There has been recent news that the National Hockey League will be expanding again. After the expansion of Vegas and Seattle, rumours persist of teams 33 and 34 coming, likely Atlanta and Houston.

This has pushed NHL fans to complain that this is going to dilute the talent pool, lead to less exciting hockey, etc. but honestly? NHL hockey is better now than quite possibly ever. The game is great to watch right now. There’s more skill in lineups than ever before thanks to the slow removal of useless plug enforcers.

What’s important to understand is that the NHL is extremely concerned with major U.S. TV markets having an NHL team. The NHL has in the past 15 years has lost the 7th largest market in Atlanta and the 12th largest market in Phoenix. They replaced them with a Canadian market in Winnipeg (very small market) and Utah (28th) as well as added Vegas (40th) and Seattle (13th). The NHL is at a disadvantage compared to the other major North American leagues since the NFL has 32 American markets and MLB/NBA have 29 American markets. The National Hockey League currently has just 25.

Adding Houston and Atlanta (the 6th and 7th largest TV markets) would give the NHL the Top 14 markets (15th is Orlando) and 17 of the Top 20 markets (missing Orlando, Cleveland, and Sacramento) and ensure a stronger argument for TV advertisements and TV ratings.

Of course, the NHL isn’t just doing this due to markets. Expansion teams, as Allan Walsh stated, will likely cost $1.5 billion per team, and that’s just an amount that goes up. Remember: none of that money touches the players. The league loves that money.

The NHL isn’t the only league thinking about expansion, but I also don’t think the NHL expanding is a problem to 34. Then again, I’ve always wanted to see the league to increase to 40. I’ve wanted this since the 2000s when I used to post on Hockey Future.

@SeanTierneyTSS my dream has always been a 40 team, two-tiered league like the old Russian Superleague.

— Aaron – GrapPro.com (@AaronWrotkowski) July 20, 2015

40!?

Yes, 40. 40 Teams. Two Tier League.

Let me explain, and it’s easiest with the Russian Superleague.

Essentially, there’s one National Hockey League but two levels. One level has 20 teams. The other level has 20 teams.

The 20 teams are separated as 10 East and 10 West. You can juggle it a bit and sometimes it won’t be perfect but we’ve had a league before where the Los Angeles Kings played in the same division as the Montreal Canadiens and everything didn’t fall apart. The point is, there’s 20 West teams and 20 East teams. The two leagues split this way as well.

The first league, let’s call it The Stanley Cup League since that’s the league you play for the Stanley Cup. 20 teams play their games against both leagues until all games played. The top 16 teams (8 per East, 8 per West) go to the Stanley Cup playoffs. The four teams that didn’t make it? They all go to the second league.

The second league, let’s call it The Challenge Cup League since that’s an old name for the Stanley Cup and you can differentiate Stanley and Challenge. Okay. That league? They don’t get to play for the Stanley Cup. They are trying to simply play to get into the Stanley Cup League. The top two teams in the East and the top two teams in the West are automatically moved up for next year into the Stanley Cup League.

Now if the Challenge Cup League wants to do their own Stanley Cup thing with the Top four teams? A four team tournament to decide the best of the Challenge Cup League? Go for it! It doesn’t really matter or decide anything.

So now the National Hockey League is flowing between teams who can play for the Cup and those who cannot. This prevents teams from just having one hot year getting a chance at the Cup. You have to be better than just a one year wonder. You gotta earn a spot in the Top 4 of the Challenge Cup League to move onto the Stanley Cup League.

Questions?

1. Do Stanley Cup League teams only play Stanley Cup League teams? No. Games will likely do something like:

Own Division (4) x6
Opposite Division (5) x2
Other Conference (10) x1

Other Cup Division (5) x4
Other Cup Opposite Division (5) x2
Other Cup Conference (10) x1

That’s 84 games per season. The NHL is likely going to 84 games soon (hey 92-93!) so this means you play the four teams in your own division six times, the teams in the other “Cup League” of your division four times, meaning you’ll end up playing 44 games in division. You then play the opposite division (if you’re Atlantic, Metro is the opposite) 20 games, and the opposite conference for 20 games. The opposite division in conference you get a home and away game while the other conference it’s just one game per team.

2. How does this affect the NHL Draft? Oh baby this gets to my favourite part!

No. More. Lottery.

No need. Unnecessary. Completely unnecessary when “tanking” or being the worst team in the league means you can’t just once year bounce back and win a Stanley Cup. Being in the secondary league tells your fans you’re not good enough to even compete for the Cup. There’s little value in it. And with 40 first round picks now, you can just go by the season results with the 40th being the Cup winner. No need for lottery shenanigans anymore. Being a bad team gets you rewarded with potential star picks, but it takes a lot more to actually get out of the hole.

3. Can the NHL actually support 40 teams? I don’t know. Not my job! But I think that’s absolutely the plan because the NHL wants at least 30 American markets in the league. The only way to do that is to have an expansion this big. Also you can’t just say, “I don’t think the league can” because it never has tried. We’ve yet to hit a point where the league has to contract, which hasn’t happened since the 70s and that was as much due to bad management as it was the league not ready to expand.

4. Why not instead of a two league system you just expand the playoffs? Because that sucks.

I guess I can see the appeal of an NCAA style system but it also just means too many teams make it. We’ve had the 16 team system for a long time now and I think it works. Cutting back on playoff games is just less money, but going to something like 32 team playoff? Doesn’t really feel like a challenge to make the playoffs in that.

5. Would there be a salary cap difference between the two leagues? I’ve flirted with this and I think maybe. More importantly, the secondary league should have a lower floor.

Let’s say the salary cap is $125 million and salary floor is $100 million for the Stanley Cup League. I think if you drop to the Challenge Cup League, it could be a $115 million cap with a $90M floor. That gives an incentive for moving up in getting to sign new free agents while also incentive to have to spend more and not be near the floor.

What are the 35-40 teams?

So if Atlanta and Houston happen that’s an East team for Atlanta and a West team for Houston. So right now we’re looking at:

Western Conference

Central: Nashville, Winnipeg, Utah, St. Louis, Colorado, Chicago, Dallas, Minnesota, Houston
Pacific: Vancouver, Los Angeles, Calgary, Anaheim, Vegas, Seattle, Edmonton, San Jose

Eastern Conference

Atlantic: Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Detroit, Buffalo, Tampa, Florida, Boston
Metropolitan: Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Long Island, Columbus, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta

So that means we need this to be 10 teams per division. This current set up would have a need for one more Central and Metro, two more Pacific and Atlantic.

However.

I’m moving Tampa and Florida to the Metropolitan and moving Columbus to the Atlantic.

Team 35 and 36: Montreal and Toronto of the Atlantic Division

I don’t care how it needs to get done. Toronto and Montreal can support second teams. I want this more than any other NHL team in Canada. They will be instant major markets with instant money and instant fans. They also both go right into the Atlantic (though they’d technically start in the Challenge Cup League) to fill in the spots lost by Tampa and Florida.

Team 37 and 38: Phoenix and Portland of the Pacific Division

We all know Phoenix returning to the National Hockey League is inevitable. It’s the 12th market in the United States and it’s one of the largest growth states. The game has grown with some stars coming from there (Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies) and Gary Bettman’s successor is likely to want to return simply with a downtown arena and a better owner. Portland has the 23rd best U.S. TV market which is better than St. Louis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, SLC, and Columbus so it getting a team is great. They are also a great rival for Seattle and Vancouver and not located too far away. I’ve always wanted to see an NHL team in Portland again. The first time the Stanley Cup was ever played between a Canadian and American team was in 1916 with the Portland Rosebuds.

Team 39: Cleveland of the Atlantic Division

With Columbus moving to the Atlantic Division it only makes sense to have both Ohio teams in the same area. Cleveland is a top 20 U.S. TV market (19th) and has a storied hockey history. LeBron James has been getting a taste of being an NHL owner (he’s a partner of the Fenway Sports Group that owns the Pittsburgh Penguins) so I’m sure he’d love to help see Cleveland get their own NHL franchise again.

Team 40: Kansas City of the Central Division

There’s been a lot more talk of Kansas City as an NHL market again thanks to the popularity of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kelce brothers have talked about it. Kansas City has had an NHL ready arena for so long it might need updating and while it’ll cut into the St. Louis Blues market? I think it’ll be a good midwest bridge between the Texas teams (Houston and Dallas) and the north teams (Minnesota and Winnipeg)

So how would this all shake out?

Here is an example of how it could be in say the first season of such a system.

Stanley Cup League

Western Conference

Eastern Conference

Challenge Cup League

Western Conference

Eastern Conference

If the whole concept of two tier league hurts your head? You can just imagine there’s eight divisions or something in the league. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Unfortunate Balance

The thing that bugs me is that unfortunately we’re running with 31 American teams and 9 Canadian teams.

It would be perfect to go 30 American and 10 Canadian. About your best option on that would be something along the lines of Hamilton or Kitchener-Waterloo gaining an NHL team. Hamilton is close enough to Buffalo to make them cry and we’re already expanding into Toronto for a second time. It might be tight to hit Hamilton as well, even if it would have the support. Getting the sponsorship support outside of Toronto? Much more difficult.

Something in Atlantic Canada would be nice but it just isn’t big enough to support an NHL franchise. There’s of course going to be someone saying to add another team in Quebec City. I doubt it. Three French Canadian franchises? I don’t see the NHL ever supporting that. I also don’t see the NHL ever supporting Quebec City again, which is the whole reason you expand to Montreal for a second time.

Saskatoon is way too small and travel would be hell. A second Vancouver team is nice in theory but doubtful. That just leaves either adding another team close to the GTA (which, let’s be serious, Toronto could absolutely support) or just giving that 31st team to America. Which I did with Cleveland. If it works better for you to adding Hamilton? Feel free.

Why do I like this so much?

For starters? I want to kill the draft lottery. I hate it. I hate the obsession over “tanking” the league has had. I would much rather the league recognize that simply being a bad team is punishment enough. I don’t think the draft lottery creates any form of parity. Teams already protect draft picks now from lottery when making trades to ensure they don’t run into that anymore, to the point where we get complicated long ass stuff like the Monahan trade to Montreal with a crazy amount of conditions.

I also love the idea that being a Stanley Cup playoff team is a privilege you can lose. I get that the NHL loves their current wildcard race where teams are essentially split between three points in the standings when in reality some of those teams shouldn’t even be close to a spot. It’s an absolute car pile up. If making the playoffs was something you had to earn the year before then hold it? Now it’s a battle to not fall out of the Top 16. And it’s a battle for the teams who won the Challenge League to move up and lock a spot in, otherwise be dropped back into the Challenge League. Holding onto your spot is an all year war now instead of just a bunch of teams battling only a few points in separation in the spring.

It also means teams outside of a playoff spot in the Challenge League still have something to play for. If you didn’t make the playoffs last season? You’re not just some 50/50 team trying to get a Top 15 draft pick. Now you’re having to load up and try to make the top four of the Challenge League so you can try to get a playoff spot next season. Your record needs to improve to get up.

It also ensures the one year cinderellas aren’t going to the playoffs but instead just trying to get into the Stanley Cup League. It would likely anger a franchise to see the 16th team make it with a worse record, but that’s what you get for not being consistently good. You gotta bounce them in the Stanley Cup League or else no Cup for you.

Is The NHL Superleague likely?

I should say I don’t think this will ever happen in the National Hockey League. Owners and fanbases will be just too salty if their team missed the playoffs last year and got bounced down to the Challenge Cup League and then they now loaded up and won 58 games and have one of the best records, but they don’t make the Stanley Cup playoffs. They simply qualify for the Stanley Cup League next year. I think that would just cause absolute crying and whining about how they got screwed out in these new rules of having a powerhouse for one year.

I would absolutely love it. I would love to see how teams keep a strong team in the playoffs and how teams react to falling out of the Cup league. I think it would make the regular season that much more challenging.

I’m also completely open to adding new markets. There’s so many cities I think could be NHL teams. Milwaukee, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Austin, Jacksonville, returning to Hartford, I would love to see some new cities get to enjoy the National Hockey League.

Anyway, that’s been my dream NHL for a long time now. I’ve been talking about this since I heard of the concept of the two-tier league. I know football in Europe has had multiple tiers and teams going up and down with relegation, but I think you can stick to just a 40 team league with two tiers and get it done. I wish the games would let you try this and see how it shook out.

While I don’t think we ever get the two tier league? I do believe that in my lifetime we see 40 teams in the National Hockey League. Maybe not soon (though who thought we’d already be hearing about team 33 and 34 after the Vegas and Seattle expansions?) but in the next 25 years? I’d say so.