Where would Marty St. Louis have caught on in a 21-team league? He was let go from a Calgary squad that hadn't made the playoffs in 3-4 years at the time, and hadn't won a playoff series since 1989. In Tampa, he landed with a team in the fourth year of four consecutive 50-loss seasons as a fourth liner.
Hockey's expansion into the South (Dallas*, Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Pheonix*, Carolina*) has been more successful than the absorbtion of the WHA which brought Gretzky into the league. 2 of the 7 Southern franchises have won the Stanley Cup, while 3 of the 4 WHA franchines in tradional hockey markets have moved, and the greatest of the former WHA franchises had to sell away thier team one player at a time. (*Moved Franchises)
Demographic shifts in an affluent society that wishes to live in warmer climates dictated expansion into southern markets. While the NHL expanded south, so did the NBA (Carolina, Orlando, Miami, New Orleans, Memphis), NFL (Jacksonville, Carolina, Houston) and MLB (Miami, Tampa Bay, Arizona). Only one expansion team in each league hails from a northern market. Ottawa (NHL), Colorado (MLB), Cleveland (NFL), Colorado (MLB) since the 1990s.
The NHL did nothing but follow demographic trends in an attempt to nationalize the sport. Every southern based franchise will not succeed, but growth in these markets (largely coming from northern cities) gives these teams a much better opportunity for a future than the WHA franchises that largely came from smaller, shrinking, traditional markets.
Contraction doesn't solve any of the NHLs problems, it will only solidify the marginilization of the sport in North America.