4. Old Trafford (Manchester, England)
Old Trafford in Manchester England. The sight lines would be amazing!!! #canucks
— Daryl Martens (@MartensDaryl) January 2, 2020
This was definitely the most creative idea I read and it’s one that I love. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a fan of Gary Bettman. But one of the few things he’s done well is he’s helped to expand the league globally. The league has held games in China, Finland, and Sweden in recent years.
England would be a nice place to host an outdoor hockey game because hockey’s growing nicely there. At the 2018 draft, we saw Liam Kirk become the first player born and trained in England to be drafted. There have been a fair number of players born in the United Kingdom who were trained elsewhere and became NHL players.
The NFL has had quite a bit of success having games in England. It took a while for it to grow, but now England is being seen as a potential location for an NFL team. I could certainly see the same thing happening for the NHL, albeit maybe not to the same degree.
Old Trafford is a historic and gorgeous stadium, making it the obvious choice to host a game in England. As far as a matchup, the great thing about hosting a game in England is you could go in so many different directions. However, I think sending “popular” teams over at first would be the right move. As much as I’m annoyed by their constant appearances in outdoor games, the Chicago Blackhawks are probably the right call to be one of the teams.