What cities should get NHL expansion teams?

Gary Bettman desperately wanted an NHL team in Arizona to work. Phoenix is one of the largest cities in the United States, but with arena issues in Arizona, the Coyotes have moved to Salt Lake City. However, the Utah team is being treated as an expansion team, with the Coyotes and all their iconography being saved for a future team in Arizona. As soon as a viable arena is available in Phoenix, the city will get a team, which we want to see for Coyotes fans.

Of course, the Maple Leafs have been around forever. That being said, if New York can have two teams, the largest city in hockey-mad Canada should get a second team as well. This goes double given how expensive Leafs tickets are and how difficult it is to get season tickets. Toronto has over 2.5 million people in the city proper alone. Many of those fans would happily support a new NHL franchise in the city. It’s not like most of them have seen the Leafs win a cup.

It’s been three decades now since the Nordiques left Quebec for Colorado. Salt was rubbed in the wounds of Nordiques fans, given the Avalanche won the Cup the year the franchise moved. Quebec City’s metro area is only the seventh-largest in Canada, but the six ahead of it all have NHL teams already, and Winnipeg is eighth. A return to the city by the NHL would certainly yield a passionate fan base, even if it isn’t a huge one.

There was once talk of the Nashville Predators being moved to Hamilton, Ontario, by the Blackberry guy, but that didn’t happen. Hamilton’s population base is larger than Kitchener’s, but Hamilton is also a mere 28 miles from Toronto. A team in Hamilton would effectively be a “Toronto” team. Ontario is Canada’s most populous province, though, and Kitchener is the largest city in the tri-cities metro area of Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo. Kitchener is also 58 miles from Toronto, so there is a bit more room for a team in that area to breathe.

The NHL is unusual because it only has a team in one Texas city. While a second team would mean the Dallas Stars would have to give up the hashtag “#TexasHockey” as a calling card, it would also make a ton of sense. Losing the Phoenix area was tough for the NHL, but it has never even tapped into one of the few larger markets. Houston, the fourth-largest city in America, has a population of over 2.3 million, and we predict by the next census, it will be ahead of Chicago and in third.

Kansas City tried. It built the Sprint Center (now the T-Mobile Center) basically to try and lure an NHL (or NBA) franchise. The best the arena ever managed to do was be used as an idle threat by owners looking for funds for arena upgrades. That being said, how many cities with established sporting fan bases have a ready-to-go hockey arena available? This certainly makes Kansas City stand out.

Though we mentioned Chicago might be passed by Houston by 2030, it’s not about to fall out of the top four, and the city’s population remains well over two million people. The metropolitan area, meanwhile, has over nine million people. We noted we felt Toronto was worthy of two NHL teams due to the population and fervency of the fan base. Chicago has made two MLB teams work for years. The city could easily handle a second NHL team as well.

It lost the Clippers decades ago and the Chargers more recently, but San Diego is still a market worth getting into. The sports fans in the city need a team to root for in the winter (to the extent the city experiences winter). San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States, and the second largest in California.

Portland gets talked about in terms of getting an MLB team, but what about an NHL team? The Kraken (and probably the Canucks) would have another regional rival! On top of that, Portland does have an NBA team, so the Blazers and an expansion NHL team could share an arena, which makes things easier. It’s not a large city, but it’s just outside the top 25, and would give them another market in the Pacific Northwest.

Never forget, Wayne Gretzky started his professional hockey career in Indianapolis. The city has a hockey legacy! Oh, and a higher population than Seattle, Denver, or Nashville. While basketball is the beloved sport in the state, the city would get behind an NHL team if given the chance. Maybe Gretzky can be part of the ownership group.

With Baltimore, it’s always tricky, because Washington D.C., a larger city, is right there. However, Baltimore and Washington both manage to have MLB and NFL teams. Also, the combined statistical area of Baltimore and Washington is the third largest in the United States. Yes, it is larger than Chicago or the Bay Area. It feels like two cities in that space can have NHL teams.

Milwaukee has a wintry feel to it, which is good for the hockey vibe. The city has an NBA team, an MLB team, and is Green Bay-adjacent. Also, it’s fairly close to Chicago. If sports fans in the area aren’t into the Blackhawks, they would have another option.

Gary Bettman’s greatest Sun Belt failure was the Atlanta Thrashers. The team simply did not work out, and ended up in Winnipeg pretty swiftly. Part of the problem? The team was bad. In fact, you can probably credit the Thrashers for the NHL tweaking the rules for expansion teams and the Expansion Draft. Atlanta is actually not that big of a city, but there are so many people in the suburbs that the metro area is the sixth largest in the United States. The NHL should try again. But maybe don’t call them the Thrashers again.

The NHL has done well in Denver, and the state is big for college hockey as well. Why not try another NHL team in the state, and why not break into a new market? Colorado Springs has a population just under 500,000. It has more people than Miami or Minneapolis. The metro area has also been growing quickly. In a few years, an NHL team could be viable in Colorado Springs.

We’ll end with an outside-the-box idea. There are no major sports teams in the region of the United States where Sioux Falls, South Dakota is. It feels like an area that is fitting for ice hockey. Also, the population has grown by over seven percent since the 2020 census. In each of the last four censuses, the population has grown by at least 23 percent. Hey, North Dakota has a strong college hockey program. Maybe the state of South Dakota can make the NHL work.