sawchuk1971
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- Jun 16, 2011
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Is a Canadian Professional Hockey League viable?
- Thread starter sawchuk1971
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Honour Over Glory
Blomqvist for Vezina + ROTY
- Jan 30, 2012
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The Jets have bottom 3 attendance while being a decent team. The Sharks drew more fans on average than they did and only the Coyotes had less and that's because they played in a College arena.
So no, it would never be viable.
It would never last. It would never even get funded.
- Aug 24, 2011
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Canadians hardly want to play on the NHL teams in Canada. You think anyone with NHL-level talent would take a pay cut and play in a lesser league to play for the Saskatchewan Milk Bags or Hamilton Buddy-Guys???
Unlikely. We already have the AHL with 6 teams in Canada and the CHL
Unlikely. We already have the AHL with 6 teams in Canada and the CHL
M88K
irreverent
- May 24, 2014
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Depends on the # of teams.
The answer is likely yes as in there is enough money to make it viable.
The answer is no, in that it likely won't ever be able to complete with the NHL and therefor will suffer from players who aren't good enough to make the NHL or players who can't stick in the NHL for other reasons (DeAngelo).
Further complicate that, to the fact that you're only going to have 4 or 5 teams total.
Most markets won't sustain a team long with the NHL also in town and a competing salary structure to actual lure NHL talent.
The answer is likely yes as in there is enough money to make it viable.
The answer is no, in that it likely won't ever be able to complete with the NHL and therefor will suffer from players who aren't good enough to make the NHL or players who can't stick in the NHL for other reasons (DeAngelo).
Further complicate that, to the fact that you're only going to have 4 or 5 teams total.
Most markets won't sustain a team long with the NHL also in town and a competing salary structure to actual lure NHL talent.
MXD
Partying Hard
- Oct 27, 2005
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BLNY
Registered User
Fish on The Sand
Untouchable
It's viable in the same way that the CFL is viable...as a smaller, minor league. Not as a premier league.
Hamilton Bulldogs
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- Jan 11, 2022
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Probably not.
Most Canadian AHL teams don't draw all that well and thats probably about the quality of player that would play in such a league.
Most Canadian AHL teams don't draw all that well and thats probably about the quality of player that would play in such a league.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
If you mean splitting off the NHL teams to form their own league, then the simple answer is no.
First of all it’s not viable for legal reasons. You can’t just take a franchise out of the NHL and go renegade. The franchise still belongs to the NHL along with its IP (name, logos, etc). So what you would have is an off-brand league like the WHA, games between the Toronto Toros and the Vancouver Blazers. People didn’t want to watch that in the 1970s and they certainly don’t want it now.
Second, it’s not viable for financial reasons. The Canadian teams tend to make a lot of money in the NHL, but that’s partly because they’re in a large and thriving league where they do in fact make money from the American teams. Expansion fees are an obvious example, as well as merchandising and other sources. An all-Canadian league means you’re no longer getting those revenue streams and the pie gets much, much smaller. You don’t have Connor McDavid money or Auston Matthews money in that league, so those guys aren’t gonna be around.
It could be “viable” in the sense that it could be like the old IHL, an off-brand league populated by spare-part players. If they could keep travel costs low, maybe it becomes something like today’s KHL as an option for guys who aren’t quite good enough for the NHL and not a good fit for the A. Its continued existence would depend on finding minor-league arenas to play in, because you bet your ass the NHL would re-activate those seven franchises and push them out of the big arenas.
Would anyone be happy with that outcome? No they would not. So for practical purposes no, it is not viable.
First of all it’s not viable for legal reasons. You can’t just take a franchise out of the NHL and go renegade. The franchise still belongs to the NHL along with its IP (name, logos, etc). So what you would have is an off-brand league like the WHA, games between the Toronto Toros and the Vancouver Blazers. People didn’t want to watch that in the 1970s and they certainly don’t want it now.
Second, it’s not viable for financial reasons. The Canadian teams tend to make a lot of money in the NHL, but that’s partly because they’re in a large and thriving league where they do in fact make money from the American teams. Expansion fees are an obvious example, as well as merchandising and other sources. An all-Canadian league means you’re no longer getting those revenue streams and the pie gets much, much smaller. You don’t have Connor McDavid money or Auston Matthews money in that league, so those guys aren’t gonna be around.
It could be “viable” in the sense that it could be like the old IHL, an off-brand league populated by spare-part players. If they could keep travel costs low, maybe it becomes something like today’s KHL as an option for guys who aren’t quite good enough for the NHL and not a good fit for the A. Its continued existence would depend on finding minor-league arenas to play in, because you bet your ass the NHL would re-activate those seven franchises and push them out of the big arenas.
Would anyone be happy with that outcome? No they would not. So for practical purposes no, it is not viable.
Pretty clearly a Canadian professional major league isn't going to work. The NHL is too well established, better than it was 40 years ago when the WHA survived for a few years.
If a Canadian league were to be in any way viable I think it would have to be low level minors,. I personally doubt that anything much higher than the Quebec semi-pro LNAH would be viable in the long term.
If a Canadian league were to be in any way viable I think it would have to be low level minors,. I personally doubt that anything much higher than the Quebec semi-pro LNAH would be viable in the long term.
- Oct 12, 2012
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While I think a Canadian pro league would fail spectacularly due to CHL and NHL loyalties... bringing up the Jets attendance is pretty disingenuous, especially when you bring up Mullet, the Jets have the smallest capacity rink in the league by almost 1000, the only rink within 1K is Utah and in addition to Utah and WInnipeg, the only other rink under 17k is Prudential Center in NJ. That is also not even factoring in that Winnipeg is by far the smallest NHL market.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
IMO the greater point to be made about Winnipeg is that it can ONLY have major league sports in the context of today’s NHL. Revenue sharing, salary cap, Canadian Assistance Plan, lots of expansion fees flowing in… that’s what it needs to look like.
Rather than yapping about how they need to secede, these folks would be better off taking a moment of gratitude that the NHL has gone in a direction that gives Canada 7 teams. There are a lot of alternate timelines where they end up with more like 3, and nobody’s surprised.
Rabid Ranger
2 is better than one
Jumptheshark
Rebooting myself
Nope. NHL would dwarf the league. I would not be shocked to see the NHL put ALL Canadian teams into their own division within a few years
- Oct 9, 2012
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Canada doesn’t have nearly enough people or $$ for that proposed league to compete with whatever the U.S. would make of the leftovers. Look at the NTCs of active players. The players prefer to live in the U.S.
Bear of Bad News
"The Worst Guy on the Site" - user feedback
- Sep 27, 2005
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I have to admire your consistency.
Is it time for a Canadian only professional hockey league?
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Can a Canadian professional hockey league thrive?
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