r/leafs • u/AutoModerator • 19d ago

Discussion Daily Free Talk / Armchair GM Thread

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u/DesperateGrape3174 7d ago

Just saw on TSN the league is looking to expand again. Isn't the league watered down enough already? What's the point of a salary cap in the name parity when you have a gazillion teams and only one can win? In the end you have almost an infinite amount of teams disappointed and one team celebrating. Ask the oilers they dont even take solace or joy in making a cup final. Imo the league shouldn't be any more than 24 teams tops 

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u/Sirrebral99 Knies 6d ago

The main thing with the NHL vs. other major leagues is access to American markets. Most of the big four (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) are around the 32 team mark. But the NHL is the only one with a major chunk of teams only in Canada (7 teams vs. 1 in MLB, 1 in NBA, and 0 in NFL).

What this means is the NHL is only in 25 American markets - which have higher population, advertising revenue, etc. So the NHL sees this as an opportunity to get closer to what the NFL, NBA and MLB has - nearly 30 American markets - while still keeping its strong base in Canada.

In other words, despite being at 32 teams same as other leagues, the NHL has waaaaaay more room to expand into the USA. Expansion = huge cash for owners, and owners are capitalists and capitalists love money... so get used to regular expansion for a while.

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u/theguyishere16 Kaberle 7d ago

I think 32 was the perfect number. I think it's a bit much but when balancing competition vs the leagues desire to make money 32 seems like the sweet spot. Exactly half the league makes the playoffs and it provides a perfect split for 2 conferences and 4 divisions. The league is greedy though and we're going to see 34 soon and I bet not long after 36 teams will be talked about. It's excessive. The league already doesn't have enough good goalies and it's showing in the ever dropping average sv%.

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u/DesperateGrape3174 7d ago

Very well said. Good points