What would a 40 team NHL look like

[Sgt Schultz]

huh? explain how you figure this would work

I don't see anybody forking over $1B plus for a franchise with the condition that their team needs to qualify for the "bigs" every year, and if not, they are basically a minor league franchise for the following year. Imagine the impact on attendance alone .

I realize that is how the Premier League works, but I think trees will tap dance before that happens here.

 

[krutovsdonut]

huh? explain how you figure this would work

the european soccer system. the two worst teams in each conference are relegated to the ahl at the end of the season and the 4 best ahl teams are promoted to the nhl.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

the european soccer system. the two worst teams in each conference are relegated to the ahl at the end of the season and the 4 best ahl teams are promoted to the nhl.

the problem the OP HAS is there are leagues lower than the NHL/AHL.... THAT feed into those leagues

 

[krutovsdonut]

I don't see anybody forking over $1B plus for a franchise with the condition that their team needs to qualify for the "bigs" every year, and if not, they are basically a minor league franchise for the following year. Imagine the impact on attendance alone .

I realize that is how the Premier League works, but I think trees will tap dance before that happens here.

ok, if you want to monetize don't use the ahl. start your own nhl second division.

now you suddenly have 32 "new" franchises to sell to smaller cities and every one of them has the potential to be an nhl club someday. welcome quebec city, hamilton, rapid city and little rock.
thanks for the $500m and good luck.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

ok, if you want to monetize don't use the ahl. start your own nhl second division.

now you suddenly have 32 "new" franchises to sell to smaller cities and every one of them has the potential to be an nhl club someday. welcome quebec city, hamilton, rapid city and little rock.
thanks for the $500m and good luck.

no, u have 60+ BECAUSE U add 32 AHL and 29 ECHL

 

[LeProspector]

Terribly watered down and incredibly boring talent wise. I wouldn't watch it.

I don’t think so. There’s more than enough talent to supply a 40 team league.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

ok, if you want to monetize don't use the ahl. start your own nhl second division.

now you suddenly have 32 "new" franchises to sell to smaller cities and every one of them has the potential to be an nhl club someday. welcome quebec city, hamilton, rapid city and little rock.
thanks for the $500m and good luck.

It's still an asinine idea and 100% dead on arrival. Relegation doesn't work in North America, end of story.

The only reason it works for the Premier League is because the fandom there is like college football here. It is a pride in your city/team driven fandom that will show up no matter what. In pro sports here, it doesn't work like that. You arent going to get people to show up to watch a minor league

 

[Marlowe Syn]

I think there is enough global talent to ice a quality 40 team league. My three problems with that large of a league would be.

!). Trying to think of eight more markets that could viably support an NHL franchise.

2). Eight competent ownership groups to run an NHL ranchise. No Muerelos need apply. Even though he would.

3). This would make Bettman extremely happy.

 

[rogking65]

the european soccer system. the two worst teams in each conference are relegated to the ahl at the end of the season and the 4 best ahl teams are promoted to the nhl.

so a team gets promoted but they will have no players.You do realize that most of the players are under contract to parent club. So try again explaining how this will work

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Breezewood PA
Aberdeen MD
Wheeling WV
Washington PA
Chester PA
Grove City PA
Aliquippa PA
York PA

Basically I would create an all Pennsylvania / Pennsylvania adjacent division

 

[Megustaelhockey]

No one wants to play in Saskatchewan, and the Leafs would never allow another team in the GTA.

 

[Shocker]

We're doing a fine enough of shitshow in Finland with adding more teams in the Liiga, we don't also need NHL to start yoinking the last of the talent we have left over here.

 

[Sgt Schultz]

so a team gets promoted but they will have no players.You do realize that most of the players are under contract to parent club. So try again explaining how this will work

Even if we rule out the parent relationship, imagine an NHL team getting demoted. They still have the same dollars tied up in contracts, but now a fraction of the attendance to pay for them. There would have to be a lot of revenue sharing to keep the demoted teams from going into a death spiral.

 

[rogking65]

Even if we rule out the parent relationship, imagine an NHL team getting demoted. They still have the same dollars tied up in contracts, but now a fraction of the attendance to pay for them. There would have to be a lot of revenue sharing to keep the demoted teams from going into a death spiral.

And there are many other reasons this would not work. Imagine if Washington finished last....I don't think Ovi would be happy playing in the AHL for a year. And how would the draft work? How about 4 teams that get promoted are in western conference and 4 relegated are eastern. Do you do realignment every year.There are so many reasons that the relegation idea would not work. Poster clearly did not think this through

 

[rogking65]

So, where did Edmonton go?

they got relegated. McDavid get to play in AHL for the year

 

[krutovsdonut]

so a team gets promoted but they will have no players.You do realize that most of the players are under contract to parent club. So try again explaining how this will work

it was an idea. it quite obviously it would require a huge range of changes to implement. it's also quite obvious the changes could be made to work since the system i am proposing prevails all over europe in soccer.

 

[habdynasty]

Sheet

 

[HisNoodliness]

I think the biggest problem is the lack of elite hockey talent. There's a ton of AHL stars that would do fine as middle six wingers. There's enough grinders out there to fill 1000 NHL 4th lines. At any given time there's ~2 elite goalies, ~3 great goalies, 10 good goalies and a whole lot of mediocrity. There's about 15 teams worth of true first line/pairing talent.

Most teams would be severely lacking in some way, and I'm actually fine with that. What would suck is when someone manages to build a team with an elite core. Imagine what Edmonton would do to the league if everyone had similarly mediocre depth and one less great piece. McDavid can nearly carry a team single-handedly in a league that's 25% more dense in talent.

 

[Flukeshot]

If we treat this as a thought experiment more than anything the question becomes closer to how would a 40 team NHL work. And I think we will get there eventually.

I don't see promotion/relegation happening as it directly impacts franchise value too much.

It would need to be closer to the MLB model where the two leagues/conferences have little overlap during the regular season and then just meet in the Cup finals.

 

[krutovsdonut]

Even if we rule out the parent relationship, imagine an NHL team getting demoted. They still have the same dollars tied up in contracts, but now a fraction of the attendance to pay for them. There would have to be a lot of revenue sharing to keep the demoted teams from going into a death spiral.

it is fun to imagine it. somehow all the soccer leagues in europe manage those hurdles. more teams grows the sport and there is great in season drama to all the pain and joy of relegation and promotion. it also completely transforms a second division into a place with hope and aspiration. imagine all the ahl players thinking they might make it to the show by promotion and how that might affect the play.

and if you really want to make it interesting, allow the top 2 promoted teams in the second division into the stanley cup playoffs.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

it is fun to imagine it. somehow all the soccer leagues in europe manage those hurdles. more teams grows the sport and there is great in season drama to all the pain and joy of relegation and promotion. it also completely transforms a second division into a place with hope and aspiration. imagine all the ahl players thinking they might make it to the show by promotion and how that might affect the play.

and if you really want to make it interesting, allow the top 2 promoted teams in the second division into the stanley cup playoffs.

except 500-600 players have gone from the ECHL to the NHL....

 

[Honour Over Glory]

There's a reason why the NFL, MLB, and NBA haven't expanded as much as the NHL has and it's because of finding the right markets vs just finding something new that might work and then slowly watch it fizzle out for decades.

NBA - 30 Teams
MLB - 30 Teams
NFL - 32 Teams
NHL - 32 Teams

I think at most, 34 would be fine, but even at 32 there's been issues, namely the fact that the NHL seems to want to protect some teams vs others and allowing other teams to stay and figure things out or forcing them to figure it to stay like the Coyotes for years, Oilers, etc. Yet a team like the Thrashers were royally screwed and allowed to move quickly. I'd be fine seeing Atlanta rightfully get their team back and then another Western Team and call it a day for at least 20yrs before they expand again.

Until then, fix the pathetic coverage the sport has and the awful streaming packages available. Fix what's already there first.

 

[tucker3434]

Promotion/relegation will never happen. Nobody wants it. If you had European soccer clubs currently in the top tier vote on whether relegation should exist, they'd vote it down too. Nobody is gong to vote themselves out of a position of power.

I don't think there will be any noticeable drop in talent by the time we actually get to 40 teams, which will take a long time. Unless of course, they do something stupid and try to drop 4 expansions on us all at once. Do them in pairs with a ~7 year buffer, and it'll be fine.

 

[Digitalbooya]

Wisconsin still not having a team in a 40 team NHL would be tragic.

 

[DustyDangler]

Average AHL arena capacity is 9,816. This alone would cause relegation/promotion to be a non-starter.

The goalie argument about talent dilution is valid and NHL teams are due for a rethink in how they approach this position. Skaters, coaches, management etc., there are plenty and this is not a real concern.

I suspect people are not considering with each introduction into new markets, young fans are born, youth programs are created and local development occurs. Young athletes who would not have been exposed to hockey, see games, become fans and go on to become 60+ goal scorers in the NHL. Sure, you need more players but, the pool to choose from increases.