NHL wants to expand to 36 teams

Because you enjoy the game in general and the players on your team.

I don't at all enjoy the past few years of Blackhawks hockey but from 2018-2021 i still tuned in a ton because I loved watching Toews, Kane, Keith, etc.. play hockey. I love hockey in general. It's Cup or bust in terms of marking team success but it's not Cup or bust for my fandom as a whole.

Winning a Division title or even a President's Trophy is an asterisk on the season to me personally. I know you and others disagree but to each their own. I never even think about the PT the Hawks won in 2013. I remember the Cup win (obviously) and them being in historical company with 24 games in a row of getting at least one point. Division titles and President's trophies are such happenstance to me. I would hate to see that artificially valued more in an over-expanded NHL.
That's all fair of course, but it sounds like as a hockey fan - your ability to enjoy the game wouldn't change much whether you had a 1/32 chance to win the Cup or a 1/36 chance (hypothetically of course).

Now if the expansion really does dilute skill and level of play to such a degree that the game is inherently changed, I get that as something that we as fans would all be concerned by.

But strictly on the idea that 4 more teams = less of a chance for "my team" to win the Cup = fan interest going down or fans disincentivized to care...I'm not sure I totally buy that as a reason that "expansion is bad".
 
Surprised Brampton Ontario isn't in the mix
Brampton would never support an NHL team. I've been living here since I was 18.

#1 All the Canadian born residents that watch hockey, well not all but maybe 99 percent, are loyal to the Leafs. That applies to the entire GTA area.

#2 Demographic has changed a lot in Brampton. I would say the city is probably well over 90% immigrant families or international students from India, many who don't care for hockey. Anticipating that is going to change soon though.

#3 I don't think any NHLer would want to live here to be honest with you lol it isn't the greatest city.

A team closer towards Oakville/Mississauga would make more sense, Mississauga IMO would be the best bet. Oakville is a pretty nice area, some high end restaurants, nice houses and areas. Bigger Canadian crowd that loves hockey and it's very close to Mississauga, with Brampton being on the other side.

But again, everyone in the GTA area is very loyal to the Leafs so I don't know how it would work.
 
Because you enjoy the game in general and the players on your team.

I don't at all enjoy the past few years of Blackhawks hockey but from 2018-2021 i still tuned in a ton because I loved watching Toews, Kane, Keith, etc.. play hockey. I love hockey in general. It's Cup or bust in terms of marking team success but it's not Cup or bust for my fandom as a whole.

Winning a Division title or even a President's Trophy is an asterisk on the season to me personally. I know you and others disagree but to each their own. I never even think about the PT the Hawks won in 2013. I remember the Cup win (obviously) and them being in historical company with 24 games in a row of getting at least one point. Division titles and President's trophies are such happenstance to me. I would hate to see that artificially valued more in an over-expanded NHL.

But the vast, vast majority of sports fans don’t fall into this description. Most attendees actually do care quite a bit whether the game has any importance. We see that play out in attendance figures every year, where a lack of meaningful games will halve attendance with time.

There’s no point in deriding people over this. It’s the nature of the entertainment industry, and not just in sports. Look at how many people are showing up to Marvel movies now versus in 2019, or how many people watched House of the Dragon compared to the peak seasons of Game of Thrones. When people sense that something is important, they pay more attention than when they sense that it’s forgettable.

If you’re running a hockey league, it’s your literal job to make each game feel meaningful. Otherwise you’re only going to draw the small number of weirdos like you and me who obsess over the games for their own sake.
 
That's all fair of course, but it sounds like as a hockey fan - your ability to enjoy the game wouldn't change much whether you had a 1/32 chance to win the Cup or a 1/36 chance (hypothetically of course).

Now if the expansion really does dilute skill and level of play to such a degree that the game is inherently changed, I get that as something that we as fans would all be concerned by.

But strictly on the idea that 4 more teams = less of a chance for "my team" to win the Cup = fan interest going down or fans disincentivized to care...I'm not sure I totally buy that as a reason that "expansion is bad".
Going from 32-36 teams increases the number of teams by 12.5%. It not only decreases the odds by a lot but it also strains the already limited talent pool of top 6 forwards, top 4 dmen, starting goalies etc….It also means we therefore have many more mediocre or very bad teams in the league which is less fun to watch.

Like I said in an earlier post, it was hard enough in a 30 team league to find enough highly skilled players. It’s going to lead to a lot of Junior Varsity-level rosters across the league and I’m not looking forward to it
 
No, it's quite simple: the greedy NHL owners want expansion money. You think the other team owners care at an existential level if some other random city has a sports franchise?

Yes I think they care strongly about which markets they add. Not due to existential caring about cities having a team or not, rather for self serving interests. The owners want expansion markets which are more likely to inflate the value of their own franchises and nationally generated shared revenues like TV and sponsorships.

The biggest U.S. markets without NHL teams are more likely to achieve that goal than smaller markets.
 
Talent pool is already too watered down, this feels like a cash grab with zero consideration about the quality of play. Gonna start looking like the 80's again where teams like the Oilers would beat the Mickey Mouse Devils 13-3. Then parity would eventually take over and tons of 3rd liners would be AHL quality instead of how it is with most 4th lines now


13-3? don't sell them short, the devils scored 4 goals that game
 
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4 more teams constanly in need of a number one goalie, a second line center, a left shooting dman , two top six forwards.
Jobs for Torts, Therrien, Julien and Boudreau.
How bout an entire Tank division?
 
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I'd love it, but we don't support hockey here much with shifting demographics. Though certainly based on just geography and population Brampton /Mississauga make sense as a location for Toronto #2. That includes highway access as well. Brampton really lacks a central social hub and any arena project would require a massive swatch of land to be developed from scratch. But there are some key spots where that land exists still.
Nvm
 
Honest question......why not Hartford. The metro area has a population of over 1 million people.

A return of the whalers would be sick. I want to see a complete rollback of former teams in the expansion.

Houston Aeros
Atlanta Thrashers - with better colour scheme and jerseys
Hartford Whalers
Quebec Nordiques

I am also not adverse to a second GTA team when someone needs to relocate.

Toronto Titans anyone?
A couple of reasons:
1) It's a market between markets. All the fans/TV/corporate money is already split up between NYC and Boston.
2) While the economic/corporate outlook is much better than it was when the team moved to Carolina it still is not great. Most of the wealth in CT is in the NYC suburbs and would not support a team in Hartford.
3) Most importantly, there is no prospective owner willing to cut the check and build the arena necessary for the NHL to go back.
 
I think relocating to Phoenix without any semblance of a plain going forward was a big mistake.

There was probably some sort of a plan to stay. I mean, there are other franchises that played in temporary rinks in their infancy. Ottawa, Carolina, Utah, San Jose, and Tampa are a few examples. Although, I suppose some of these cities already had shovels in the ground.

My understanding is that there was an opportunity to build their new home in Scottsdale, and once the group settled on Glendale, one of the partners decided to sell his stake. It sounds to me like this decision caused friction among the ownership group.
 
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Brampton would never support an NHL team. I've been living here since I was 18.

#1 All the Canadian born residents that watch hockey, well not all but maybe 99 percent, are loyal to the Leafs. That applies to the entire GTA area.

#2 Demographic has changed a lot in Brampton. I would say the city is probably well over 90% immigrant families or international students from India, many who don't care for hockey. Anticipating that is going to change soon though.

#3 I don't think any NHLer would want to live here to be honest with you lol it isn't the greatest city.

A team closer towards Oakville/Mississauga would make more sense, Mississauga IMO would be the best bet. Oakville is a pretty nice area, some high end restaurants, nice houses and areas. Bigger Canadian crowd that loves hockey and it's very close to Mississauga, with Brampton being on the other side.

But again, everyone in the GTA area is very loyal to the Leafs so I don't know how it would work.

Brampton would kind of be the equivalent of putting a team in Surrey, BC.

Brampton is producing a good chunk of professional athletes though, particularly in soccer.
 
Far too many. 20-24 would be ideal.

I can see the nhl being happy with 36 teams. The other leagues have more or less 30 American teams.

While the nhl may not admit it, I think they look at themselves as having 25 teams.... and then some Canadian teams.
 
Every team will have 1 scoring line, and 3 lines sitting around the net blocking shots because the talent gets so diluted. Should make for some pretty awful hockey.
 
Every team will have 1 scoring line, and 3 lines sitting around the net blocking shots because the talent gets so diluted. Should make for some pretty awful hockey.

Talent dilution might be a legitimate concern. At some point it will be oversaturated and maybe it will be the next wave of expansion.

To play devils advocate though, this was also a massive talking point during the late 90s expansion when they added Nashville, Minnesota, Columbus, and Atlanta.

Now the talent pool is considered as rich as it's ever been.
 
What other leagues have 36 teams? There are already too many. I could see some fans checking out when the chance of their team winning becomes even more miniscule. At some point, when you add enough teams, there isn't much point in watching.
 
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Screw it, let's just shoot for 83 teams. Everyone can play each other once a season. 15 rounds of playoff hockey will be sweet
 

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