The NHL ten years ago was a 30 team league, and now they have added two teams in the past decade taking their total number to 32, but is that where expansion ends?
During the NHL media tour on Tuesday deputy commissioner Bill Daly indicated that their could be future expansion in the NHL. While Daly told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski that expansion is not the priority for the NHL, he did say there could be a path down the line.
"“Having said that, particularly with the success of the Vegas and Seattle expansions, there are more people who want to own professional hockey teams.”"
Obviously the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights might make potential owners more willing to buy an NHL Franchise, but at the same time that is not the right move for the league.
The problem with another expansion franchise in the NHL.
I think a lot of fans want to see hockey back in Atlanta. I think a lot of fans would love to see Quebec have a team. There are a ton of markets out there that totally could rock an NHL market, but it can’t happen through expansion.
The NHL going from 30 to 32 teams made sense. They now have an even number of teams per division with 16 teams vying for eight playoff spots in each conference. Additionally each conference is made up of two division with eight teams in each division. Adding another team would throw off the math and make it very hard to come back to the right amount of teams in each conference.
Additionally another reason why expansion is not the right move for the league right now has to do with the market of some of the current NHL teams. The Arizona Coyotes are currently in the midst of a long process to find their new stadium. Additionally the Ottawa Senators have been going through a long process trying to sell their team.
Expanding to add more teams with problems still hurting the current 32 teams would do more harm than good. If the league wants to expand it cannot be for another ten plus years. The league is sitting at a good number right now with 32 teams, and there is no guarantee that expansion would yield the same results as it did for Vegas winning the Stanley Cup after six seasons.