The NHL's Depressing Decline Into Irrelevancy 

bettmen has to go

Totally mismanaged, they are focused on expansion when they need to focus on fans

As Hectic alluded to, the best player in the league and arguably the most exciting player in history (McDavid) is very rarely on TV in the US and, if he is, it’s often at 10 or 11 pm Eastern. That’s brutal.

The local blackouts are absolutely absurd and frustrating

My biggest gripe is I pay for espn+ hockey all season long, only to not be able to watch one playoff game. Stupid

The NHL refusing to cooperate with the IIHF to make a World Cup of Hockey happen with McDavid and Crosby still playing at an elite level solely because they're scared of injuries taking away viewership from NHL games is perfect example of how out of touch the NHL is. Time is almost up for our last chance to the two greatest players of the best two decades teaming up for Canada, yet instead of seeing how much spotlight and growth that will bring to the game, the NHL is instead, more concerned about their tv revenue, while still somehow failing to see that their blackouts are the problem. It's the same problem the NHL has with growing the game. The NHL has millions of fans in cities like Quebec City, Milwaukee, and Portland that have been begging for the opportunity to throw their money at the NHL for years now, yet the NHL refuses to expand there in favor of non-traditional markets in effort to introduce the sport to new fans. The success of the Kings, Stars, Hurricanes, Predators, and Lightning are proof that expanding to Southern markets is objectively a good thing, but their refusal to expand up north is alienating their core fanbase. Traditional markets are the markets that grow the game the most because they have the most fans, making hockey front page news over there, introducing the sport to non-hockey fans from media and word of mouth far more than expanding South ever could. There's a reason why Seattle is already a top 5 revenue generator for the NHL. Bettman should've been gone yesterday. It's ridiculous that the same guy has been running this league since 1993, before Google even existed yet. We live in a completely different era now. It's long overdue to be led by a fresh young mind who actually understands this new generation of fans and where the league needs to go.

The NHL's war on fighting has been damaging. Most of the NHL's interesting characters were goalies and grinders. Also said this at the time, Skipping the 2018 Korea Olympics, when Korean NHL fanbase was growing, hurt not only in Korea but all of Asia

The NHL just cannot get out of it's own way. Leaving NBC, where they were THE star attraction, was a colossal mistake.

Lmao and Gary Bettman says what he's doing with the NHL now is "growing the game" Yeah, how's that working out for you, old man? 💀

It's funny that you mentioned all this because Nascar has the same marketing problem the NHL fanbase too. They also have an older fanbase and have a hard time attracting to a younger audience. I'm a big fan of both and want to see both leagues succeed.

I'd say by FAR the worst factor in the decline in popularity is how expensive this sport is. It's absolutely ridiculous and if the NHL wants to grow the game it needs to pull it's head out of it's own ass and start doing something to at the very least try to decrease the cost of playing the game. The other major problem is marketing. Yeah blackouts are a problem but people will find a way to watch the games illegally, something that TV numbers don't take into account. The marketing of the league is so fucking atrocious that ESPN, one of the league's broadcast partners, is airing one of their most popular personalities on one of their most popular fucking shows groaning when hockey is mentioned and saying "Football, baseball, basketball. Hockey doesn't count" or something like that.

I am a huge NHL fan since I am 5 years old. I live in Europe and I can "never" watch the NHL draft live!! I have an NHL TV membership and evrytime there is a game at a decent hour, the game is blacked out because it is presented on pay tv... Pretty sad!!

It’s the fault of the owners, not Bettman, until people understand that it won’t be fixed. Bettmans job is to be the leagues mascot and spokesman. He does not make decisions. The owners are who makes the decisions, which is why the boys club mentality thrives so well in the league. Until they are held accountable for what they have done nothing will change. Not to mention, the entire “fall” here that is being described is comparing viewing stats from COVID to now. Comparing a time when there is nothing better to do to normal life isn’t exactly fair. Not to mention using a playoffs with two extremely hated teams in the finals to show the decline. The NHL isn’t in decline, it’s merely stopped growing because of the garbage it has become. Not to mention, the only good way to watch it now is piracy which doesn’t show up on the books.

So long as Hockey Canada is using membership fees as hush money to cover SA, and the hawks being rewarded Bedard after the Kyle Beach situation, expect interest to continue to decline.

If the Rangers end up playing the Oilers in the Cup Final this season it will see very high ratings in both countries

I come from non-traditional market (South Florida, and yes, Go Panthers). I'm not invested much to the sport nor any other. I'm getting older and now follow casually. But I always respect the sport of hockey. My opinion about is that ice hockey is very limited when it comes to marketing and growth as the growing population of North America is coming from the south. Have you notice one thing about hockey and all other sports with the new stars coming to the leagues? Most of them are coming from wealthy families. I think all major sports are going to decline in ratings as it's losing relation with the working-class.

I always get taken aback a bit when I hear someone say "The NHL is in decline!". "The NHL is becoming irrelevant!". Or how they say "it was so much better when...". Really? Listen, not to lecture but I've been watching hockey since at least the 70's. Back then you had no national TV coverage in the US, since at least the 75-76 season. If you didn't have a team in your area that made the playoffs, you didn't get to see them unless you lived along the US-Canada border. In 1980 CBS did broadcast the clinching Game 7 between the Islanders and the Flyers, but when the game went to OT they actually warned the audience that at five thirty PM, they would SWITCH to golf and you would MISS the end of the game. It wasn't until the early 80's when USA network and ESPN got involved that the NHL had some more national TV exposure. As far as the player personalities, these kids mostly from rural Canada. They're going to be more humble and soft spoken than the more brash NBA players. That's just a fact of life. The NHL is never going to have a Dieon Sanders or LeBron James. They CAN have the next Wayne Gretzky in one Connor Bedard. Everyone in the draft was touting the kid as a generational talent, and he's playing in a major media market like Chicago. I agree that he needs more exposure. But he's not going to pull up in a limo with sunglasses and big gold chains. That doesn't strike me as his personality. As for MLS... Look, I've been hearing since I was a kid in the 70's "just you wait, in 20 years soccer will dominate the US! In the year 1975... in the 1985... in 1995... in 2005... in the year 2525... If Man U. is still alive...". We're still waiting. Is soccer more popular now? Yes, certainly. But it's only popular with hipsters who want to be British Soccer Fan Jr., and tell the rest of us "you just don't understand soccer... Oh, I mean futbol". The only thing that's happened since I was a kid is that the people that swore they knew the future of soccer in America, and I didn't know what the hell I was talking about, all went from being 20 years older than me to being 20 years YOUNGER than me. The real reason why MLS seemingly has gained more popularity is because they were GIVING AWAY tickets for a very long time. That was the only way they could get anyone to go to games. Kids actually when surveyed said they liked the FIFA video games, but they didn't actually like the MLS, and couldn't name a player. The big reason soccer will probably never become a big time sport in the US at least, is there's no money in it. Rookie salaries in all the other major sports exceed a million dollars. The average MLS salary is $200,000. How do you convince a kid to dedicate his life to a sport he'll never become rich playing? And yes, I agree that cost of youth hockey is outrageous. It was outrageous when I wanted play, which is why I didn't unfortunately. That can only be rectified with more sponsorships, and if communities build more rinks. Does the NHL have its work cut out for itself? Yes, absolutely. But this idea that the league is sliding into irrelevancy is a bit hyperbolic. You have more interest in hockey now than ever, and mind you I come from the era where there were only 22 teams, and a team (the Cleveland Barons) actually FOLDED. The league can always be better, but it's a far cry from where it was, even in the 90's.

The NHL could help itself out by promoting other forms of hockey (street, inline ) the NFL did this years ago with flag football as it realized contact sports is not for everyone. Elite travel soccer in the US is just as expensive as Hockey but it still has a lot of kids who play rec ball till about age 13. The point is the NHL could do a lot more to bring the game to the main stream. Would these kids become elite college players no but they would become fans.

Instead of putting teams where they have a market like Quebec City who rightfully deserves their team back or maybe even Hartford depending on who you ask they’re putting them in such obscure places. That’s also damaging the league because people are getting tired of it after years and years

I'm a hockey fan but the sport's popularity is what it is. It's obviously the biggest sport in Canada, but it just isn't that popular in the US. Look at the TV ratings. and they keep trying to expand into warm weather regions that aren't interested. the NHL thinks it's something that it isn't.

I tried for years to pay the NHL money to watch Maple Leaf hockey games, but they kept blacking out so many games I eventually dropped them and went to illegal streaming, never looked back. They don't want my money or viewership.

its sad but true. I went to a Canadian highschool and almost everyone followed basketball or at least knew a few players but we never talked much about hockey. The NHL could start by letting players dress how they want. NBA players get posted all the time on social media with their pregame outfits whether its good or bad and it catches people’s attention while also getting recognized for it.

considering it from a foreign point of view (hockey fan in France) NHL is almost invisible here... I should say Hockey in general is absent. Back in the time I remember watching 1980 lake placid miracle on public TV and world championships! today you can't watch hockey unless you pay and abandon sleep.

I big reason why they lean heavily on those Tuesday/Thursday game slots is because many NHL teams share arenas with the NBA which conversely has a heavy leaning towards Monday/Wednesday games which makes it easier for arena conversions between the two sports.

You missed a key aspect. They've slowly taken the hockey out of hockey. Hockey use to be a blue collar sport. A hard hitting, fighting, league. Now it's a White collar, business mans, league. They've all but eliminated both fighting and hard hitting. The two things most blue collar fans loved about the game. Marketing may have a little to do with it, but the NHL abandoned its traditional fan base.

Most Americans have never played hockey. All play football, baseball and basketball and even soccer now.

When one person called the game it was a lot more exciting. A good play-by-play injected excitement into the game as his voice would rise as the puck entered the opponents end of the ice. You always knew who had the puck, and who was in goal. Now two commentators are used and they droll on reciting boring stats and meaningless histories often when the puck is in play, dragging down the tempo of the game. Sadly, on some occasions they would break off the chatter and say "we have a goal." This broadcasting style was likely adopted from baseball where there was time between pitches. But hockey is all about action and the commentator should focus totally on the play.

Two Words: Gary Buttman! 🤣 I heard some rumors/conspiracies that he was an NBA plant sent in to sabotage the NHL (since back in the early 1990s, the two leagues weren't too far apart as far as popularity in the USA went)... 🤷‍♂️

I just got into hockey……

as a fan in the uk, i dont get too many opportunities to watch hockey, but there is a clear difference between watching a game in person and watching it on tv. at the finland games last year, the energy was palpable, people were excited and the arena kept things interesting between periods with music, interviews, etc. watching a game on tv, i was bored out of my mind seeing old men on my screen describing exactly what i just saw happen in the game. they NEED to invest in new personalities in tv!

Sports gambling ads are a major turn off for me. No chance I would risk kids getting wrapped up in that nonsense.

I sold sporting goods between 1999 and 2005 and parents were gradually taking their kids out of hockey because of the blood thirsty violence at the time which raised their kids' insurance rates every year and the cost of a player was 3 grand and for a goalie it was 5 grand when everything was factored in. There's less violence today because those of us who were against fighting and dirty play were proven RIGHT after the CTE scandal that plagued both the NHL and NFL. The game is faster and cleaner today but the NHL simply isn't marketing the game properly.

My criticism on the NHL is how corporate everything has gotten since Covid. They removed teams logo from helmets and later turned the boards into a distracting form of advertisement

Because it's not being aired on free TV like it used to when it was on NBC, NBC is aired over broadcast so people who don't have cable can still watch the channel for free so I didn't watch hockey on TV at all this year because NHL games no longer air over the air ways major reason viewership is down

I’m a huge hockey fan, I coached youth hockey for 20 years, and I have season tickets to Quinnipiac University’s hockey team. But I haven’t paid any attention to the NHL since the Whalers left Hartford. I know that the NHL’s problems wouldn’t be solved by bringing a team back here, but the league has turned off a lot of fans by moving teams around. Fortunately, there are other ways to enjoy the game without the NHL.

Although defensive at first, I think you have alot of this correct. Separating the Stanley Cup several days apart and scheduling after pre-season baseball and competitive deck shuffling on ESPN (doesn't seem very important to them), I found that those bizzare times always fell while I was busy... I missed a few of the games completely, and just caught a period or two here and there... And yes, scheduling 14 regular season games on the same day at the same time doesn't help. And I also remember the commercial where Ovechkin calls room service and orders like 200 items, and when asked his name says "Crosby"... which cuts to Crosby looking at all the food and shouting "Ovechkin!"... funny stuff - and it builds the names of the players for the viewers... You are correct. There is so much the league could do - but doesn't.

I mean where do we even start… 1. Nobody knows what the hell a penalty is 2. Stars have 0 personality and marketability 3: the playoff format sucks ass and is detrimental to the quality of the product see this past scf. 4. The nhl doesn’t look to improve its product it looks to make money off the current product. Ive been a lightning fan and hockey fan hardcore for almost a decade. Its sad to see its decline compared to thriving upencoming leagues like MLS and F1. I dont often agree with Steve dangle but he is 100% right with this… Its not a legitimate league. Its rinky dink and borderline amateur.

The NHL needs to make their product more assessable. Figure out the blackouts and scheduling mishaps first, then focus on growing your brand. Focus on your current fans staying interested, then focus on growing the game in non traditional markets.

Fans are part of the problem. They are elitist gatekeepers. They only think certain places deserve team - mostly Canada cities. Also they hate casual fans. They are unnecessary mean and nasty to them

as a hockey crazy Canadians Fan living in Toronto i hardly get to watch a game by my team. And over the last 40 yrs have lost much interest in watching regular season hockey games. When it comes to the playoff it takes much to long and too many days off during the playoffs, it is crazy to think Canadian in the start of summer want to watch a hockey games when winter is so cold !!!

How can you ship drop 22% between 2021 and 2022? Crazy it's almost like people were stuck at home in 2021 with nothing to do and then 2022 they were able to move about freely again

The difference between the NBA and NHL is that the NHL doesn’t have enough mainstream star players. They need to change the rules to facilitate goal scoring, in a 32 team league there needs to be at least 15-20 players with 50+ goals a year. People will show up and pay to see goal scorers.

The owners need to can Bettman. He’s the main culprit of this issue and largely out of touch for what is needed to advance the league in a positive direction.

The equipment/cost issue is really hard to understand for anyone who never went through it or is not planning to put their kid through it. This is why its so hard for people to understand all modern NHL'ers come from a wealthy family (or a country like Russia where you are a state sponsored athlete). You did a good job to mention 'keeping up with gearing' but its not really that simple as kids grow rapidly. Hockey is a sport where you have significant advantages the earlier you begin - also increasing that cost per growth. If you do get good and succeed - each one of those equipment resizes will be into better and better equipment. This is at the same time as paying normal league costs. House league the very base level, still cost more than every other sport base league because the need for ice, enclosing that ice in a physical building and paying to maintain it all throughout the day. Every step you increase in level those costs also go up. Then they also add in travel costs - with individual trips costing as much as a whole year of playing. The sticks should not be understated either because they don't just cost $400 and you need one and that's it. Generally players will try to keep 2 of the same (one for backup) if they can afford it. Whenever one breaks they need to go replace it, that could be as many as one a week to one a month - its total luck. Realistically it's easily into the six figures for a successful career path just with all the mandatory costs - then many/majority parents will pay much much more for 'extras' such as private training and private sports schools - you're talking millions of dollars. Imagine the stress of needing to succeed under those circumstances.

Tickets for pens games are $90+ keep it niche and small lmao

You really want to talk about a decline? Go back to say, 1991, ‘92, ‘93 etc. The NHL was on fire and Sports Illustrated predicted it would overtake the NBA. The 1994 lockout, throttling down on goal scoring, and terrible business decisions led to a drastic decline by the turn of the millennium. Anything happening now is just a decline from the decline.

Gary Bettman and his lackies must go. There MUST be a great change of NHL officials who can take the sport of hockey and market it more international. I remember in the 90's hockey had a great swing that was all the way up til the 2005 NHL lockout....then it cam slowly down to where wer are now.

So is that why NHL players aren’t usually marketable? The culture looks down on individual personalities? That make sense because the only hockey player that had national fame,in my lifetime, was Wayne Gretzky

The broadcasting schedule was so bad this year, especially during the playoffs after my team was knocked out. This was the first year in decades I couldn’t watch the final cuz I don’t have TNT and I wasn’t about to pick up yet another streaming service to get it. Their broadcasting is a major reason their popularity has never soared any higher than at its highest peaks.

DEI hires, any DEI involvement, seizure promoting digital ads whoring out my eyes, 177 teams with unknown players, a pathetically goofy all star game, local TV blackouts and so on will continue to ruin the most beautiful sport…..SAD.

I agree with the local blackouts are a headache and being on TNT sucks. But to say the NBA is killing it is ridiculous. They have been bleeding viewers for years with their social activism. The NHl should just play the game and drop all the woke stuff and the NHL will come back stronger.

I also think that last year's Stanley Cup Finals had such low viewership because the series was pretty much a sweep.

I was a fanatical hockey goalie and fan in the 1970s. Now I never watch even the biggest games of the year. Doing other things.

Playoff viewership is at an all time high. Also, hockey has never been ran well. Even during the original 6. There was a reason the Leafs and Habs got all the cups. Owners owned multiple teams. The Rangers were a farm team.

It’s Bettmans fault. He made it an owners league so he can’t get voted out and is killing the league in the process. Also I thought nbc was bad but ESPN says hold my beer. I bet that viewership would go up if the just took Leah Hextall off lol

The 2023 finals was the lowest rated finals in Canada and the second lowest rated finals on both sides of the border despite being the third lowest rated in the US ahead of only 2020 and 2007. The main reason for this other than the limited availability of TNT is because of the high scoring nature of games 1, 2, and 5, with games 2 and 5 being blowouts.

This is happening to all pro sports

you touched on it a bit and the key to saving the NHL or hockey in general is for all of the NHL and AHL teams to be reinvesting in the youth development programs. They need to figure out a way to replicate the success of the MN community based hockey system. The state has a population of 5.7 million and has roughly 60k youth hockey players from age 3 through HS. There are only a couple states close to that but they have much larger populations. One of the key success of the MN model is it quite a bit more affordable than anywhere else. The NHL should really be looking at doing something similar to what the MLB did where they built ball fields and started youth programs all across the country. Lets be real hockey will never be able to compete with Basketball and Soccer. Those sports can be played anywhere and mostly for free. Almost every single town has at least 1 park with a field and basketball hoop. Same could be said about touch football or baseball. American football is highly subsidized as well. I played from 7-12th grade and never bought a single piece of equipment. It was all provided by the school. You have to live in a cold state or country to be able to play pick up hockey on the ODR. Maybe the NHL starts pushing roller hockey and ball hockey in the warm states. That said I do believe that last year the US youth participation numbers surpassed that of Canada so maybe they are doing something right.

Another thing. I’m a fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Watching on television. I can view the season opener, the game after the all star break, and playoff games (if I’m lucky), on services like Hulu which gives you games based on your selected teams. The NHL doesn’t do that.

I am a new fan, and it's solely because someone I know is great at storytelling and got me really into their team. I don't remember ever seeing NHL marketing as an adult and never felt it was something I needed to look into. I grew up right next to DC in the Crosby/Ovechkin era so you would think I'd have heard a little more, but no... I was talking to my little brother the other day and he didn't even know who Ovechkin was. They only won that cup five years ago, how is that even possible? He would have still been in high school! It should have been one of the most interesting things going on that year... I ended up getting espn+ assuming I could watch the playoffs. It's so disappointing and confusing just trying to figure out HOW TO WATCH! I don't care at all about the only team near where I live now so blackouts wouldn't even have been an issue to me. How can an organization with this much money be so bad at this?? Maybe if we're all lucky, there'll be some new leadership soon. Bettman's over 70, right?

Good. I’m sick of the NHL’s shenanigans. They are greedy and corrupt. I’m a lifelong hockey fan with nothing but love in my heart for the game, but to hell with the NHL

I live nowhere near any hockey market in Canada and games are blacked out here. In CANADA! Bobblehead Bettman is so busy trying to carve out his legacy that he has almost no interest in the game. Throwing out traditions to try to clone the NBA has been a slap in the face. Remember the old Norris, Smythe, Patrick and Adams Divisions? Remember the Wales Conference and the Campbell Conference? Remember how he decided to remove team logos from pucks and replace them with a league logo emblazoned with his signature? Hockey is being pushed out of the spotlight and blame for that can be placed at the feet of Bettman. Even with him gone, it may be too late to save the league from mediocrity and indifference from a public that has no interest in the game.

This all began 30 years ago when they started installing club suites amd luxury boxes, raised ticket prices, and left free over the air TV for pay-cable. Many working class families were left behind. Since then it is exponentially worse. $80 for a ticket? $12 for a beer? Plus parking? Plus $70 month for cable TV subscription? Like everything else in this country, only the upper crusty 1% can afford this, and all the working class clowns making less than $30 hour are struggling to pay their rent, purchase groceries, buy diapers and put gas in their truck. NHL MLB NFL NBA don't care about their fans, they just want to Maximize Revenue.

I've been a fan for 40 years, and I have almost completely lost interest the last 5 years. Too many teams, a diluted product, once great clubs like the Montreal Canadians, have been reduced to middling franchises. We need the original 6 and other great clubs to dominate at the top. Clubs like Vegas come into the league and win the cup is a joke.

Not to be that guy, but aren’t the playoffs the highest rated of all time this year? Can’t stand Gary lol

It is not like there are only infrequent international competitions featuring NHL players, IIHWC happens every year and it features NHL talent in most of trs but since it coincides with play-offs, only guys that did not qualify for play-offs come and also many just choose to take a rest, since it is every year it aldo is treated by bigger nations as not that much of a deal… not talking about North America which dors not care much about it, but even Sweden, Finland, Czechs can field luckluster teams oftentimes

for me the issue i have is they make it super hard to even watch the teams you want to see. all last season as a Lighting and Wild fan, if i wanted to watch a game from either I would need 2 diffrent streaming services to watch either (bally for a wild game, and espn plus for the lighting) and if either was on a national brodcast on TNT I would need another service on top of those 2. I love hockey but i am not paying for 3 diffrent streaming platforms to watch the games i care about. The first step in my mind to help the NHL do better is make it so we can watch any game from 1 service.

Gerry bettman should step down

NBC does all sports better than any other network.

I do agree that the NHL has not put themselves in a great spot to contend with the other leagues, but I do not agree with the narrative that the league itself is in a decline in terms of popularity. First off, the viewership being down 22% is a misleading stat. US national broadcasts were down 22%, which is only the games aired by ESPN and TNT, not the hundreds of games aired on regional broadcasts such as Bally, NBC, Root Sports, NESN, MSG Networks etc. This drop was not because of a lack of interest. In 2021-22, TNT aired games exclusively on their channel, but this season they shared quite a few games with regional broadcasts, which spread out the viewership of the regular season. Had the numbers been publically available for the regional coverage which shared broadcasts with TNT, the combined viewership would have been closer to the 21-22 season regular season average. The stanley cup playoffs this season had one of the most viewed first rounds in history, sadly the markets advancing to the further rounds were not the greatest for viewership, but this year and last year proved that the floor for playoff games has definitely increased based on viewership in comparison to the last few TV deals. The finals low viewership can be explained by the fact that the 2 teams are not exactly a huge draw. Vegas does not have a top tier market size and Florida has been basically non-existent until 2021. Not to mention, the finals was exclusively on cable (TNT), but last year when it was on ABC, the ratings were very good despite 2 medium sized markets being involved. ABCs coverage also set a record for the most viewed game 3 in finals history! Not to mention, the draft this year was the most watched draft every recorded. The McDavid situation does seem bad on the surface, but we need to look at the context. Sure hes arguably the most entertaining player of all time, but him playing for a small market Canadian team in the Pacific time zone is not helping. Think for a second, why would ESPN and TNT (US national TV Channels) put a small market Canadian teams games on at primetime? Sure hes the best player, but they wont get much viewership from a Canadian team, and broadcasting 2 american teams head to head at the same time will likely have much better viewership. I also believe popularity has jumped a bit thanks to ESPN posting more hockey content on social media now than ever. They cover playoff games, great goals, big moments etc. Sure the coverage is only a small amount compared to the other leagues but its significantly more coverage than in the previous 15+ years or so.

There is no decline here. NHL was irrelevant around late 1999's to early 2000's until 2003. Several terrible draft classes and low overall scoring, and also the Greztky's era when he played against hundreds of beer leaguers and goons. If the NHL is able to raise their salary cap when EVERY TEAM ICES 18 SKATERS AND TWO GOALIES ON THE ICE EVERY GAME, thinking there's any decline there is just you being delusional.

If the NHL were a college marketing class project, it would be an F. Sad to say, but I've been watching since I was 10, but the blackouts and ridiculous streaming crap you must go through just isn't worth it. I only watched the playoffs this year, through the WCF . The softening of the game doesn't help either.

The fact that the league spends more time promoting and marketing rats like Ryan Reaves and Pat Maroon instead of upstanding guys like Aleksander Barkov and Nathan MacKinnon also makes me frustrated. Especially because some casual hockey fans don’t even know who the best NHL players are outside of Crosby, Ovi, McDavid and Patrick Kane

This is what happens when you get desperate. Focusing on chasing revenue from questionable sources (no one wants gambling ads), shooting themselves in the foot over trying to get new fans (the Pride jersey fiasco), and putting the focus on an aging player whose connections to real-life situations make it hard to root for them (Ovechkin) over bonafide generational talents that are in their prime (McDavid). I remember when Sports Illustrated had pegged the NHL being more popular than the NBA way back in 1994. Now look at it.

Clickbait title.. highest salaries ever, cost of franchise highest ever.. highest viewership.. irrelevant how? Most important measure.. USA hockey most competitive ever

For more hatred that betting may have brought to the league, I as a latino started watching NHL only after outing money on the line. Im a Panthers fan now, I play NHL and I love hockey. I look forward to this love hate relationship but hockey is not dead. There is a HUGE market down south. BELIVE ME.

Add a lot of confusing rules to the mix. Like high stick: Usually it's with the stick above the shoulders, unless the puck goes into the net, then it's stick above the crossbar. WHY? I mean it's not a big deal for established hockey fans, but for potential new fans it can be confusing. And I know it's not the most significant rule, but I mentioned it because it's one of the most unnecessary confusing rules.

In my opinion, I can do without the "personalities." I much prefer the quiet Connor McDavid types to the Lebron James types. Hockey players are usually the blue-collar athletes. They are normal looking people with an extraordinary talent to play hockey. Superheroes on the ice, but normal family guys away from the game. The other sports don't have those kinds of athletes. It's one of the reasons I love following hockey.

I am going to suggest it’s the product itself. I find too many games are boring. Low scoring, tight checking and too much favouring of strong defense, especially in the playoffs , makes me tune out . Players are all huge, goalies with their pads look like an impenetrable wall- it’s hard to get a lot of truly high quality scoring chances. Shrink player pad sizes. Especially goalies . Move icing line from centre line to D zone blue line to encourage even more stretch passes or breakouts into the O zone with a bounce off the O zone boards. A return to an offense oriented game where a lead can easily be erased.

When I was a kid, I was never huge into ice hockey so my dad was glad he didn’t have to spend money for me to play the sport - which would have included costs for new equipment every year, playing on a team, tournament costs, travel, etc. As I got older, I found myself becoming a huge hockey fan even though I never did played the sport. I think there are others like me who do like the game or would like to play it, but can’t get into it because of the costs. It feels like there would be more interest in the NHL if there were more available resources for that matter, but the NHL seems to want to put their product behind a paywall they can’t even access.

This sport is agression, speed , skill and much more - is amazing. But, as an European fan, if it wasn't for EA NHL I'd never hear about ice hockey, because it seems like the league only puts effort into countries that already have an established fan base and does the bare minimum to expose the sport to other countries. I'd say: - Less ads (as someone that lives in a country which is main sport is soccer/football, the amount of ads we get shoved down our throat is insane. I sometimes give up watching a game because, most of the time I tune in, the game is on a ad break; - Have more games starting earlier so that other countries get a chance to watch it.

I haven't watched a NHL game since 2012. Sad to see nothing has changed.

Pretty sure all sport viewership is down after Covid. The real competition is twitch and video games.

They’ve also been making more rules and penalties that leads to commercials ($$$$) a microcosm to modern society. Also society’s trying to get rid of masculinity and they’re clearly doing this with nhl. No fights, less contact.

Not sure about your take on other sports. Nobody cares about baseball and NBA ratings are collapsing worse than hockey. Bettman has been a disaster and I couldn’t identify a single player from my home team so I agree with you on these troubles. You are right, every sport should be worried about soccer, lucky for them MLS is even worse at marketing than hockey.

the nhl would be in so much better shape if Mcdavid was playing for the los angelas kings, watch how big Bedard will be with the blackhawks

*Hockey Gatekeeps itself*

The nhl has a dying fan base i am 22 years old and seeing that nobody knows who is connor mcdavid and the old school is clearly not working. Local blackouts are terrible when you live in the area like say Arizona. Not to mention a lack of outreach. One thing needs to happen the people who are old school needed to accept change if they want to grow the sport and have nhl players with personalities. Everytime they ridicule the changes they might as well put a stake to end the sport. Last thing is stop focusing the nhl only in america try and spread it worldwide and not hold it back. The marketing team needs to be fired and new changes.

I used to love the NHL, having discovered hockey playing EA Sports NHL franchise. But, I got bored with it and during the early 2000’s I started to follow soccer, and fell in love with it. Hockey was the sport that was left out of my favorites, I did watch a bit of the finals.

Part of the conservativism in hockey doesn’t just fall on the aging fanbase, I’m only 30 and the all star antics bore me so much, I use the word ‘Americanized’ too describe it, but my little sister who has 0 interest in the sport loves watching the all star game and the skills comp, it’s the only time you’ll find her in the living room watching NHL while I’m nowhere to be found. However, I love the personality of Trevor Zegras, in particular, and the NHL needs to let the players be themselves. The new NHL also has changed so much since I was a kid, I’m glad open ice hits are mostly gone from the game, but people who are like 45 miss the physicality of the game, and the younger players have things mixed up, I watch the Oilers and Flames, and McDavid has questionable things happen all the time, and other oilers don’t do much about it, aside from Kane, I watched flames players drop the mits three times last season over clean, open ice, shoulder to shoulder hits. I mentioned I don’t like open ice hits, but when it’s clean and shoulder to shoulder, and the player wasn’t even hurt it anything, like let it go. One of the few examples I can think of from a player getting injured is Teuvo Terravainen from the Canes, he got chopped and broke his hand, courtesy of Mayfield, it looked like the canes let it go at first but somebody made sure Mayfield got fkn destroyed in overtime, as he should have been. The game is in a strange place right now, as is its fan. It’s definitely a struggle. Messi coming to MLS won’t help the marketing either, at least they are opposite seasons. I used to get laughed at when I mentioned I like MLS to people from Europe, or who were into the euro leagues. Now I get asked who my favourite players and teams are. There will be a big 5 for North American sports, then one day back to four, with MLS taking the NHLs spot.

No fighting to hitting killed the league, plus no streaming service. That's how F1 came up.

I love hockey, but hate the NHL. No wonder they've slowly slid it into irrelevancy in the past 20, 25 years.

The NHL will be fine, just because it isnt as popular as the other major sports doesn't mean it is going anywhere, its never been up there in terms of popularity compared to baseball, basketball and football. If the NHL was in any actual trouble, why would they be expanding adding more teams and increasing the salary cap with more and more guys making ridiculous sums of money, sure not as much as the other major sports guys but they are making more money than ever.

They need to put BizNasty in charge of national marketing 😉

Gee, not going to the Olympics must really help in selling NHL to global hockey markets. Money grubbing NHL vested interest can’t see past the tips of their noses, “Penny wise, pound foolish”. Why they can’t get a champions league going like soccer (football)? Love to see the Euro league champs play the Stanley Cup champs. Too busy trying to sell hockey in places where ice is only found in drinks, taking the hockey fans they already have for granted. I love hockey, still play the game in my 50’s, but I can honestly say I no longer identify the NHL with hockey. The NHL is its own thing, and the rest of the hockey world continues on.

I only watch NHL hockey at playoff time. And I hate the NHL playoff format. Bottomline is I can't stand the NHL's mindset of doing everything and anything based on whether it'll make a penny or save a penny, decorum be damned. Like the playoff format. Its just an embarrassing league thats slowly descending into irrelevancy. My motto is "I love hockey but hate the NHL"; its just so embarrassing and Bush League now.

There was a half-decade or so in the NBA where there was a down period with zero parity. The same two teams were either in the Finals or close to it. And despite this, the NHL STILL couldn't overtake them in popularity during that period.

The blue lines do seem a little bluer this year.

It’s pretty clear what the problem is…it’s Bally sports. They make it harder to watch the games and then wonder why viewership is down lol. As it is now, you have to pay $20 a month or hope for a bootleg feed just to watch a game. Then they put a few on ESPN or TNT but you can only watch if it’s a team from another state. Even if you could watch your local team during the few times they’re on ESPN or TNT, a lot of us have not watched very many or any games all season, so jumping in randomly to watch 1 nationally televised game without any idea of how the season is going, is like jumping into a show and starting on episode 6 and then not watching again till episode 15. They need to go back to how it was with fox sports, in that, your local team was always on basic cable or a live tv streaming service with a handful of games on nbc sports (or whatever) that anyone could watch, in market or not. THEN viewership will go back up. Oh and get rid of The Penguin, I mean Bettman.

I’ll say a year later, this past season was a step in the right direction