Hopefully the league will never contract and only continue to expand slowly over time to match the global talent base. It’s evolution, baby.
Hopefully the NHL will be more responsive to change (even if it means just tweaking gameplay rules and formats) in order to help showcase the one important trait that it can market to set its brand apart from other stick-and-ball team sports: displays of deft skill and rugged toughness at incredible, continuous speeds.
Hopefully all the franchises can stay where they are and be given a chance to grow in a fair economic system, gradually cultivate their own intensely loyal (even if small) fan bases, and thus help spread the game's presence and influence over time.
Hopefully relocation will continue to be only a last resort for teams that can't coax their current cities into building new arenas. By now, I think almost every team has a relatively new building with luxury boxes and are tied into long term leases.
I believe the oldest rinks are in Pittsburgh, East Rutherford NJ, Long Island, Detroit, and Manhattan's MSG.
It seems Mario Lemieux has made it painfully clear that if the Penguins' last-ditch attempts to gain slot-machine revenue to help finance a new arena fall through, then he'll have virtually no choice but to sell the team and regretfully watch it relocate. I believe their lease with 'the Igloo' ends in 2007.
It was recently confirmed that the Devils will be skating in a new home in downtown Newark, NJ by 2007-08.
I'm not sure when the Islanders' lease with aging Nassau Coliseum expires, but I think it's soon. I've heard loose, speculative talk of a potential move across town to Brooklyn somewhere down the road, but who knows?
Hockeytown will get its new crib eventually, and MSG, which has been refurbished several times, seems good enough for the Rangers for now.
Have I missed any other franchises with long-in-the-tooth buildings and/or soon-to-expire-lease-agreements?
But if and when the need does arise, it's good to know that even with 30 North American markets already filled, there are still places for the NHL to potentially relocate and expand to.
Winnipeg has a new 15,000-seat arena with luxury boxes and a fan base that is extremely vocal about their desire to welcome back the NHL with open arms. Further support by government and especially the city's corporate sector would make it very attractive.
Hamilton has Copps Coliseum which could be renovated or used as a temporary home while a new building is built. I've read numerous articles that argue the Greater-Toronto-Area could definitely support another team. If I'm not mistaken, Canada’s Steeltown has already lost out past expansion bids to Ottawa and Columbus. Obviously the Leafs pose a territorial stumbling-block.
Portland, Oregon has long been considered an attractive U.S. market whose wealthy Tech Industry tycoons have expressed a desire to land the city a second pro-sports franchise. There is hockey history dating back to the Rosebuds of the early 1900s through today's WHL Winterhawks. However the building that houses the NBA Trailblazers isn't considered ideal for hockey and a new arena will be needed in addition to sustained public support.
Houston, I believe, is currently the most populated North American city without an NHL team. Gordie Howe once played for the WHA Aeroes. A team with the same moniker captured the 2003 AHL Calder Cup.
Kansas City is getting a new, privately-funded, state-of-the-art Entertainment Complex built by 2007/2008 (courtesy of IMG Entertainment) in the hopes of luring a struggling NBA or NHL franchise (nice timing). The NHL Scouts made a brief appearance in this market in the mid-70's before bolting for Colorado to become the Rockies.
Milwaukee, representing all of Wisconsin, could support an NHL franchise for many of the same reasons that Columbus can. Their AHL Admirals took home the 2004 Calder Cup. A new building and corporate support would be needed, and of course Bill Wirtz's Blackhawks pose a territorial stumbling-block.
Quebec City hasn't shown the same kind of desire for the NHL's return that Winnipeg has. It would need the snowballing effects of a groundswell of public support, corporate and political involvement, and of course the resolve to build a brand new arena. Even the post-Nordique IHL/AHL Citadelles couldn't make it work in a city that now focuses on the QMJHL Remparts, partly owned by Patrick Roy.
Hartford faces the same steep hurdles as Quebec City, but in their heyday the Whalers once housed Gordie Howe and should always be considered.
Las Vegas is intriguing, if only because it remains the continent's biggest purely untapped market. The obvious gambling-related uneasiness aside, the NHL would show a lot of cohones by considering setting up shop where the NFL, NBA, and MBL haven’t yet had the guts to.
Salt Lake City, Utah is a not-often-talked-about market that I've been curious about since it hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, for no other reasons than it is a north-western mountain-town that currently ices the AHL Grizzlies. However it is pro-basketball country and would have to start from scratch (needing sudden and unlikely support, ownership, and a building).
But ultimately (and I'm talking a long way off here) the NHL could one-up the NFL, NBA, and MLB by becoming the first truly international North American-based league by eventually opening up franchises in Europe.
The economic prospects across the Atlantic are promising and the logistical concerns (namely travel, scheduling, rink surface area, gameplay rules, playoff format, etc.) could be overcome with a bit of creativity. The NHL could take real economic advantage of the ethnic diversity of its players and translate it into the increased revenue of not only whole new cities or regions, but enitire nations. European teams could ice homegrown talent supported by rabid fans who would respect and honour the Stanley Cup just as much as North Americans.
Imagine potential NHL teams in Sweden (Stockholm), Finland (Helsinki), Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg), the Czech Republic (Prague), and Germany (Berlin, Cologne). Perhaps even in Switzerland (Bern), Slovakia (Bratislava), Latvia (Riga), Belarus (Minsk), the Ukraine (Kyiv), Austria (Vienna), Hungary (Budapest), Norway (Oslo), the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Great Britain (London), Italy (Milan), France (Paris), Denmark (Copenhagen), and Poland (Warsaw). Imagine hockey gaining ‘soccer-like’ international appeal and even exploding in Asia; the marquee event of all Winter Olympics and the organization of a true World Cup tournament.
Imagine the first European team to win the Stanley Cup, potentially on European ice.
It's evolution, baby.