The MASSIVE Problem In Canadian Hockey 

Guaranteed McDavid Pack 👀 therthcompany.com/collections/all When will we see a Canadian team lift a cup? What Is the Solution?

Not only have Canadian teams won an MLS title, NBA title, and MLB title more recently than Canadian teams have won an NHL title, American teams have won CFL titles more recently than Canadian teams have won NHL titles. American teams haven't played in the CFL since the mid-90s

It’s beyond absurd that Bettman has been Commissioner for 30 years😮

It would be great if the NHL cared about current fans, just a little bit, and not just imaginary new fans

Sadly for the hurricanes it’s true that success has brought the fans back. But I think the fact that the team was scrapping the bottom barrel for awhile makes it hard to keep hardcore interest. I’m a diehard hurricanes fan and I live nearby and I can say the fan base has really grown and I think it’s here to stay.

I'm starting to think that the day Garry Bettman steps down,, a Canadian franchise team will win the Stanley Cup.

Living in Quebec City and being old enough to have seen the Nordiques play in the early 90s, I wish the Habs well since it is the only game in town right now. But rest assured that my disposable income doesn't go to buying tickets to watch a hockey game 3 hours away from my hometown. Nor do I spend it on any NHL merchandise, whether it is Habs or legacy Nordiques jerseys for example. And nor will I change my spending habits about it as long as that leprechaun at the top keeps laughing at our market, taking it for granted or believing that we all resigned and converted to being docile, frenzy spending Habs fans. This is not cannibalism since the Bell Centre is always full with waiting lists for season ticket holders, getting a team in Quebec City makes just as much sense financially than putting a second team in the Grand Toronto Area.

Also most Canadian teams have been horrible managed over the last 20 years and whiffing on a lot of draft picks

Most Canadians with a home hockey team didn’t see Gary Bettman’s memo that read: As of 1994, there will be no more Canadian clubs winning the Stanley Cup. I mentioned this to some Winnipeggers and their reply “I still rather have a team than no team.”

I can guarantee ya that toxic media and environment makes things worse. Ryan oreilly and Luke schenn signing in Nashville says it all. I actually spoke recently to schenn and asked him what he thinks of the media here in Nashville vs Toronto. “Night and day” was his response. The people of Nashville love bottom feeder players and embrace em like top 6 players all the time. All players want is to be loved just a bit with the media and fans.

Can confirm on the leafs fan base. As a devils fan living in WNY, it's shocking to see so many leafs jerseys at nj vs. Buf games just to root against the sabres

An interesting thing to note. Last years cup finals saw the lowest TV viewership by far in over 10 years. Canadian fans are loosing interest in watching the playoffs when every year we only see one or two Canadian teams in the playoffs and they all seem to be eliminated in the first or second round. The lack of Canadian viewership in the playoffs in starting to eat away at profits. Canadian fans cant be ignored forever. Add to that (as a an oilers fan) it seems the one thing all Canadian teams can agree on is that we seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to officiating in the post season versus American teams. The Leaf's and Oilers both seem to have far more questionable calls and decisions go against them than for them in the post season to the point where its hard not to have a bit of a tinfoil hat. It makes watching American teams win a cup far less enjoyable. At some point things will have to change because Betman is slowly loosing Canadian fans, which are still the largest source of revenue for the league.

A bit of history is necessary here. In 1966 the NHL went from the original 6 to 12 teams. it was assumed that one of the new teams would be in Vancouver. It was therefore a real shock when all 6 new teams were in the United States. In 1968 when it became clear that the Oakland-California Seals, LaBatt Brewery offered to buy the team and move it to Vancouver. That resulted in a firestorm lead by the Toronto Maple Leafs using all sorts of dumb excuses to prevent this action. The real reason was the CTV-CBC television rights. Toronto wanted it all for themselves. However Vancouver finally got their team in 1970 and the NHL along with 5 other teams, all US. The to Canada was, no need to apply. In March 1979 the NHL set a vote on admitting Winnipeg, Edmonton, Quebec (and Hartford). Once again the Toronto Maple Leafs led the opposition to this. In the vote that followed the vote was defeated by just one vote. In a press conference held right afterwards then NHL President mentioned his surprise that while almost all the US teams vote for their admission, all three CANADIAN TEAMS VOTED NO. That included the Montreal Canadians who had thought that this would be a secret ballot with no one knowing how they would vote. In a massive show of national unity, people in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec started a massive boycott of Molsons Brewery, the owner of the Montreal Canadians who had never thought that their vote would be against their admission. THE VERY NEXT DAY facing crippling massive losses Molsons pleaded with John Ziegler for a new vote. Toronto threatened legal action to prevent such a vote, but John Ziegler was able to get one done anyway and that is how Winnipeg, Edmonton and Quebec got in. The point is the teams in Canada are the major reason why so few teams from Canada are in the NHL

3 of the 4 teams in the Semi-finals in 2023 were teams that operate in States that do not collect State income Tax. Quebec is the highest taxed jurisdiction in North America. The Habs try to work with this by offering contracts that are heavily biased towards bonuses as opposed to salary, to reduce the tax payable for the Player. However, this comes back to bite them if the player does not live up to expectations or is on permanent LTIR and then they have very unfavourable terms to buy out the contract. Canuck fans will be reminded of this for several years to come with the Ehkman-Larsson buyout, now that they have just recently gotten over paying Loungo's salary retention. With an uneven playing field like this, could the solution be to allow Canadian Teams a higher Salary Cap? What a tangled web that creates... Add to the tax imbalance other attractions to play in the States, such as anonymity away from the rink, driving a Porsche/Lambo/Ferrari to work in 70 degree weather, dating Cali/Texas/FLA Girls...I don't see a Stanley Cup parade on St. Catherines, Young St, Robson St, etc, in the foreseeable future.

Another factor you missed was the value of the dollar. Also a couple of corrections, the Nordiques didn't move because they weren't successful, they moved because the league (among other parties) were having problems with the owner and Bell doesn't own the Habs the Molson family does.

Gary Bettman is the WORST thing that EVER happened to the NHL and Hockey in general .

As a Chicago Cubs fan, I can tell ya that a media company owning the Habs is a big reason why they’ve struggled the last ten years. The tribune owned the Cubs for decades. It took until they sold the team to actually win something.

Would you ever do a deep dive on goaltending in Canada and why we don't produce top tier goalies anymore?

I envision that within five years, the Flames will be back in Atlanta. In Canada, hockey is becoming unaffordable for mid-size markets, especially where the corporate clientelle is negligible.

I think a symptom of the NHL problems in Canada is the situation at Scotiabank Area, the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The *VERY* high price of the lower section seats in hockey configuration has (according to many people) priced out the more serious fans of the Maple Leafs and it has become the province of corporate _bigwigs_ and their clients, which are using those lower section seats more to conduct business than to cheer on the Maple Leafs. As such, the home environment for the Maple Leafs are *NOT* conducive for the Maple Leafs to play hard. Maybe it's time to reconfigure Scotiabank Arena for more corporate suites so the more passionate fans of the team can seat in the lower section seats for a change.

People underestimate greatly the effects in the NHL of local taxes, weak Canadian dollar, the capped era, Canadian city size, the constant media and fan attention or in some cases the death of pre-junior/junior hockey, among other things. No way in hell, that a Canadian team can compete with states like Florida for a player without overpaying them unless they are a local kids.That reality normally wouldn’t bother big Canadian markets but there is a cap, so by over paying they screw themselves no matter what. When it comes to new teams in Canada, a 2nd in Toronto, or London/Hamilton or St-John or Quebec city … the cities sizes are a potential problem, not a problem to full an arena but for TV rights, because they mostly already are NHL products consumers since they are obviously all already sharing a market unlike the Jets or potentially St-John which is obviously too small. Small markets also means not a lot of extremely wealthy people to throw money at a project, the weak Canadian dollar also heavily diminishes that list to probably a few names, because everything in the NHL is in USD. Finally a little rant about my province Quebec in hockey development, where is all the players we used to create/develop ? Not so long ago we could hypothetically of created teams that could rival the ROC, the USA or Russia, with historically top goaltenders, goal scorers and defensemen, what the fuck happened ?

The NHL might kill the Golden Goose. The Golden Goose is the Canadian hockey culture which ultimately leads to elite Canadian players. It has already destroyed the world's biggest elite hockey player pipeline - Quebecois players.

I think it would be interesting if the league could figure out a way to get around the issue of tax variance between countries and states to mitigate that issue for players' desire to play in Canada. But i do think that the increased spotlight and pressure from the media and fans on players of Canadian teams is always going to be a factor for players preferring to play in the US.

Great overview. Coloradoan who liked hockey before the Nords came to town, here. I quit watching NHL not long after the TV timeout became a thing: money is the driver to the sport. I never liked sports because of money and fanfare. Money is the driver to all the big leagues. I quit on the Broncos when they stole the stadium from the community. It's all about The Benjamins now. Eff them.

1. Geoff Molson is the owner of record of the Montreal Canadiens. 2. The taxes assume that players are regular employees like someone punching a time card. They are contract entertainers who probably get compensated by their own overseas registered private corporations. We have no idea what their effective tax rate is.

I'd be surprised if the NHL returned to Atlanta. It would be like the failure of the NBA returning to Charlotte: general apathy and ownership that has no idea what they're doing.

I am an American hockey fan ( NY Islanders), who favors putting an expansion team in QC or Hamilton, Ontario.Why? They will support a team unlike Atlanta ( who one year did not sell out World Series games). Houston or Salt Lake City are places that make sense however. One problem going forward for Canada and hockey are the demographic changes. Soccer and basketball are more popular sports for kids in areas like Toronto ( not to mention the inexpensive cost to play those sports ( particularly compared to hockey when rents are high in places like Toronto). Throw in immigration to areas like Vancouver ( along with the rents) and you have a problem. Is all lost? No not at all. Lots of players still love playing in Canada. Look at Austin Matthews. He is an American, yet he signed for 4 more years in Toronto. Domi took LESS money to go to Toronto when he was a free agent.

Garys big concern for growth is within the television viewing market. When it comes time to put broadcasting rights up for bid, adding Quebec City to the current market pool doesn't add near as much viewing power than Atlanta

Luckily the NBA is looking into Montreal and Vancouver

I'm some areas in and around Atlanta, the NHL blackouts games from Nashville Carolina and Florida....., make that make sense to grow a game. Also you can't access two of those teams on any cable packages

We really need to manage the tax situation, why would a player want to play in Canada and give up a large chunk of their salary. We are constantly going to lose generational players the longer this continues

I moved down for work to Silicon Valley from BC a few years back ... Sharks scores come on the news channel down here after highschool football numbers ... and normally are the last thing mentioned before a happy story of a goat in pajamas. Thing is the weather is great, nobody will harass you on the street, AM radio doesn't care, there is absolutely no pressure to perform and you are paid serious bank. Why the hell would you want to play in a place where you are yelled at when at the Safeway or have 24/7 radio calling for your trade if you have an off game. As Rob said, the owners don't care about the product, because win or lose Canadian fans will show up. So if owners don't care, and players like it down south, what can be done to make a Canadian Stanley Cup Team?

I agree with your point but people would love to watch the habs and nordiques play again. Even if there isn’t 100% attendance, it could open up “battle of Alberta” style marketing for the nhl and people will watch that. For the Atlanta team, nobody will really be too invested early on, and people won’t be as excited to watch them. But I agree with the other issues you raised.

Taxes, weather, and quality of life. Millions of Cansdiens live in places like Texas, Florida or Arizona half of the year . You don't see millions of Americans moving to Canada during the Summer months. That's the truth. So maybe don't judge the players or Bettman for wanting to be in Vegas, Texas, or Florida.

I think there would be plenty of butts in those seats if Quebec came back to the NHL. I'm no market analyst, but I just have a hunch!

Winnipeg not selling more than 10k is a bad harbinger. If you want Canadian teams, support them.

As much as Canada has a hockey problem, it was going to happen no matter what once they expanded the league. When the CFL and NFL were competing for talent in football they were able to maintain parity until suddenly they couldn't and it was sports market shifting from relying on fillings seats and instead filling TV slots and making the money from the broadcast rights. At the same time the ability to leverage those TV rights was heavily influenced by how much larger the US market is compared to Canada's. Its ten times the size and because of that all the contracts shifted to USD and eventually as the 1980s came and the 1990s rolled in the decline in the Canadian dollar hurt so much the profitability of Canadian teams that there was an honest worry that the Canadian teams would have all fold or move to the US. Thankfully a good enough TV deal and some interest in owning the teams in Canada's largest cities ensured they stayed over the smallest, however Winnipeg and Quebec City had to lose out.

Let’s point out the obvious. Bettman isn’t the reason why the Vancouver Canucks lost two Game 7’s in Stanley Cup finals. However, to build on your thoughts, I would add 2 teams in Toronto metro area and 1 more in Montreal. Even though those areas could support more teams, the Maple Leafs and Canadiens would block those ideas. Whether we like it or not, Bettman works for the owners and is doing what they want.

Here's an idea, Give Canadian teams a higher salary cap to compensate for the higher taxes. Level the playing field when it comes to player salaries.

If you’re fed up with the state of the NHL. Stop watching and buying shit. It’s not hard Canadians.

Great video. I still have my cherished Quebec Nordiques jersey hanging in my closet. I sure miss those old Adams Division games against Boston, Buffalo and Montreal. Lost of great action, end to end.

NHL is in deep deep trouble. Baby boomers are dying off. Minor hockey numbers are falling . It’s simply to expensive to play or go see a game. I feel sorry for the kids. All greed by various unions and owners.

Lower bowl tickets in Tampa are not $90, they're usually starting at $225

Some good points here. I remember when Gretzky went to L.A. The NHL thought hockey would be the next big thing in the south, but it was Gretzky, not the game, that drew the fans. I lived in Texas for a while and I was able to buy good lower bowl tickets to a Dallas Stars game the day of the game, and it New Years day at that. This was just a couple years before they won the Cup so they had a good team. But Texas is NASCAR and football. That is just the reality for most cities across the southern U.S.

When I was in Van, I went to see Van play. It was an event. AND I got to watch Pavel Bure play, and he was inexplicable to describe unless you saw him. I gave up beer because two drinks in your brain couldn't handle watching that guy. You would miss it even when you were RIGHT there. And corporate was very kind in Vancouver, you couldn't afford a ticket and get them from time to time.

The nordiques (and Habs) do attract fans from everywhere in the province, not just from the city

1993 was the highest scoring season in NHL history as well. The 94-95 lockout changed the game completely. The trap-era started, thats why from 95-03 the only teams winning was NJ, Colorado, Detroit and Dallas. The teams with best forwards, a top 5 goalie and solid defencemen. Plus these teams could pay the players salaries, Canada had no chance with loonie. Then, 2004 comes around. Calgary makes it! But loses game 7. Right after that, another lockout. How convenient. The game will never be like it was, just like MLB.

A factor in Gretzky's trade was his wife wanting to act in Hollywood movies. Saw them both.Not sure if I preferred police academy 5 or the 2 min of a league of their own she was in.

I think we should create a Canadian only professional league. I honestly believe we could pay players good wages. All the American teams are fluffed up due to revenue sharing. Theres a reason why Bettman gets booed at every appearance. He’s taken the game we love and turned it into a business where the true fans get screwed over. Not everything is about money.

The Canes had a lot if success early. If not they wouldn't have worked out. I have gone to at least one game every season since they moved to Raleigh in 2000. They were in the cup in 01 and won in 06. They made the conference finals twice outside of those seasons before your graph started. Without that success (and zero sports competition in Raleigh) they wouldn't have succeeded

Many agents have come out and said the taxes thing is way overblown. With the numerous tax incentives it's very easy for a player in Canada to come out with similar taxes as one in the US

Im 35. Im a Canadian and NFL is my main thing watch every Sunday. I watch the Cfl playoffs too. I watched all the Raptors playoff games and win the NBA title. That was cool. If the Leafs win one more cup before im dead id be surprised. Lol. They dont care about winning just raking in money from all the devoted boneheads in Canada. 300 dollars a seat min to watch them stink half the time. Lol No deal.

Bettman took over in 1993. Vancouver was in the 1994 cup final against New York . Not to be a homer but the calls were lopsided. I spoke to a prominent player and asked him about it. He had his suspicions. Regardless, Bettman is a New Yorker.

Thanks for this video! When I do my STATE TAXES IN ARIZONA next spring I'll tell them RobTalksHockey told me there's no state tax in Arizona, so I'm not paying😂

The thing about Canadian hockey teams is that there are ~12 million Americans per American NHL team. Only 5 million Canadians per Canadian team. That means that per capita Canada has more than 2x the amount of NHL teams as the US. That makes sense as it is their sport, but it makes it really hard to make the case for another Canadian team. In the league. Moving Ottawa to another Canadian city might make the most sense for QC.

Why don't we ever hear about the horrendous odds of any team winning the Stanley Cup? It's a less than four percent chance that your team will win a Cup in the next 32 years! If one team wins two cup in in a decade, that means your team may win it once in 64 years. With 32 teams, good luck winning anything. Problem in all major sports now with so many teams in a league.

Panthers lower bowl $50? Sure, if you want to see a weeknight game against Columbus and during football season. For weekends and half decent teams, lower bowl is around $120. Atlanta needs an arena in the suburbs like the Braves did. They will draw well. You need to put arenas where fans are, not downtown, in places like Atlanta where there is too much traffic and it’s inconvenient.

As Canadians we need Atlanta to keep on getting teams so that they can move to Canada after they fail.

It's criminal Quebec City doesn't have a team, greed be damned.

The tax issue is a bit of a misnomer. Star players on Canadian teams who take a lot of their money in July 1st bonuses, only pay the corp rate on that amount-15% not 53%

I live in the U.S. You smacked it on point by reporting team owners rake it in regardless of team result in Canada. In the U.S. there are baseball, football and basketball owners in the same position. Big money regardless of outcomes. Teams that lose should pay a financial price for losing. That's the solution.

I wish Canada would have our own hockey league. it would be much richer than the American one, and then obviously, New York Philadelphia, the American team, that can support themself would join our lead. instead of being a poor hockey league.

Repatriate the Cup and have our own league. People can say it would be a bush league all they want, but on average the Canadian clubs are valued higher than the US clubs on average.

Vegas took massive risks to reep massive rewards. Trading out the franchise goaltender and the most popular player on the team was rough. No Canadian team would do that with the risk of blowback from the fans. Vegas has looked at the game as a business and treating it that way.

Now this is interesting. Canadian teams since the Canadians won the cup in 1993 are a disastrous 0-7 (assuming Florida wins, which is all but certain) in cup finals. In the last 5 years, just 4 teams from Florida, Texas, and Nevada have made the conference finals/semi finals a staggering 11 times. Now compare that to all 7 Canadian teams making it a measley 3 times in the same time period. It really is a statk contrast.

The commissioner is a figure that seems to be universally hated in all of the US pro sports leagues. I wonder who's the most hated: Bettman, or Goodell.

Tampa resident. It's highly unlikely to get lower bowl tickets for$90. If they are playing the sharks on a Tuesday night, maybe.

The Canadian rinks are packed. The "Problem" is Americans running the league. The Canadian should break away and start their own league. Plain and simple.

Well, the problem is that Hockey has become such a Global Sport that it’s almost Impossible for a Canadian Team to win the Stanley Cup. 30 years since the last time it happened, and it’ll probably continue, since most cities can’t fully support their Francises, their Teams, and especially their Fans. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them had to Relocate to the USA, and there are some cities that are ready to have an NHL Franchise; - Houston - Kansas City - Portland - Milwaukee - San Antonio - San Diego - Salt Lake City

Such a shame, wish that Canada’s original teams like the Hamilton Tigers, Montreal Maroons etc stayed around since it would’ve been much harder to relocate a team with a long history

Here in QC, we acknowledged that the Nordiques will never return since Vegas got theirs and called us "deferred". They've been simply using us as a bargaining chip. Well, we're fed up. Instead, we commit on other things instead of beating on a dead horse. The NHL would have to work so hard to get a hand in our pockets now.

In the US, hockey will always Lag behind the NFL, NBA and MLB!

6:10 In Atlanta, with NBA and NFL teams are huge so the part of the market is negligable whereas Quebec would get 100% of the market

There is only ONE answer that would bring the cup back to Canada …. GET RID OF GARY BETMAN!

The Quebec problem is much same as the Hamilton problem.. Hamilton being wedged between Buffalo and toronto.. and in reality, people forget that the two markets both overlap in Hamilton and probably each other.. hamilton would have no problem taking from Toronto… but people forget that Buffalo can’t afford to lose many fans.. The Media pressure is real.. I’m a Yankee fan and we see it in Baseball.. and Yogi Berra stated.. winning isn’t everything.. it’s the ONLY thing.. I see the same issues with Canadian teams. Now does Bettman favor one market over another as far as winning a cup? As a Sabres fan.. Yeah.. he does.. just look at the Skate in Crease cup.. all through the regular season that goal is called back.. but hey, gotta give a cup to a southern US team.. a team that never should have been allowed to leave Minnesota.. at the same time.. I don’t see him actively trying to prevent canadian teams from winning a cup.. and the tax situation is not as clear cut as you indicated. Yes, Vegas has no state income taxes.. but many states have “Entertainment” taxes.. so that visiting players get taxed on their earnings for every game they play in that state.. (California is the biggest.. but NY does it to as do many others… including the no-state income tax states).. and, the canadian players still get taxed at home too.. it’s not cut and dried.

I think there is a much higher proportion of Canadian people who watch hockey or go to games than the Americans do. I think Quebec would get more fans than Atlanta will. All fans in Canada would support a rebuild in the proper circumstances. There are also States with NHL teams that have taxes similar to Canada. Also, Swedes are very familiar with how life is better in countries with high taxes versus the shitshow that takes place in States like Florida.

Corruption destroys everything.🙏🏻🌎

Freakin' WOW!!!! I may an old dog whose socks can almost never get blown off...you video leaves me barefoot. Excellent! Thank you!

anyone ever considered weather may affect some players' decisions on where they would prefer to live?

a salary cap is what's keeping Canadian teams competitive , rewind to 2006 when the cap was set at 39 million, you had these players that were signing to Canadian clubs that would not have been possible at the turn of the century ....

Another death knell for Canadian teams is the fact that all the owners , especially the Canadian owners , signed thier own death warrants when they took the bribe from Las Vegas , to give Vegas an advantage .no other team enjoys, and thats the huge tax advantages for players...the difference between what a player makes in Canada ,after taxes ,and what a player makes in the US , especially Vegas , is stark.

As Ive gotten older, my interest is waning on the modern NHL, especially year after year watching US teams playing for the Stanley Cup. I know my love for hockey hasn't waned because I find myself more interested in the history of the game. I'm sad for my disillusionment and want the game that I love back. Gary Bettman has stolen this game from Canadians imo, though I still remember hockey's rich history in Canada.

Hockey slowly died between 94- 2000. RiP. Even though some of the best hockey was being played in the Era, things had been set in motion

With all due respect, the problem with Atlanta had more to do with poor ownership than with poor attendance. The extremely dysfunctional Atlanta Spirit Group (A$G) tried to sell off the team when they first purchased them, the Hawks, and Philips Arena. Their malfeasance was bad enough, but Gary Betman didn’t even lift a finger to try and keep the team in Atlanta. He spent an enormous effort for the Coyotes (and look how that’s turned out), and let True North move the Thrashers to Winnipeg without any issue at all. Now the Jets are struggling with attendance. Everyone outside of Georgia has believed the myth that people in Atlanta didn’t support the Thrashers because it’s lazy and convenient. The truth is a lot different. And let’s not forget that in their 12 seasons, the Thrashers made a single playoff appearance.

Now here is an interesting statistic. In the last 5 years, '20-'24, the 4 NHL teams from Florida, Texas, and Nevada made the conference finals ( '21 was actually a semi-final) a staggering 11 times. Now compare that to how all 7 Canadian teams did in the same time period. They succeeded only a measley 3 times making it to the final 4. The 3 states are all low taxes with mild winter weather, and that might have something to do with it.

It’s impossible nowadays to try to follow a team without paying money for services and then they blackout the games, forget it, I’ll watch curse of oak island

Rob: Hockey is becoming less Canadian and the NHL is doing nothing about it! Me: And how is that a bad thing?

Hockey is just a rather variable sport where inferior teams can in fact beat better teams on the day. A better team will win more often, but it's not the same near-guarantee as in a sport like basketball. The Flames, Senators, Canucks, Canadiens, Oilers, and Habs have all been to a Stanley Cup Final in the 21st century, with four of those teams pushing the final to 7 games. As much as we joke about Canada not winning a cup, any of those teams could have won the cup.

Great Video Rob, glad to see your channel's success, did not realize you're almost at 100k, I think I still remember your first videos introducing yourself. Keep up the great work man!

Hamilton Quebec and even Saskatoon could support an NHL but it will not happen because not only the dollar issue but the promotion of U.S.A. cities. Las Vegas got an unreal draft and head start kind of fishy

Impeach Trudeau - reason 1,800,000

Bettman is pro USA and Anti Canada. He is a biased commissioner. This year, the cup will be won by any American team. But particularly one of these teams: -Seattle Kraken -San Josè Sharks -Columbus Blue Jackets -Minnesota Wild -Florida Panthers These are the American teams who haven't won a cup yet. So of course.. it will be one of these teams. If you are a Canadian over the age of 30, this is so obvious for you to see. We learn how to recognize patterns in grade 2.

Awesome video. You make some really good points. Personally I think Hockey in Canada dying. Cost of getting into the game is too high. For players in the game playing in Canada leads to a loss of money through taxes. It's a big mess.

The Canadian Curse theory. Canucks, Flames, Oilers, Senators all made it to the finals even game 7 like the Flames. My cousin worked @ Tavern United in WPG and is by o means a sports follower. I asked her how many people were at the Pub, she said packed but I'm being let go this week along with 15 other girls. I said, how do you know the Jets will lose, they haven't even played yet?

TL;DR: Canadian teams in the NHL serve as cannon fodder to prop up the win totals for American based teams

there are some trams who could definitely compete for a cup in Canada this season. Winnipeg and Vancouver are some of the top teams in the league right now, and Toronto isn't far behind (if they solve the goalie issue). last I checked, Montreal wasn't playing bad hockey either, and they are the most recent team to have made the cup final. Canada is definitely trying to compete for a cup, and I think they'll get it soon.

You forgot to mention the NHL Officials negligence against the Canadian hockey clubs. There a lot of penalty calls against the Canadian teams and fewer calls agsinst the American teams which determines which team will win the games and it is mostly the American hockey clubs that get special treatment from Gary Bettman and his Referees ever since Gary Bettman became the Commissioner of the NHL.

The NHL could use a tax-adjusted salary cap, allowing teams in higher tax areas to pay the same effective salary as teams in lower tax areas (ie, Teams in Quebec could pay a higher cap number than those in Florida). This would allow players to make decisions on where to play based on equivalent NET salaries, rather than allowing the low tax area players to make more money under the same cap. Also, remedy the East/West issue. There is no reason to keep the inequitable alignment. NHL should readjust conferences to equalize travel requirements, rather than have 1/2 the teams spend 50% more time travelling.

Great video! Loved the point about the immediate success needed for American teams! The game really is in a bad position in Canada. The Habs has decided to go the way of a rebuild and it looking good. But nothing is garanteed. With the talent that the Leafs have, it's hard to understand how they haven't manage a run at the cup yet (goaltending)! The same could be said of the Oilers! Every hockey fan in Canada should see this video!

The team will fail again in Atlanta too. It's just not a hockey market