Which top ten NHL cities are the most hockey crazy right now?

[Martinez]

Regarding Detroit. So the team isn't going to be that good for awhile, but where are we going to go? What other Michigan team is so good right now?

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

Toronto
Montreal
Vancouver
Calgary
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Ottawa
Detroit
Twin Cities
Boston

 

[thebigbea]

Vancouver still top 10... still lots of ppl like the Canucks just drop in attendance... team sucks and ppl have less $ to spent nowadays.. doesn't help when average house cost more than a million now..

Edmonton and Winnipeg for sure up there.. but there is nothing else really to do in the city except cheering for hockey

 

[vcanuck]

Why are people putting Vancouver in this list? Everytime I go there it seems like the Canucks are an afterthought.

[mod]

it doesnt matter if the Canucks suck right now, the city is hockey crazy 24/7.

we have the most active main nhl forum (CDC) in the league and a very active here on hfboards.

3rd among all Canadian teams with the most twitter followers behind original 6 teams Tor and Mtl. Nearly 300k more than the 4th most Edm.

we had the longest consecutive game sell out streak at one point at 408.

butttttt yea other than that Canucks are not relevant

 

[vcanuck]

I think its ridiculous to claim any Canadian city besides Vancouver is more hockey mad than another. You're literally arguing about market sizes essentially. I'd put Edmonton first cause their fans stuck through one of the worst streaks of franchise failure in pro sports history but besides that they're all the same. Hockey is by far and away the #1 sport in Canada and its cities literally shut down during playoff runs.

i keep reading these comments. although its true, what else would Edmontonians do during winter other than watch hockey or the grey cup?

places like Edmonton/Calgary/Winnipeg have good attendence is because quite frankly, nothing else to do in the city during the cold months

MTL/TOR/VAN there are more options...

 

[LeafFever]

I'm basing it on activity on TSN, Sportsnet, Leafs Nation, and other media outlets where Leaf activity dropped.

Look at Leaf home games, hardly the most ruckus of crowds even when the team is doing well.

They have passionate fans no doubt but they're not top 3 IMO.

You're certainly not basing it on attendance. The team sold out nightly while being dead last in the NHL and had the league's highest ticket prices. Teams that don't register with fans as you stated don't do that.

And really, TSN and SN covered the Leafs more than any team even when they were 30th. So I'm not sure what you are using to base your opinion.

 

[sr edler]

All the Canadian cities plus the American cities that are closest to Canada.

 

[Dying Alive]

These threads are always great. A bunch of people weighing in on cities they've never been to as if they're experts.

Cry bandwagon all you want, anyone who doesn't have the back to back champs with consistently the highest or second highest tv ratings in the US and a 500+ game sellout streak in their top ten of crazy hockey cities RIGHT NOW is being deliberately ignorant.

Philly, Toronto, Nashville, and Montreal should be the top 4.

Philly is weird though. Comcast owns the team after their owner passed away. Philly is typically only on stations owned by Comcast and you can stream their games for free.

Pitt should not be on this list. I have never seen a local game blacked out for a playoff team in any sport and every game besides the Stanley cup game was blacked out for local stations in Pittsburgh. I guess the city is trying its hardest to milk the revenue from station deals/ticket revenue and stuff like that before pitt starts losing and they lose a lot of the fan base.

Montreal has always been a hot bed for hockey and it will continue even if they fall down to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Nashville is a new comer where hockey just looks fun to be in the stands for.

You are full of ****. There were no blacked out hockey games in Pittsburgh. Anything after the first round was aired on NBSCN because of the deal that the NHL had with NBC, not because of a lack of interest or anything the city is doing.

Did you think nobody else on this board was familiar with Pittsburgh and the way the hockey games aired here and wouldn't dispute your ridiculous, made-up claim? The Stanley Cup game didn't air on the local station either, it was on NBCSN, so you didn't even get that much right.

 

[Cawz]

http://http://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2017

Attendance last year, even with Vancouver on a huge decline we still had better numbers than Edmonton. Try again to say the city isn't hockey crazed.

Because of a bigger arena. Details details...

 

[TheZodiac]

Toronto is Leafs crazy, not hockey crazy. The Marlies and GTA OHL teams do not draw very well.

 

[Connor]

You're certainly not basing it on attendance. The team sold out nightly while being dead last in the NHL and had the league's highest ticket prices. Teams that don't register with fans as you stated don't do that.

And really, TSN and SN covered the Leafs more than any team even when they were 30th. So I'm not sure what you are using to base your opinion.

What are you even arguing?

Oilers sold out with a much smaller market, same with the Jets.

As I also said, Sportsnet and TSN own the Leafs.

The Leafs are one of the oldest teams in North America and Toronto has almost 5 times the population of Edmonton and 7 times the population of Winnipeg.

I am talking about most passionate fans on average, you're talking about market place; these are two completely different things.

Toronto ranking 4th on my list with a much larger market is pretty crazy... almost as crazy as fans of the other 3 higher ranked teams get for their clubs.

 

[Connor]

i keep reading these comments. although its true, what else would Edmontonians do during winter other than watch hockey or the grey cup?

places like Edmonton/Calgary/Winnipeg have good attendence is because quite frankly, nothing else to do in the city during the cold months

MTL/TOR/VAN there are more options...

What are the other options in Toronto? Raptors?

 

[yzerman]

My Updated list

1,Toronto
2,Montreal
3,Edmonton
4,Winnipeg
5,Minnesota
6,Pittsburgh
7,Calgary
8,Buffalo
9,Boston
10,Philadelphia

Just outside looking in, Ottawa,Nashville,Vancouver,,Detroit,New York.

 

[Cawz]

i keep reading these comments. although its true, what else would Edmontonians do during winter other than watch hockey or the grey cup?

places like Edmonton/Calgary/Winnipeg have good attendence is because quite frankly, nothing else to do in the city during the cold months

MTL/TOR/VAN there are more options...

Lets be honest here. Most people in all those cities do the same thing in the winter. Work all day, commute home, eat and spend time with their families, watch tv or veg out. Besides the Raptors in Toronto (which isnt a huge draw), Montreal or Vancouver has nothing that those other cities have that brings people out of their homes when its cold out. Maybe a movie, or a pub or dinner night out, or mall or shopping, or skiing or other winter activities. Theres not much difference. And lets also be honest here, the weather is crappy in every Canadian city during the winter, just to varying degrees (pun intended).

 

[djpatm]

Yeah I find it funny when people from Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver brag that there is more to do in the winter....

What exactly?

Calgary has the mountains, bars, clubs, restaurants, theaters and shopping just like they do? Sure they might have more options but in the winter you're still either staying home or going out to eat and drink, going shopping, going to a show/play/movie or going to play winter or indoor sports....

In the summer the bigger cities are more vibrant, sure, with more festivals and outdoor attractions, but in the winter during hockey season, that's not the case.

 

[THall4]

What are the other options in Toronto? Raptors?

Or Vancouver for that matter...during hokcey season they have the exact same amount of pro team playing as Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg

Canucks and Lions

MLS season ends 10/22..Canucks and Leafs are roughly 7/8 games into the season

 

[djpatm]

Or Vancouver for that matter...during hokcey season they have the exact same amount of pro team playing as Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg

Canucks and Lions

MLS season ends 10/22..Canucks and Leafs are roughly 7/8 games into the season

You can try 100 sushi restaurants instead of 50 though!

 

[THall4]

Yeah I find it funny when people from Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver brag that there is more to do in the winter....

What exactly?

Calgary has the mountains, bars, clubs, restaurants, theaters and shopping just like they do? Sure they might have more options but in the winter you're still either staying home or going out to eat and drink, going shopping, going to a show/play/movie or going to play winter or indoor sports....

In the summer the bigger cities are more vibrant, sure, with more festivals and outdoor attractions, but in the winter during hockey season, that's not the case.

Agreed. Do these people think we hibernate during the winter?

 

[LeafFever]

I really hate the "Population" excuse for Toronto. It is the most multi-cultural city in the entire world. A huge portion of the population never grew up with hockey and are interested in other sports.
Toronto had no issues selling out for decades when it was not the biggest city in Canada.

 

[pvr]

Considering it takes a lot of the people in say Northern Macomb & Oakland Counties, roughly 45 minutes to get to the arena (without traffic), sure there are always going to be empty seats to start a game during a weekday game.

Look, I go to a lot of games, and have over the past almost twenty years. Practice season tickets. I come from the West Lakeshore of Michigan, and make it to games before the "locals". Usually 2.5 to 3 hours of travel time one way with traffic (travelling through three or four metro areas), sometimes more if there's construction. I'm there for the puck drop, and when my kids were younger, for the warm up too. It's amazing how many empty seats there are until well into the first period--ten minutes even, weekends too. Part of this I think is due to the parking bottleneck, and I hope that's improved with the new arena. Most of it is simply apathy.

I've been to weeknight games typically vs the Hawks (the only weeknight team I'll travel to see), and the number of Hawks jerseys in the stands is really quite a lot (me included!), even during the heyday of the Wings and the down time of the Hawks. Against any O6 team, the stands are replete with opposition sweaters. It's always been like that, though somewhat less but still apparent even during the playoffs. It seems to me that a lot of the noise in the arena is an exceptionally loud sound system within a small volume old school arena.

Overall, it certainly will be interesting to see the differences in Caeser's this year.

 

[yzerman]

Which is the top ten teams right now in form of hockey interest/hockey crazy before next season starts?

Las Vegas do they qualify on the top ten list?

Toronto Nr 1 right now with Tavares signing?

Is Montreal even a top 5?

And Buffalo with drafting Dahlin i bet is really hockey crazy now

What is your top ten list?

Here comes My contribution most hockey Crazy cities right now

1,Toronto
2,Winnipeg
3,Edmonton
4,Washington
5,Buffalo
6,Montreal
7,Las Vegas
8,Calgary
9,Minnesota
10,Boston

 

[JoeThorntonsRooster]

I went to a game in Vancouver and a game in Vegas this season. Vegas, at this very moment, is waaay more hockey crazy. I hate them as much as anybody, but they are totally buzzing; they are absolutely top-10 until their team falls back into the mediocrity in which they were supposed to enter the NHL.

 

[McFlash97]

Per Capita, Edmonton produces the most NHL players and also is able to hang with the big boys when its comes to the size of its fanbase in and outside of its region. So in this regard Edmonton should be at #1. Worldwide the Gretzky, McDavid factor also plays to thier favour.

 

[Notsince67]

The city of Toronto always pays attention to the Leafs, regardless of how they're doing, but there is no fervor when the team is hopeless. The fervor is coming back, but it's not yet at the level it was in the 90's or early 00's, when the Leafs had semi contenders during the Sundin years. When the team is playing at the level of at least a conference finalist, the city is a fun place to be for a Leafs fan and also the Leafs players.

The city might be at that level again as soon as next playoffs, but if not next year, it'll be there soon. That's also around the time that local teens who chose to cheer for another team like Pittsburgh become Leafs fans, and act like they've been Leafs fans all along. Which is a good thing, considering that on some unconscious level, they always were.

Even when Toronto was scraping dog crap off its shoe, the numbers were still relatively robust. The leafs have been able to lock out any real competition from Southern Ontario as far as expansion goes. Most of the fans sit in the outskirts (larger population). It is the most underserved hockey market in the world. There is a lot of hockey being played from Hamilton to Oshawa to Barrie. All those fans

 

[Notsince67]

A few years back I crunched the numbers on players and cities, and I found that Edmonton produced the most 'current' NHL players and Thunder Bay produced the most players per capita. I went through each team and counted. So, I would have to disagree with the previous poster's last point as well (i.e. [Toronto] produces the most NHL players).

edit: I found the following on the bleacher report, about the 2011/12 season. It doesn't fully support my argument, but it does shed some light... yet, considering the differences in population, it seems Edmonton should come out ahead. Mind you, based on population, Thunder Bay is tops for producing NHL players.

Canadians currently represent 53.3 percent of all NHL players, which is a pretty incredible number. That’s over half the league. But which Canadian city has the most hometown heroes in the NHL?

Based on the 2011-12 rosters, we have a tie! The distinction is shared by both Toronto, Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta!

That’s right. Fifty-four players that are currently active on NHL teams come from either Toronto or Edmonton. This tie proves that a city’s population or resources does not dictate its hockey success; talent does. Edmonton only has a third of the population of Toronto, yet both cities have spurred 27 players to the NHL.

On my Thunder Bay point, I found the following that supports my findings: Pound for Pound, What is Canada's Best Hockey Town?

"Thunder Bay regularly churns out at least one NHL player (often more) for every 15,000 residents, a remarkable feat." By comparison, Edmonton produces 1 player per 45,000 or so, and Toronto 1 player per +100,000.

The demographics of Toronto have changed. New immigrants or double income no kids. Many of the players come from the suburbs where more people like to raise families. Many do however go and play in the GTHA in Toronto if they are good (McDavid, Tavares et al)