Is Bettman plotting for a 36-team NHL?

[rojac]

Atlanta Flames 1972-1980
Atlanta Thrashers 1997-2011

Quebec Nordiques 1972-1995

The Nordiques were only in the NHL 1979-1995. The WHA does not count.

 

[Fenway]

If the NBA wants a team in Vegas, they are extra stupid. The taint of the UNLV scandal still exists. The reason why hockey can work in Vegas is because Vegas is particularly devoid of normal family entertainment for the people who work there so they would accept a sport other than the big three and because hockey is notoriously difficult to bet on and shave points on.

Basketball on the other hand is by far the easiest to cheat on (due to the number of scoring opportunities and the fact there are so many fouls) and to shave points on. While the players may make too much to care to cheat, the refs...

What city did the NBA In Season Tournament conclude in last month?

All the leagues are now embracing gambling so that ship has sailed.

 

[Coffee]

When that happens I won't watch the NHL anymore.

Please don’t say that

 

[Three On Zero]

The #1 team in the NHL currently has Vesey, Goodrow, Bonino, Pitlick, and Brodzinski in its lineup. I question whether there is enough talent for 36 compelling teams.

That’s called depth players, every team will have them regardless

Absolutely……Lots and lots of all-star goalies are stuck in the minors because they can’t find a home.

You’ll never have a full league of all star goalies, that’s just how the goaltending position is and always will be

 

[Confucius]

I would love for there to be a lower NHL league where they could promote/relegate a couple teams every year but I'm guessing the current owners would never agree to that. They wouldn't like the reduced revenue playing in a lower tier league, but it would be very exciting for fans.

I could just imagine the whining from the owners if teams like the Leafs, Habs or Rangers got relegated to tier 2 and took their billions of revenue generating power away to the new richer tier

 

[Crease]

That’s called depth players, every team will have them regardless

If you add enough teams, you and I can also be depth players, but that doesn’t mean the product will be good.

My point is that I don’t enjoy watching those players because they’re not very good at hockey, and if you add more teams, you’re just adding players worse than them into the mix.

 

[Fledgemyhedge]

There is always room for more leafs hate. Could have another 4 teams fans worth of leafs haters

But even that hatred is just because of the media I don’t hate their team even really. Lots of the players are likeable like William nylander. Rivalries are dying

 

[VaporTrail]

Bettman is always plotting

 

[Edgelord]

LeBron is close to the end of his playing career.

LeBron James reminds everyone that he still hates Boston

LeBron James has made it abundantly clear that he does not like Boston. But just in case anyone forgot, he reminded everyone of his disdain for the city at Lakers Media Day on Monday.

www.cbsnews.com

FSG wants an NBA team badly

Is the knights arena basketball capable?

 

[Three On Zero]

If you add enough teams, you and I can also be depth players, but that doesn’t mean the product will be good.

My point is that I don’t enjoy watching those players because they’re not very good at hockey, and if you add more teams, you’re just adding players worse than them into the mix.

The NHL doesn’t care about you and I, they care about growing the brand which they still have room to do. The odd fan who’s against expansion won’t outweigh the entire market that the league will be gaining.

Larger market base means you get more exposure, which may influence more younger children to get into the sport leading to more talent coming into the league.

You may not enjoy watching every player in the league but it doesn’t mean the league is so devoid of talent that they can’t expand

 

[Fenway]

Is the knights arena basketball capable?

Sure is

 

[Nemesis Prime]

There are not enough NHL calibre players as is, but I don’t think they care about that.
There have always been a few players that don’t deserve to be in the NHL that somehow luck their way into a championship, but going forward there will be 5+ players getting their names engraved on the Cup every year that have no business in the NHL.

The legacy of the Cup will be tainted.

By that logic its already been tainted by useless, face punching plugs decades ago.

 

[Jozay]

Bettman is a menace

 

[Fenway]

Bettman is a menace

Bettman does what the Board of Governors wants.

Each franchise got $21 MILLION from Seattle which helped a few clubs survive COVID.

 

[Edgelord]

Sure is

View attachment 795347

then a team in vegas makes sense.

 

[Bombshell11]

Lack of rivalries

There's an easy fix to that, conferences dont play each other in the regular season

 

[coolboarder]

The NHL could easily pushing this to 40 teams in the league. I see a few potential markets with 6 more US teams and two teams in Canada. Portland, Salt Lake City, Houston, Kansas City, Sacramento, maybe Milwaukee for those in US and 2 in Canada, one somewhere in middle of BC with the fastest growing city in Canada in Kelowna and/or 2nd Vancouver team mainly in Surrey area, and/or Quebec City. That could happen within 10-20 years timeframe and expand slowly.

If that were to happen, then there would be no need to have divisions and the games be two games all across the board, home and away for 78 games and you could add four extra games for rivalry games only to make it to 82 games. I suppose you could easily push it to 42 teams and have it home and away vs all teams. (41 games home/41 away games for 82 games}.

 

[HisIceness]

I don't understand why Salt Lake City is such a popular "choice" on this board when these expansion/relocation pops up. A metro with a 1.2 million population and an NBA team (and MLS for good measure) isn't feasible for the NHL. There is also no feasible long-term arena for them.

 

[DrChar]

So NHL is using the Subway franchise model?

 

[Ted Hoffman]

32 teams is perfect, and cannot properly support each of those markets, anyway.

If you're going to expand it even further, just introduce movement between NHL and AHL so teams cannot just tank. If you're going to get relegated down to AHL, then maybe you'll care about winning games.

There is never going to be pro/rel in any of the current major North America pro sports leagues. Like, never. The only way you get that is to start a league from scratch and have it split in halves, and the 1st season's "winners" make up the top league and everyone else makes the bottom league, and you do pro/rel from there - and that new pro league isn't coming along any time soon.

When that happens I won't watch the NHL anymore.

You might want to start researching new hobbies.

36 in one league is insane, need 2 Stanley Cups by then

Does college football need 2 national champions? Does college basketball [which has ~320 colleges in D1, and 68 of them make the tournament - and in the next decade, I expect it to expand to 96] need 8 of them?

Regular season will be de-emphasized in importance for determining who's really the best team in the league, more chances of a "really good but not elite in the regular season" team to win the Cup. It's been like that since the league expanded from 6 teams to 12, it was like that when the playoffs went to divisional play, it was like that when the playoffs changed to conference play and the league expanded from 21 to 22, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30 and the current 32. It'll be fine.

That's the only way to increase NHLs revenues in Bettmans the owners eyes.. fail.

IFYP. I would think after all the years of people pointing out that the owners call a hell of a lot of shots and send Bettman out to take the abuse, people would have finally listened / caught on. Apparently, no.

 

[Djp]

The NHL will expand again simply because the existing 32 owners will happily pocket the expansion money. The problem is that 34 teams will cause another unbalance but 36 is workable.

It is becoming obvious that Atlanta 3.0 will happen

Arena project 'full speed' ahead in hopes of landing NHL franchise

Gathering at South Forsyth district gaining steam as 2023 concludes, NHL analyst relays

atlanta.urbanize.city

The NHL has a willing suitor in Salt Lake City with the owner of the NBA Jazz.

Then we have Houston



Team 36?

View attachment 795020

Personally the idea of a 36 team NHL makes me ill but the NHL BOG has historically

View attachment 795022

Can I make a case for Atlanta 3.0? Yes because it wasn't lack of fan support that caused the Flames and Thrashers to move.

Salt Lake? The owner of the NBA Jazz wants a NHL team.
Houston? Second largest state in the US and a natuaral rival with Dallas.
Quebec? A huge Francophone TV market that would embrace the team.

Bettman at this point will not walk away from Phoenix.

Obviously the best market for a NHL expansion team is Toronto or the Golden Horseshoe but...............

with 34 teams

can go with 2 17 team conferences
2x 17=34 games
3x16=48 games
82 games


with 36 teams...

4 9 team conferences
2x27=54 games
8x3=24 games
78 games
4 games can be played among 4 division teams

6 of 9 in each division make playoffs, top 2 get byes


could also go with 9 4 team divisions

32x2=64
3 x 6=18 games
82 games

playoffs would be say
9 division winners get byes.
top 14 outside division winners after get WCs and play each other n best of 3 or best of 5 for 7 teams based on standings among 70 games of 2 against each team. the division games are pre designated that count where 1 a month counts in standings among divisional games.
final 16 play on.

you could do 70 game season then everyone plays the playoffs.
top 28 in last 8 play in for final 4 spots for 32. then five rounds of playoffs.

during season they do a 3x3 tournament where non playoff teams or those not making final 16 get to host. its done over october-mid feb doing 4 teams at a site for 3 30 min games. top 20 move on for 5 groups of 4. then top 5+ 4 best go to a semifinal of 4 teams each then a one game semifinals and finals around an all star weekend where semifinals play on friday, 3rd place game, and skills on satruday, then on sunday you have the finals+ 40 minute allstar game of stars+ younger players.

 

[pabst blue ribbon]

The #1 team in the NHL currently has Vesey, Goodrow, Bonino, Pitlick, and Brodzinski in its lineup. I question whether there is enough talent for 36 compelling teams.

The team with Vesey, Goodrow, Bonito, Pitlick and Brodzinski has been getting outscored at 5v5 this year

 

[BB79]

I already don’t hate your bruins anymore. It’s just the leafs, it’s sad.

Same here. You guys are just another team now. Not much different than playing the Islanders or Flyers. It's sad

Quebec built a brand new arena about 8 years ago, it looks beautiful.

There are just too many teams. It's oversaturated to the point games hardly mean anything anymore. Long gone are the days of playing the same teams 6-8 times then again in the playoffs. The league feels to generic.

 

[BB79]

When that happens I won't watch the NHL anymore.

I'm already teetering on the edge. I enjoyed the league a lot better with less teams

 

[BB79]

I am all for expansion, the league has enough talent to do so and it'll likely generate more revenue

Do you own a team? What fan cares about revenue? They constantly ad advertising, raise ticket prices, show no games for free..who cares? They're not hurting for money. Anyone who goes grocery shopping knows what hurting for money is. NHL owners can't relate.

It hurts above the individual level. Adding too many teams diluted former rivalries down to seeing each other 3x a season. It'll probably go down to 2x if they go to 36 teams. It's not a good thing. Any older fan will tell you, there was time we used to circle the calendar for a game against Montreal or Buffalo. Now, not so much. The word "rivals" doesn't even exist anymore.