Went with:
Arizona
Buffalo
Carolina
Columbus
Florida
New Jersey
Long Island
Ottawa
Winnipeg
Yes, that's 9. I think only 9 actively suffer.
Really not sure how Montreal has any votes. They have 24 Cups or whatever the f*** and that's mostly because they spent decades as the *only* market. They never have been and never will be remotely unattractive to free agents.
With a couple of exceptions, I think the Canadian teams get overstated here in general. Yeah, it's cold. So what? When has there ever been a shortage of free agents willing to play for Canadian teams? Like Montreal, how Toronto has a single vote is beyond me. Do we not remember a certain star player crashing the boards multiple times because he would literally only go to Toronto?
I chose the Devils and Islanders because in terms of branding, it sucks having to compete with the Rangers as an option. We saw this with Panarin last summer. And the Devils were very interested in Jimmy Vesey back when that was a thing.
Ditto for the Panthers. Who wants to play for them when you can play for the Lightning? Yeah, they sign a bunch of guys every summer but there's a reason it's always a gaggle of third liners.