New American City Emerging As Favorite For Next NHL Team
With more discussions of the NHL expanding past 32 teams, new cities have thrown their hat into the ring and American cities appear to be getting priority.
American Cities Being Favorited Over Canadian Cities
With NHL expansion being widely successful over recent years, new cities are looking into the possibility of having an NHL franchise come to town. There is also a possibility of a franchise such as the Arizona Coyotes relocating as well.
One of the newest cities to express interest is Sacramento. Sacramento, which is a California city, seems sort of impractical for a new franchise especially considering that there are three other California NHL teams (LA Kings, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks).
The owner of the Sacramento Kings, Vivek Ranadivé, who is currently looking to purchase the Ottawa Senators, has got NHL insiders and executives wondering if Sacramento could be a hockey market.
With there already being an arena that could seat over 17,000 people, it would take some changes to the infrastructure to put a hockey rink in the arena but this is not a terribly difficult task given how there are many arenas that house NHL and NBA teams.
One major question that needs to be brought up is the viability of having more American teams introduced before other Canadian markets like Quebec get a team. It is clear that Quebec could support an NHL team but it appears that they are on the back burner because of U.S. markets such as Sacramento or Salt Lake City.
With the success for the Kraken and Golden Knights, it makes sense how the NHL would want to further expand but they must take history into account before making too many brash decisions.
| POLL | ||
MAI 15 | 388 ANSWERS New American City Emerging As Favorite For Next NHL Team Is it right for the NHL to expand further in the U.S. before giving Quebec a team? | ||
| Yes | 102 | 26.3 % |
| No | 286 | 73.7 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Zachary Werenski | 2 | 3 | 5 | |
| Sean Monahan | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Jesper Bratt | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Frederick Gaudreau | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Jack Hughes | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Nikita Kucherov | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Mackenzie Weegar | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Kent Johnson | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Alexander Wennberg | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Mitchell Chaffee | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Anthony Cirelli | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Matthew Coronato | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Marcus Foligno | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Nick Foligno | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Conor Geekie | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Brandon Hagel | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Stefan Noesen | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Corey Perry | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Igor Sharangovich | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Dmitry Voronkov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 19 | 16 | 3 | - | 32 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||