Expansion by 2017 to Include Toronto, Vegas,Seattle and Quebec City?

[Goalie]

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2014/08/26/nhl-expanding-to-las-vegas-is-a-done-deal-report

 

Discuss. 

[Mr Dee]

I'd prefer us to take back our Stanley Cup Trophy and only have a Canadian league with a Grandfather clause for Detroit, New York, Chicago and Boston as part of our league but, alas, who am I kidding?

No, I don't like the expansion idea.

Firstly, they should take care of the teams that are struggling and move them if they must, but ideally, they should cut back teams until the product resembles hockey again.

Oh, and less games that don't reach into June.

(and no interference challenge reviews)

[AtlanticRiderFan]

I like the idea of more teams, but WTF? A second Toronto team?

[iso_55]

They've been talking about this for awhile. Going to build an arena in Markham, ON. WTH, New York City area has 3 teams & LA area 2. 

[Jimmy Pop]

I get the economics, a potential billion + in expansion fees. But this would only further water down the game. Think the Jets bottom six sucks now?

[Mike]

34 teams, 84 game schedule then I assume?

[The Unknown Poster]

Sort of a good news bad news story.  Its good in the sense the economics makes sense and will create a cash windfall for the other teams including Winnipeg.  But man, it is going to further water down the talent pool.

 

And FOUR expansion drafts in a span of a couple of years?  Thats going to hurt a young team like the Jets....

[Goalie]

Apparently 2 teams will be moving, the guesses are florida moves to quebec city, they are already in the same division. One team moves to the west and the Toronto and probably Seattle get the expansion teams.. 32 teams apparently still, 16 west, 16 east. Anybodies guess as to who those 2 teams that move are but one would assume Florida has a good chance of being the one that goes to quebec city. 

[Guest]

I'm of an opinion that the NHL should actually contract not expand, but seeing as that's highly unlikely, going to 32 isn't too bad. Personally I think going to 34 with so many teams struggling off ice would be damaging not even mentioning how much more of the talent is diluted, 32 or less while relocating teams IMO is the way to go. Quebec City, Seattle, Portland should be looked at.

 

BTW where's this second team in Toronto going to play ?

The Markham arena has already been nixed.

[The Unknown Poster]

Im not so sure Bettman will give up on Florida.  Miami is a huge market.

 

The NHL is so absurdly anti-relocation compared to other leagues.  I guess thats good but if I was an owner Id want the money losing teams in better locations to up the revenue of the league and the value of the league (and my team).  if Im the PA, same thing.  higher revenue, higher cap.

 

Im very intrigued by Vegas.  I think it will be successful for many reasons not connected to a rabid fanbase.

[Goalie]

Miami might be a huge market but it's a market that doesn't care about hockey. They gave up on Atlanta, they will give up on Florida one day also.

 

Phoenix also has an out in their contract coming up too, Don't be surprised if Phoenix is on the way to Seattle. 

[The Unknown Poster]

The NHL didn't have a choice in Atlanta.

[Goalie]

The NHL didn't have a choice in Atlanta.

Yup and they might not have a choice with Florida and Or Phoenix moving also. 

[mfranc]

I like the idea of more teams, but WTF? A second Toronto team?

They could easily support a second team in the Toronto area. There are people who can't get into see the Leafs who would gladly go to watch another team in the area.

[bearpants]

I agree that NHL would actually benefit more from contraction rather than expansion... the talent pool is already too watered down and there are several markets that just don't work.... Florida and Phoenix are the obvious ones.... but Dallas struggles when the team isn't successful and SJ and Ana only work if the teams remain good... also I hate to admit it cuz of their storied history but NYI is a struggling franchise right now too.... whatever, we'll see what happens

[The Unknown Poster]

I'm not overly familiar with the ownership structure in Florida, but Atlanta was unique in that the owners controlled the arena and wanted nothing to do with hockey so there was nothing the NHL could do to enforce their rules about selling the team.  If there is an option in Florida to bring in new owners, the NHL would look at that first.  In Atlanta they had the real possibility of the team being folded.  Bettman also had a very good relationship with True North who were not only willing to take the Coyotes on a moments (15 minutes) notice when they werent ready for an NHL team but were also content to play "bad cop" in presenting a soft landing spot for the Coyotes which allowed the NHL to play hard ball with City of Glendale.  In a sense, Bettman owed Chipman one.  The Thrashers' situation was the perfect storm.  There is no other market or situation like that one currently.

[sweep the leg]

I hate the idea of expansion, but the league has pretty much set themselves up for it with the change in divisions. I'm sure they don't plan on having unbalanced divisions forever.

 

There will be a lot of new NHL jobs opening up. I played a bit of Junior 20 years ago. Maybe I still have a chance?

[iso_55]

Garth Rizutto may be able to play in a 34 team NHL. Maybe Fran Huck. He could skate.

[Guest]

I didn't even realize that it was this bad in Sunrise.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/12/florida-panthers-owner-calls-franchise-unsustainable

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2014/02/19/owner-says-florida-panthers-losing-100000-a-day

[Rids]

There was a guy in Vancouver a couple years ago that bought season tickets in Florida and even with flying in for a couple games it was cheaper than going to the same number of Canuck games. Plus each season ticket holder got a free jersey + other promotions. 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

They've been talking about this for awhile. Going to build an arena in Markham, ON. WTH, New York City area has 3 teams & LA area 2. 

Yeah but they're not called the NY Devils.

 

No 2nd team for GTA.

 

Seattle should have got a team the moment the Supersonics went to OKC.

 

Houston anyone?

[FrostyWinnipeg]

The NHL didn't have a choice in Atlanta.

Maybe if the team was good.

[Guest]

Seattle should have got a team the moment the Supersonics went to OKC.

It's too bad the Hansen group isn't interested in owning an NHL franchise.

With so many teams having issues, I wouldn't be surprised if we see the NHL in Seattle within the next 5 years, Quebec as well one would think.

 

"Sonics Arena" hockey configuration.

[HardCoreBlue]

I like the idea of more teams, but WTF? A second Toronto team?

I didn't want to derail any recent NHL thread, so this is the first post I could find about the Maple Leafs.

First, it probably would be a good idea to get the Maple Leafs right before any talk about expansion. Second, I'm going to draw a comparison between the current leafs with of all people Mike Kelly. I read in the press that the Leafs didn't do the ceremonial stick raise to their fans in last nights win against Tampa Bay. Dion Phaneuff (one of the most over rated defenseman BTW) said it was no disrespect to the fans, they just wanted to change things up. Change things up?They can even screw this up. This smacks of a Mike Kelly approach where you insulate yourself, behave in the way that suggests the only thing that matters to you is your immediate team forgetting the fact that they represent and have responsibility to much more than just their team. One of Mike Kelly's significant mistakes was suggesting to fans he didn't care about them and only his team (I won't even talk about the Media, with what Kessel recently did). If this Maple Leaf team thinks this strategy of 'changing things up' includes negating their responsibility to the fan base and the media, I'm sorry to report (not really sorry) that this will not help them win.  

[Rich]

The leafs are a very dysfunctional group right now. Getting to the point where they need to do a whole lot more then just fire the coach to shake things up.

Need to start trading and replacing their core. Phaneuf and Kessel are going down a path where they will be run out of town.