Dear The NHL, Please No More Expansion

Over the last few days, reports have surfaced that the NHL will likely be growing yet again sometime soon. Not only is the league exploring the possibility of expanding yet again, it seems as if they already know where hockey will be going next with Atlanta and Houston increasingly likely becoming the homes of the NHL's 33rd and 34th franchises. While the league continued to grow and find success in non-traditional hockey markets, I find myself asking are we going to far? History has already shown Atlanta's struggles with sustaining an NHL franchise as they have lost their team twice, and although Houston is a larger market, do we really need to add more teams to the league?

Beyond my concerns about the specific markets they are looking at, one aspect I think that we are not talking about enough regarding this topic is the potential sacrifice we are making in terms of competition. Of course I know that the league's talent pool has never been stronger but there are franchises who have struggled for years to make the playoffs because finding the right talent is so difficult in this sport. Sure adding new teams allows for more roster spaces across the NHL but it also ups the chances of having non-NHL caliber players suiting up in the NHL on a more consistent basis.

Also, if we add only two new teams, how will this affect division structure? Are we going to have one nine-team division and one eight-team division in each conference? That doesn’t seem fair with the NHL’s current playoff format (which is a whole other topic for conversation) where division placement is so crucial. This likely means we would need to bring in another two franchises to help even things out. I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like too much, given my previous concerns about the talent pool.

In the end, I think we've reached the point where expanding to 34 or 36 teams would be a bit much. As stated, I know that the NHL's talent pool is deeper than ever, but I think adding too many franchises could result in lowering the quality of play across the league. Beyond talent concerns, there are logistical challenges such as divisions structure and the fairness of the current playoff structure.

Instead of rushing into further expansion, maybe the league should start focusing on whether its current markets are truly invested in being NHL cities and start considering the possibility of relocation instead of expansion.