10 Fun New Food Concessions at NHL Arenas This Season

The beginning of the NHL season is a time of joy and optimism. 

Hockey is back on our screens and in our arenas. No one is out of the playoff race yet. And increasingly, arena concession programs are delighting fans with new food items that are as inventive as they are unhinged. 

Pierogies are tucked into a deli sandwich. Soft-serve ice cream is slathered in butter (yes, butter). And in what may be the most viral new food offering around NHL arenas this season, Nerds Gummy Clusters are stuffed into a grilled cheese. 

Keep reading to find out which teams are unveiling these fun and outrageous bites. Who knows; maybe you'll be lucky enough to find them at your own team's barn.

Canadian Tire Centre (Ottawa Senators): Sen-Sational Poutine Burger

Aramark Sports + Entertainment

The Sen-Sational Poutine Burger features braised Canadian bison, classic poutine gravy and cheese curds and smashed crispy potato tots, served in a Senators helmet-shaped container.

It's nice to know that poutine isn't just a stereotypical food we assume Canadians love but that they never actually eat. Poutine is, in fact, a staple in Canada, even outside Quebec, to the point that it's the backbone of this new burger on offer at Ottawa Senators games this season. 

The burger features braised Canadian bison, classic poutine gravy and cheese curds, and smashed crispy potato tots. Perhaps the most eye-catching part of this package, however, is the Senators' helmet-shaped container it's served in, which feels like it's taken a page out of the collectible movie popcorn bucket trend. 

The Sen-Sational Poutine Burger is available in Section 210 for $18.89 CAD.

Enterprise Center (St. Louis Blues): Louie's Snack Den Loaded Popcorn Bowls 

Levy

At Louie's Snack Den, Blues fans can build their own popcorn bowls with toppings such as white chocolate, milk chocolate or caramel drizzle, M&M's, Oreo cookie pieces, toffee pieces, gummy bears, mini marshmallows and pretzels.

These build-your-own popcorn bowls at Louie's Snack Den (Portal 31) have all the hallmarks of a viral food item in 2026. 

Not only are they eminently photographable for social media, but the do-it-yourself nature of selecting the toppings for your own popcorn bowl is the same impetus that has made dirty soda such a popular phenomenon. People love to have a hand in creating their own treat. 

Fans can choose from two bowl sizes. From there, they select a drizzle (white chocolate, milk chocolate, or caramel) and can add up to three included toppings (M&M's, Oreo cookie pieces, toffee pieces, gummy bears, mini marshmallows, pretzels). If you're going for a true garbage popcorn, additional toppings are $1 each.

Grand Casino Arena (Minnesota Wild): Butter-Dipped Ice Cream Cone

Levy

Grand Casino Arena's Butter Dipped Ice Cream cone follows the viral trend of dipping vanilla ice cream in butter and topping it with salt.

At first glance, this photo may make you wonder why this food item deserves inclusion on a list of items that includes blue Takis on cased meats and a fully playable popcorn bucket. 

But don't let the seemingly innocuous vanilla ice cream cone pictured here fool you. This daring dairy dessert features vanilla soft serve dipped in melted butter, which quickly hardens, like the far more typical chocolate magic shell topping. It's a viral culinary trend started by regional grocery chain Stew Leonard's that has spread across the U.S. 

At Grand Casino Arena, the concoction is topped with flaky sea salt and served up in a waffle cone.

Prudential Center (New Jersey Devils): Playable Popcorn Bucket 

Levy

The Devils' playable popcorn bucket features pinball-style paddles on a miniature hockey rink that lets fans use pieces of popcorn as pucks to try and score goals into the nets.

Arena popcorn: safe, staple, boring. 

Playable popcorn bucket: surprising, innovative, exciting. 

That's what the Devils are going for this season with their viral, first-of-its-kind playable popcorn bucket. The collectible features pinball-style paddles on a miniature hockey rink that lets fans use pieces of popcorn as pucks to try to score goals into the nets. 

The clever collectible is available at multiple locations throughout the concourse.

PPG Paints Arena (Pittsburgh Penguins): Ultimate Penguinator

Aramark Sports + Entertainment

PPG Paints Arena's Ultimate Penguinator is a deli sandwich consisting of turkey, roast beef, ham, provolone and cheddar, mozzarella sticks, waffle fries and pierogies.

It doesn't get much more Pittsburgh than this over-the-top sandwich. 

Each bite of the Ultimate Penguinator reveals a surprising new taste of the city. The base is a normal, if excessive, deli sandwich: turkey, roast beef, ham, provolone and cheddar. Then things go off the rails.

Layered on top are mozzarella sticks, waffle fries, and pierogies(!). This monster is piled onto herb Italian bread and topped with lettuce, tomato, and roasted garlic ranch.

The Ultimate Penguinator is also served in a Pittsburgh bridge-themed box, in case the theme wasn't clear. It can be found at the Fifth Avenue Food Hall in Section 116.

Rogers Place (Edmonton Oilers): Loaded Helmet Nachos

Levy

The Edmonton Oilers' loaded helmet nachos feature corn tortilla chips, cheese sauce, shredded cheddar, sour cream, salsa, jalapeños and green onions in a collectible souvenir helmet.

Is any food item loaded into a helmet all that out there in 2026? No, but that doesn't make this offering any less fun or desirable, especially for a kid: It's junk food and a souvenir in one.

For these loaded nachos, Rogers Place didn't reinvent the wheel. The slop bowl (complimentary) features corn tortilla chips, cheese sauce, shredded cheddar, sour cream, salsa, jalapeños, and green onions.

If you have strong opinions on the shape of your tortilla chip, these are circles. (If you have no idea what this means, just keep reading; it's not for you.) 

SAP Center (San Jose Sharks): K-Chomp Corn Dog

Aramark Sports + Entertainment

The San Jose Sharks' K-Chomp Corn Dog is a spicy Louisiana sausage topped with pepper jack cheese and Korean BBQ sauce with blue Takis sprinkled on top.

A popular undercurrent of viral arena food is to continually reinvent and reimagine the humble arena dog.

The San Jose Sharks' offering is a dog that leans into Korean flavors. A spicy Louisiana sausage is topped with pepper jack cheese and Korean BBQ sauce. 

However, the pièce maîtresse of this dog, and what will endear it to Sharks fans, is the blue Takis sprinkled on top. 

The K-Chomp Corn Dog is available at Club 117 inside SAP Center for $13.25.

TD Garden (Boston Bruins): Souvenir Draft Beer Hockey Glove

Icon Sportswire/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

During last year's NHL playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes' viral Beer Skate became the hottest item fans could get their hands on. When it debuted at the Lenovo Center, fans snapped up 4,867 in a single game. 

The Buffalo Sabres' Beer Sabre and the Utah Mammoth Tusk Mug have similarly attracted fans' eyeballs (and dollars). 

Later in October, the Boston Bruins are throwing their hat into the collectible beer mug arena, serving up beverages in a vessel shaped like a hockey glove.

The Bruins have not yet shared details on where in TD Garden the glove will be available or how much it will cost, but the team encourages fans to keep an eye on the Bruins and TD Garden mobile app for announcements.

UBS Arena (New York Islanders): Nerds Gummy Cluster Brie Grilled Cheese

Sarah Hochstein/UBS Arena

The New York Islanders are offering a brie grilled cheese stuffed with Nerds Gummy Clusters at UBS Arena this season.

A true Mad Lib of a concessions item, stuffing Nerds Gummy Clusters into a brie grilled cheese seems about as random as it gets. 

How do these wacky food items come to be? In this case, reports The Athletic's Kaitlyn Pohly, UBS Arena executive chef Ted Donnelly and his team scroll through food videos on TikTok and Instagram, searching for inspiration. Ideas with promise get written on a whiteboard in an office in the arena. 

Pohly, who had an opportunity to try the screwball sandwich, notes that the combination isn't as random as one might expect, bringing "the sweetness of a jam you might pair with brie on a cheese board."

United Center (Chicago Blackhawks): Beef and Chicken Tortas

Chicago is home to the fifth-largest Mexican population in the United States, so it's no surprise to see tortas, a Mexican street-food staple, join the lineup at the United Center's Corona Beach concessions stand this season. 

The new tortas are available with chicken or beef and are served on a soft telera roll with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, refried beans, queso fresco and sour cream, alongside housemade tortilla chips and salsa. 

While the torta isn't an uncommon item in Chicago's neighborhoods, it doesn't often find its way onto arena menus, making for a nice change of pace from chicken tenders and burgers.