Insider reveals the NHL's bold expansion plans

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Ryan Hall
December 6, 2023 (8:35 PM)

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In the last 10 years, the notion of expanding the NHL to more cities is growing by the year. After the successful starts and growth of both the Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken, the NHL is beginning to understand how lucrative this position is and that with numerous cities of interest could be a huge payoff for the league entirely.

This subject, along with many others were discussed during Daily Faceoff Live Podcast with NHL insider Frank Seravalli. He discusses expansion plans along with other topics that are currently going on with the NHL Board of Governors meetings.

The eye-popping numbers of what a potential two team expansion within the next few years could look like is certainly salivating the owners of the 30 teams that were originally with the league. Seravalli explains that the Golden Knights and the Kraken are exempt from those funds along with all NHL players.

The forecasted expansion fee for the next NHL organization would come in around $1.2 billion and with the second team that would be over 2.4 billion. The evidence is showing the league is continuing to grow as the Ottawa Senators were recently sold to Michael Andlauer for just shy of 1 billion along with the increasing valuations of the richest teams in the league.

Saying this, it's widely expected that the NHL will announce their 33rd and 34th team within the next several years. Perhaps Quebec City will be one of them.