must be booked, and much more. One important thing that will help NHL fans keep track of their favorite teams and players is a plethora of NHL related apps offered through their phone’s app store. After sifting through countless hockey related apps, I have chosen these select few as the top iPhone apps that every hockey fan should have.

College Hockey News: This is a must have app for any college hockey fan that wants to keep track of their favorite team throughout the collegiate season. College Hockey News offers complete schedules and rosters for every Division 1 team. It also comes with an exclusive live scoreboard and scoring information for most games. For NHL fans this app offers you a great way to keep track of all your team’s prospects at the collegiate level as well as giving you a heads up on talent for future drafts. The only negative is that you cannot view individual player stats and have no access to national polls.

Cost: Free

Purchase: Here

Shnarped: This is by far my favorite app on the list and the one I use most often. Shnarped helps connect you to the NHL like never before by letting you have access to any player in North American professional hockey leagues. Shnarped lets you access a player’s career and seasonal stats as well as giving you access to their twitter (if applicable) and upcoming schedule. This app also gives you the ability to “track” multiple players and keep tabs on them throughout the season without having to wade through team rosters to find them. Shnarped also allows you to send players a ‘pound’ (like a tap on the shinpads) when they do a good job on the ice – players that have Shnarped will be able to see your “pound” and comment on their wall. Overall this app offers you an amazing amount of access and connection to the players, the only drawback is occasional long load times and bug issues.

Cost: Free

Purchase: Here

AHL: As the official app of the American Hockey League, the AHL app offers you excellent coverage of your favorite team’s minor league affiliates. Features include real-time scoring, game summaries, player stats, schedules and more. This app is a great way to keep track of your team’s rising stars as they grow and flourish in the minors. It gives you the ability to get to know the future stars of your team before they are called up. While this app is great for information, it still lacks detail in some areas and needs to be polished for easier use eventually.

Cost: Free

Purchase: Here

TSN Mobile: This is one of the key apps that most hockey fans should check almost every day. TSN mobile offers you all the news and insight that the main TSN site and staff has to offer. Features include full schedules, live scores, player stats, transactions, injuries, standings, and top stories from around the NHL and beyond. What separates this app from other NHL apps is the quality of reporting and stories that the team at TSN has to offer. TSN mobile is the best way to bring Canada’s sports leader with you everywhere you go.

Cost: Free

Purchase: Here

NHL GameCenter: This is the official app of the NHL and the only app that offers video highlights of daily NHL action. Features include scores, schedules, play-by-play, news, stats, standings, game photos, player profiles and more. The premium version of this app gives you the ability to listen to all games via radio as well as additional video content that is unavailable on the free version. The live version of the app gives you the ability to watch live video of games in progress from around the league. One drawback to this app is its persistence in requesting location services as well as minor freezing and bug issues. The 2012-2013 version of this app should be arriving shortly now that the season is finally ready to get underway.

Cost: Free (4.99 for Premium / 59.99 for Live)

Purchase: TBD

Also, don’t forget that for quality hockey journalism, we at the The Hockey Writers have our own mobile app that can be purchased here for free!

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