The National Hockey League is a business. The league controls its broadcast rights in order to get the greatest amount of money out of its markets. They do not seem to consider free access for Canadian citizens on Canadian soil to be a priority.
So the rights were negotiated with other partners. They have to make money from them, of course, because they paid a lot for them. I have no problem with them doing that. However, they put the games behind paywalls or they provide them by subscription, because they have to make their money back.
We just have no access to that market. Radio-Canada lost those rights a very long time ago.