What the NHL Could Look Like with 36 or 40 Teams
The topic of expansion in the NHL has been something everyone has talked about since the league was first founded.
The NHL was founded in 1917, but most people constitute it’s true beginnings with that of the Original Six era which started in 1942 consisting of the Montreal Canadians, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, and the New York Rangers. This lasted for 25 years and in 1967 the league decided to expand to 12.
Now in were the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and St. Louis Blues. Over the next 54 years, the NHL would expand up and down the east and west coast of North America and Canada as well as cover spots all throughout the central and midwestern areas whether that be through expansion or teams moving.
That leads us to where we are today, with Vegas and Seattle both getting teams in 2016 — started play in 2017 — and 2018 — Seattle starts in this upcoming season.
Vegas was an immediate success with the city clinging to their new sports franchise and almost overnight becoming a ‘hockey town’. I imagine we’ll see the same happen with Seattle, as season tickets sold out in literally hours.
This brings back the discussion of further expansion. The NHL has stated multiple times over the years of wanting to expand fully to either 36 or even 40 teams — both with different scenarios. I for one think that 32 is a nice round number though and works perfectly; I don’t want to expand beyond it.
But before I get into why I don’t want more than 32 teams, let’s take a look at how the NHL could look with either 36 or even 40 teams.
40 Teams
We’ll start with 40 because the scenario that has been laid out is the one that I think may be the easiest to debunk and the most fun to think about.
It’s a crazy idea to me, but the talk of 40 NHL teams is not one of 8 additional U.S. and Canadian cities, it’s talk over expanding into Europe.
The NHL has apparently discussed the possibility of introducing a European division that would consist of 8 teams overseas that would play the teams in North America as well as compete in the playoffs — like every other team.
We’ll get into the likely complications of that, but let’s check out what cities the NHL could expand to here.
Cities
So, there are in my opinion 4 cities that I think would be a for sure lock, and 8 others that they could consider as well. The 4 definite cities are:
- Helsinki, Finland
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Moscow, Russia
- Prague, Czech Republic (Czechia)
Those 4 areas make up nearly 25% of current and active players and are massive hotbeds for hockey, regularly being competitive on the national stage.
The other 8 possibilities to make up the remaining 4 spots would be:
- Berlin, Germany
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Madrid, Spain
- Paris, France
- London, England
- Riga, Latvia
- Oslo, Norway
- Bratislava, Slovakia
Now the NHL could go straight reliable for hockey fans and give us Finland, Sweden, Russia, Czechia, Latvia, Norway, Slovakia, and Germany. But I think the approach should be half-and-half.
You make the expansion about getting into definite hotbeds as well as major cities in Europe to drive interest. So in my NHL Europe, the division is as follows:
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Helsinki, Finland
- Moscow, Russia
- Prague, Czechia
- London, England
- Madrid, Spain
- Berlin, Germany
- Paris, France
You have those top 4 be your likely immediate successes, and likely Germany as well, and you work to expand hockey into England, Spain, and France. It would be absolutely wild, but a lot of fun.
Like could you imagine a soccer — football — like atmosphere at an indoor hockey game in London? It would be amazing.
But I don’t really like the idea of expanding overseas like this, why?
It’s plain stupid.
I understand wanting to grow the game, believe me, as a Texan who grew up playing ice hockey until I was 18 — not football or baseball — I understand wanting to grow the game in places it doesn’t seem likely.
But part of what makes the NHL great for it’s fans is being able to watch any game, any time. You think European fans would like having to watch their team play roughly 80% or more of their games in the middle of the night because they’re over in North America? Same goes for the fans over here; I’d hate having to miss a Stars game because well, they played at 1:30pm here and I had to work.
Now you might think travel would be an issue, but it really isn’t. The schedule could be set up in such a way that each team in North America plays in Europe once and vise versa. But that doesn’t take away from how frustrating it would be to try and watch the games.
Additionally, expansion into Europe would make it feel — at least to me — as a separate NHL. Being that those 8 teams are overseas would make me feel like they aren’t really apart of what’s going on here, with the other 32. It also makes the playoffs a bit weird…
While travel during the season isn’t a problem, are we really going to make teams travel overseas potentially 5 times over a playoff series that can span over a couple of weeks? That’s a lot.
Overall, it’s a fun idea, but far less likely to me.
36 Teams
Now the idea of 36 teams is far more likely and would keep the NHL in Canada and the United States, so there are no logistical issues when it comes to scheduling.
Now you might be asking, well, why not just say, 33 or 34? That’s because it took us a while to get to 8 teams across 4 divisions — we don’t want to go back to uneven divisions and conferences.
So, I’m going to name four cities that would be getting an NHL team in this scenario — two in the west and two in the east. There are a few things I looked at when it came down to who got them:
- Population
- Other Sports
- Easy Rivalries
We’re not expanding into an unknown area or a small city because well, that doesn’t make sense. I also wanted to pick cities potentially with other sports there as — outside of Vegas — it’s pretty difficult to build hockey from the ground up in a place where sports aren’t a thing. The last thing is easy rivalries; the NHL just LOVED talking about the immediate rivalry Seattle has with Vancouver because of their proximity, so I imagine they’d want to continue that trend.
So, who are the lucky four?
Houston, Texas
This one is pretty easy. Houston was rumored to be the 31st and 32nd expansion team before Vegas and Seattle got them. Additionally, Houston is the rumored home of the current Arizona Coyotes if they were to ever relocate.
Houston is a hotbed of sports. They have the Rockets in the NBA, the Astros in the MLB, and the Texans in the NFL. It would be incredibly easy for that city to grab ahold of an NHL team.
This also obviously creates a natural rivalry with Dallas; the battle of I-45. It’s an easy call here and if the NHL expands again, I imagine this is their next stop.
Kansas City, Missouri
Another city that was rumored to get an expansion team before they were given to Vegas and Seattle.
Kansas city does a lot here. It covers two states — Kansas and Missouri — and creates an immediate rivalry with the Blues just to east of I-70. Additionally, there’s the Royals in the MLB and the Chiefs in the NFL.
Get those VERY loud Chiefs fans in an 18,000 seat indoor arena and watch the roof explode. It would be a great atmosphere.
So with Kansas City and Houston getting the two teams in the west, I would move both Colorado and Arizona to the Pacific Division and have the two new teams logically be in the Central.
Quebec City, Quebec — Canada
Moving to the east now is the most obvious and glaring one. If there’s one thing NHL fans have wanted for a VERY long time, it’s to bring back the Nordiques.
The Nordiques were a franchise in the NHL from 1979–1995 and ultimately relocated to Colorado to form the now Avalanche. The move was highly criticized as it was done because the team wasn’t making money in what was the smallest market in the NHL and they had begged the Quebec Premier for government funding on a new arena which would likely generate new revenue, but it was turned down.
It’s been 26 years since we’ve seen them in the league, and if the NHL expands, it’s time to bring them back. Times have changed and while yes, still a very small market, I imagine they generate more revenue today then they did in the mid 90s.
No, they don’t have any other professional sports teams or a high population, but what they got is what would be once again, one of the best rivalries in all of sports with Montreal.
The point here is that the fans of the NHL — not just Quebec — want the Nordiques back. Slot them into the Atlantic division and you now have 10 teams there and a nice even 8 teams in Canada.
Miami or Jacksonville, Florida
My last spot goes to Florida. Yes, I know, they’ve already got two teams, but hear me out.
The largest state on the west coast — not including Alaska — California, has 3 teams: one in the northish — San Jose, one in the centralish — LA, and one in the southish, or at least claims everything below it — Anaheim. Let’s do something similar here in Florida, the largest state on the east coast.
You’ve got two options:
- Jacksonville. There’s your north Florida, maybe Shahid Khan can own the team, everyone’s favorite owner.
- Miami. Yeah, I know the Panthers are in south Florida, but Miami is the REAL south Florida. Can you imagine a jersey that is black, neon blue, and neon pink? AMAZING.
My ideal situation here is to move the Panthers to Jacksonville, of course being bought by Khan to do so, and then plop a team in Miami.
Having Khan buy the Panthers and moving them to Florida means they never, ever, run out of money. Miami has the NFL — Dolphins, MLB — Marlins, and the NBA — Heat. A hockey team I think would easily fit in here, and it would allow the NHL to tap into that Cuban and Puerto Rican market.
You also know that the NHL would market the ever loving crap out of a team in south beach. It’s just a shame they couldn’t be like the Miami Nights, but maybe they could literally just be called the Miami Vice — okay I’m getting carried away here.
Anyways, My new Miami team also slots into the Atlantic along with the relocated Jacksonville Panthers. To facilitate this, Boston and Buffalo move to the Metropolitan Division.
Not Atlanta
Just have to get this out there. Yeah I know Atlanta checks every single box, but we’ve done this twice now. The Flames — moved to Calgary, and the Thrashers — Moved to Winnipeg, now the Jets.
Hockey just doesn’t work here.
Keep it at 32
So there are a lot of reasons actually to expand: Grow the game, more money, etc. But there are a lot of reasons to not.
For one, I really like that the playoffs are now at a nice 50% acceptance policy. 16 teams get in, 16 teams stay out. On top of that, 4 divisions with 8 teams also sounds fantastic! I don’t want 5 divisions with 8 teams — one being in Europe — or 4 divisions with 10 teams.
Expanding further also will do one very crucial bad thing: dilute the talent pool.
When there were only 21 teams in the league back in 1979, every team was just absolutely stacked and that created a pretty un-competitive atmosphere. Every team was good and since well, 16 got into the playoffs, they had nothing to play for throughout the season.
It was a long road to get to 30 and now 32 and with the way the NHL operates, it keeps the talent pool good and fresh. Unlike the MLB where there is no cap and the good teams are mearly determined by how much money they spend, or the NBA where the good teams are strictly determined by which players are good friends and want to play together. The NHL has a strict cap and an incredible way to have consistent underdogs and new great teams every few years.
When there are more teams, that means there are less good players for teams to acquire and more of a status quo across the entire league. I don’t like that.
Anyways, I could go on and on about this, but I thought this would be a fun topic to get out there given the recent Expansion Draft we had. I’ll have another hockey article up in a few days or so, roughly after free agency has been open for a week detailing what all happened.
Let me know what you think about the possibility of further expansion.
