The 2019-2020 NHL Season

Is this a post about predicting the upcoming NHL season and you simply got the dates wrong?

No. This post is my prediction for the state of the NHL game in ten years.

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With Gary Bettman’s retirement and Bill Daly taking over the seat of commissioner of the NHL, all of the leagues blemishes are coming into view. The league itself is bankrupt and being bankrolled through loans from a select few teams and massive concessions given to the league’s two significant broadcasters, the CBC and TSN.

Years of loaning failing teams money just to stay afloat have cost the league dearly. The Dallas Stars, left adrift after owner Tom Hicks dumped the team, have been league funded and mismanaged into local obscurity. The fans stopped going to games before Hicks walked away and current management hasn’t done anything to get excitement for hockey back in the lone star state. A recent survey conducted by the Dallas Morning News returned results of more than 50% of Dallas men aged 19-49 responded with “Whatever happened to that ice hockey team.” Suing Tom Hicks to force him into taking back his team has accomplished nothing but pad the bank accounts of the league’s hired lawyers.

The Phoenix Coyotes, although officially owned by Chicago sports magnate Jerry Reinsdorf, have never been funded or run by Reinsdorf. From day one since Reinsdorf signed his name on the dotted line, the team has been run (into the ground) by the New York offices. Reinsdorf’s retirement from the day-to-day runnings of his sports empire and the control going to his son David have done nothing to increase involvement in the Coyotes. The Reinsdorfs want nothing to do with the team and seem quite content in letting the inept league pay the bills and run the team.

In the East, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Atlanta Thrashers have been nothing but major league farm teams, selling draft picks and promising players to contenders up north for just enough money to keep the lights on.

The southern teams, the so-called “non-traditional hockey market” teams have become living graveyards for over-priced, under-achieving veteran players. Players signed solely to push the team past the minimum salary amount. The California teams have not fared much better. Anaheim has been living off NHL dollars for a half dozen years, the Kings and Sharks have started taking league handouts recently as well.

The league that once fought so valiantly to maintain those unsuccesful franchises had to finally concede and allow a much sought after southern Ontario franchise, but from the most unlikely of sources. What was once Hockeytown has now become Ghosttown. After the complete failure of America’s auto industry to weather the storm brought on by the Bush and Obama administrations, the Illyich family was forced to pull the team out of Detroit. They did not move far, only a three hour drive across the river and up Highway 401 into Toronto’s new Lastman Arena. The Toronto Red Wings have renewed the old rivalry with the Maple Leafs and have made Toronto the league’s only true Hockeytown.

This flood of hockey into southern Ontario has had negative effects on the other nearby teams. The Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres attendence have dropped significantly since the Red Wings moved across the border.

On a brighter note, the not-once, but twice bankrupt Pittsburgh Penguins have seen a rejuvenation that started many years ago with the drafting of future hall of famers Sidney Crosby and Gino Malkin. Since winning their first Stanley Cup under Crosby ten years ago, then moving into their current building, the Penguins, have maintained an ability to contend year in year out; thus making the team consistently profitable. They’ve maintained winning seasons and cup contention for more than ten years, replenishing their roster each season by purchasing low-priced, talented youngsters from the league’s bottom-dwelling franchises. Other teams that have been buyers in an otherwise bankrupt culture have been the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers and Boston Bruins.

To make matters worse, elite players have become almost afraid to compete at their highest level as the physicality of the game has worsened each year. Injuries have become an expected occurance amongst elite players. The game itself is starting to resemble an ungodly mix of 1970s brawling and 1990s trapping defence.

The NHL is dying. The man put in charge of it’s ressurrection, although well meaning, is in way over his head. The Bettman era has crushed the marketability and financial stability of the game to such a point that recovery is impossible.