NHL met with a group interested in expanding to New Orleans

[Banjo Cat]

Bobby Boucher would be a great hockey player.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

Bobby Boucher would be a great hockey player.

 

[93LEAFS]

Hamilton would probably be a disaster for its own reasons. You have diehard lifelong leaf fans there who probably won't be lining up to support a new team. The concerns around a new team so close to TO with a population population of 500k is very real.

I think Quebec should be given a team before atl/Pheonix if you can get an ownership group together, but the NHL may have priced themselves out of Canadian expansion with what they charged Vegas and Seattle.

Leafs will fight tooth and nail to stop a team from poaching from it's wealthy Western suburbs, and without Burlington, Oakville and some other areas as local TV they are probably screwed.

Also, I don't think the NHL wants to further invest in Canada right now given the economic uncertainty around looming tariffs, as the lower CAD becomes relative to USD the less viable teams become in Canada. When Canada saw an exodus of teams, it was during a period of a weak dollar and there was mass worry when the dollar went below 70c in the late 90s/early 2000s (especially around the Oilers and we saw the Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis). When the Jets came back, the dollar was trading at par pretty much with USD. It currently sits at 70c's. Unless it's a surefire thing like Toronto 2 in the core of the city (which can draw heavily from Bay Street and the wealthy neighborhoods in Midtown Toronto while still accessible to the 905), I don't see the NHL exploring Canada seriously.

 

[Daz28]

Stop watering down the product.