Agent Reveals When The NHL Will Add It's Next Teams

PUBLICATION

Graham Montgomery
December 9, 2023 (0:22)

SHARE THIS STORY

The NHL has had a tremendous amount of success in recent years with the additions of expansion teams in Vegas and Seattle. In terms of growing the game and reaching wider audiences there has not been a more successful campaign that expansion. One outspoken NHL player agent believes the league will continue to expand so the owners can see that sweet expansion fee money.

Walsh States The NHL Will Expand Again 'Soon'

Allan Walsh, perhaps the most outspoken player agent in the entire NHL, stated today that he believes the league will continue to expand. The reason? Money. They say that money talks and expansion is certainly a very loud conversation. Vegas's expansion generated 500 million dollars in fees and Seattle upped that number to 650 million. How much the next team will cost has not yet been made public, but you can bet it will be an even higher number. NHL insider Frank Serravalli believes the next expansion fee will be in the 1.1 to 1.2 billion dollar range.

Walsh added that the league will certainly expand in the upcoming years if it means somewhere between 2 and 2.5 billion dollars of revenue for the league.

There are $2 Billion reasons why NHL expansion is happening soon. Under current CBA, the players receive no share of any expansion money, the entire amount is distributed between NHL owners.

Vegas And Seattle Prove Expansion Is Best For The NHL

What team over the past five seasons has generated the most buzz around the NHL? Many fans may be tempted to give the easy answer of Toronto, because the Leafs are always in the news, but the Vegas Golden Knights have really taken the league by storm. The team has been historically good for an expansion franchise, culminating in their first ever Stanley Cup Championship last season.

The Kraken have been good in their own right as well. While the team has not found consistent success like the Knights did right out of the gate, they still managed to not only make the playoffs last year, but upset the defending Stanley Cup Champions in the 1st round before losing to a very strong Stars team in a hard-fought seven game series.

These kinds of stories make expansion even more appetizing to potential new owners. As such, new ownership groups might be willing to pay the bloated expansion fees if they believe they will have a solid team right from the start.

As seen on NHL to add more teams within the next two years according to NHL agent