NHLers Asked Where League Should Expand; Results Pretty Consistent

When asked by ESPN where they think the NHL should expand, many players said Quebec City, which hasn’t had a team since the Quebec Nordiques left for Colorado in 1995. Jaques Boissinot/AP

By Jeff Pini

October 18, 2014

3 minutes to read

In an ESPN video asking a number of current NHL players where they think it would be best for the league to put expansion teams, two localities essentially dominated the conversation.

Of the 10 players shown in the video, seven of them said the NHL should place a team in Seattle, while six believed that Quebec City should get a franchise.

Bruins center Patrice Bergeron was among the players that said both cities should get one, along with Nashville’s Seth Jones, Montreal’s Max Pacioretty, and Vancouver’s Kevin Bieksa, who also believes a second team should be added in Toronto.

St. Louis’ T.J. Oshie, Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson, and Anaheim’s Cam Fowler answered just Seattle; Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon responded with only Quebec City.

The last player shown, Arizona’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson, provided two cities quite different from the other nine players polled. The Swedish defenseman said that Las Vegas should get a team, along with his hometown Tingsryd, Sweden. Sorry Oliver, but the latter probably won’t happen.

Back in August, it was reported that the league would expand by four teams by 2017, placing new teams in Las Vegas, Seattle, Toronto, and Quebec City. The NHL denied that any expansion was already a done deal, with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly saying that the league was “interested in discussing the possibilities, but there is no plan moving forward in terms of expansion.’’

Toronto, the largest media market in Canada, has been rumored to be the site of a possible second team for some time, while Quebec City hosted an NHL franchise, the Nordiques, from 1979-1995, when they moved to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche.

Las Vegas has never been home to a major professional hockey team – or any professional team in any of North America’s major four sports – but it hosted the NBA All-Star game in 2007, while the city has also held the annual NHL Awards, most recently in 2014.

Seattle’s most famous hockey franchise was the Metropolitans, who played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1915-1924 and have the distinction of being the first US franchise to win the Stanley Cup, which they accomplished in 1917.

But an issue raised has been how viable these franchises would fare in their respected cities, hoping to avoid the same problems that plagued the original Winnipeg Jets, Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and Atlanta Thrashers, who all were forced to relocate over the past two decades.

According to FiveThirtyEight.com’s Neil Paine, two of the proposed teams – Toronto and Quebec City – would most likely be able to turn a profit after expansion, while Seattle and Las Vegas would find it more difficult, due to the low number of NHL fans the website estimated in each market.

But with a lengthy pro sports history, plans for a new arena in the works, and a natural rival located less than 150 miles to the north, Seattle should be a strong candidate for NHL expansion. But perhaps four teams is too many to expand by right now, and the league should first try just two – Seattle and Quebec City –increasing the number of teams to 32.

The league could then align into four divisions of eight and balance the current uneven placing of 16 Eastern Conference and 14 Western Conference franchises, while, more importantly, bring the highest level of hockey in North America to two cities that truly deserve to have teams of their own.