The Seattle TV market is the 12th largest in the USA
2 Likes
Canucks will welcome them. A natural rival and ease the worst travel schedule in the league.
2 Likes
It's all about the media deals .
They want more US markets for a larger US deal someday .
2 Likes
Worst travel? Since when?
Many teams fly more miles every single year (incl the Calgary Flames mentioned above in this thread, the Edmonton Oilers, the Chicago Black Hawks, heck even the Florida Panthers being shoved into a division where they clearly do not belong travel more than Vancouver does every season)
Arizona btw is now the new champion for worst schedule ever. They had it tough in Pacific but shunting over to Central (to make room for Kraken) will vastly increase their travel.
Ah but letās not feel sorry for them, for as we have belaboured here for years, the Arizona Coyotes should have been moved a long time ago and well before they missed paychecks as well.
So now they can eat it with those miles in the air.
1 Like
Arizona is (like Seattle) a team that the NHL commissioner obviously wants in the league
There is no reason for them to be here
Well I disagree on Seattle, but otherwise of course anybody Iāve run across here and beyond wants that team in Arizona moved and many agree back to Canada too.
In fact I argue that Canada could use two more teams, moved from lagging markets in the US (i.e. Florida Panthers as another example), but weāve been over that the opponent is Bettman and I donāt see this changing until heās mercifully and finally gone after delivering his best through about 2014.
2 Likes
Certainly I did not mean for this season.
If Iām incorrect here thanks for pointing that out.
There are many more hockey relevant cities in the USA
Milwaukee WI had applied
Heck even Baltimore is a major league city, used to have pro hockey, and would fit easily into Metro division
The entire reason places such as Quebec and other eastern teams are being blocked is because they donāt want to force teams like Detroit and Toronto back into western (or central) divisions
Places like Nashville are more east than some of the teams already in the eastern conference (and Nash would slot perfectly into a division with the Florida & Tampa teams for proximity; certainly closer than Winnipeg or Colorado)
1 Like
This season is odd; the travel distances (measured in miles usually) are referring to last 5 or so years
The distances do vary (as some divisions play other divisions odd numbers of times) but overall Vancouver is something like 8th on list for miles logged
Obviously nearly every western team has it tougher than eastern teams (Nashville and Florida being obvious exceptions)
Expansion to the centre and to the west is not inherently a bad thing as the NHL has been expanding to outside of the Eastern Time Zone for years now, which is part of such a marketing and media strategy of expanding to the west.
All the same from what I have read here, there is business case to be made again for a team in Quebec City as well as in Regina as opposed to this concoction in Arizona and in South Florida with the latter generally a terrible market for professional sports.
1 Like
Regina is really small (and Saskatoon came alot closer when they tried buying St Louis back in early 80s)
The issue is even is SK could make the team work; noone wants them in the league
Canadian teams in NHL make good tv money. Adding a team means they lose a cut of that money.
US teams hate ānonameā cities. They would rather add a 3rd NYC or 2nd LA franchise than expand into any of the Canadian small markets.
Not even getting into how hard it is to get draft picks or free agents to go there.
Heck the Nordiques in that awful arena that was nearly 50 years old when they moved to Colorado STILL outdrew the Arizona Coyotes in their brand new rink these last few years.
The fans in Quebec are rabid (I suspect SK would be as well)
The last year that Phoenix Coyotes had better attendance than Quebec Nordiques was 2004-05 and that was barely better (we are talking within 1000 fans, something a new Quebec Colisee would have squashed)
Back then there was no salary cap. Colorado bought the team for like $100 million
3 Likes
...if teams were comprised of players who hailed within the geopolitical boundaries of their birthplace Saskatchewan would be a perennial cup contender....Tampa Bay not so much...
2 Likes
Actually CHI has the most distance travelled
followed by EDM, ARI, CGY,VAN,SJS
this is kind of cute
That is why I said 5 year averages
As teams rotate travel schedules in which opposing division they play more often
But I did specifically mention Chicago as one of the worst, as well as other teams you mention (except SJ I had not thought of; a bit surprised they are on that list)
*edit also with such a HUGE jump in your graphic it was obvious to me something was wrong so I looked it up
Chicago played regular season games in Prague CZ last year
(against the other team who had an unusually high travel distance, the Philadelphia Flyers)
For the sake of argument I was ONLY comparing travel in continental USA
1 Like
Ah! that makes sense,
I was wondering why CHI and PHI had so many travel miles
at any rate the addition of Seattle will certainly reduce the mileage for Vancouver and other WC teams.
Will they have the same player draft that Vegas had.? That sure worked well for them.
Basically identical
The only diff is that Vegas is exempt (so Seattle can not choose from every team)
Funny because when that rule was made they were worried Vegas would be paper thin and were trying to protect them
Today opposite is true
Expansion simulator here (you can use the industry accepted picks or make your own custom ones to show who is expected to go to Seattle)
I think the NHL teams would/should be more prepared this time than they were for the Vegas entry draft.
3 Likes
But the flat cap for 2-3-4 more years creates a need to try to move some players for those reasons ā¦ so Seattle has some leverage in trades
1 Like