Bigger, But Not Better

With the NHL already pushing a 33rd team in Houston and Wednesday's news that an NHL-sized rink will be built in Atlanta, those two locations will be the next NHL cities regardless of who likes it and who doesn't. Those two television markets are ones that the NHL has coveted for a long time, and we're already seen one Gary Bettman-led expansion in Atlanta fail under his watch. The NHL has a balanced schedule with four eight-team divisions that work well when it comes to playoffs and drafting, so adding two more teams before Bettman walks away into retirement is nothing more than a final "look what I did" moment for a league desperately seeking ways to find new revenue streams.

I wwant to be clear that I'm not against expansion if there is a demand for it and if the cost of expansion makes sense. For all the success that teams like the Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks have had both on the ice and in merchandise sales, there are teams like the Columbus Blue Jackets and Atlanta Thrashers who joined the league and struggled in their markets after a few years of play. With players now earning eight-figure salaries annually, the need to expand has never been lower despite Gary Bettman's thoughts.

With the Canadian dollar sinking against the US dollar, the seven Canadian NHL teams are entering the same kind of economic territory as they did in the 1990s when both the Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets moved while all of Edmonton, Calgary, and Ottawa were rumoured to be mere hours from having new homes. While Bettman will sing about parity until cows come home, the fact that seven of his teams spend $1.40 for every $1 USD they spend doesn't allow for parity in the pocketbooks. There's no immediate nor easy fix to this problem aside from more revenue sharing from US teams to Canadian ones, so expanding while this is happening is a bad idea.

Secondly, with the product on the ice being as good as it is, expanding again before Seattle makes itself a regular playoff participant and before Detroit makes the playoffs again seems foolhardy. The NHL desperately needs some of its pillar franchises - Detroit, Chicago, New York Rangers, and Toronto - to find their way back to the postseason if they want people to remain interested. Yes, they averaged 5.2 million viewers for the 2026 Stanley Cup Final, but that's miniscule compared to the 2026 NBA Finals that saw an average of 20.6 million viewers tune in and watch. New York is a huge market!

It seems that the Friedkin Group, led by billionaire Dan Friedkin, is willing to pay the $2 billion USD expansion fee, though, so Houston looks like it's nearly ready to be announced outside of some legalities and paperwork to be completed. With a 33rd franchise all but announced at this point, the league will want to balance that out with a 34th team joining them shortly and Atlanta fits that mold.

Atlanta has proven itself to be anything but a lock when it comes to success, especially considering that both of Atlanta's franchises are now playing in Canada. Both the Atlanta Flames and the Atlanta Thrashers failed miserably in their eight- and twelve-year existences, respectfully, thanks to financial problems, abysmal marketing, poor on-ice performance, internal ownership squabbles, and arena issues.

The Thrashers averaged 17.206 fans in their inaugural season in 1999-2000, but only hit 16,000 once more in their twelve years in 2006-07 when they won the Southeast Division. They had as many seasons where they averaged just 13,000 fans as they did when they averaged 15,000 fans. Selling hockey in Atlanta is not an easy job unless they win, and expansion teams that don't win often don't fill rinks. Ask the Florida Panthers how long it took them to figure that out.

The issue that both these cities also face are immediate competition from both the NBA and the NFL. The Atlanta Hawks were the sixth-best team in the NBA's Eastern Conference this season while the Houston Rockets were the fift-best team in the NBA's Western Conference. Both teams look to be competitive this season again, so it might be tough to lure fans away from the NBA teams in Atlanta and Houston. On top of that, the Texans were 12-5 last season while the Falcons were 8-9, and both NFL teams draw huge crowds. Is the NHL actually ready to enter those markets and compete for fans?

Las Vegas was an easy sell as the first professional team of the four major leagues to move into Sin City. Seattle found out that they have to work extremely hard to get people to show up and watch a middling team. Houston and Atlanta will face similar challenges unless they can build a winner like the Golden Knights did in their inaugural year. That simply won't happen after NHL GMs learned from that Vegas expansion, so Houston and Atlanta will likely struggle.

With the two new cities being added to their roster, the NHL will officially be the largest of the four major professional sports leagues in North America. Being bigger, however, doesn't mean they're going to be any better than the other three, and there likely won't be the immediate payoff that the NHL hopes to see outside of the ludicrous expansion fees that both will pay. Why would anyone pay $2 billion for a team where a fanbase isn't guaranteed and a winner isn't likely?

It's not my money, though, so who am I to question billionaires on how they want to burn their money? Sure, they could do incredible things like feed the hungry, house the homeless, or cut medical costs for the ill with that $2 billion fee, but I guess these billionaires would rather invest in a sports team that, no matter what, seems to only increase in value. If a billionaire gets richer, it's gotta be worth it!

Isn't professional sports fun when all that matters is money?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Red-And-Gold Standard

We've known that the RSEQ women's hockey conference was growing by two teams this season for some time as both Laval and Sherbrooke were joining the fun. Just like with any expansion hockey team, there will be a lot of firsts, an even greater amount of hope, and a few bumps in the road along the way when it comes to the inuagural season, but it seems one of those Quebec universities is trying to get ahead of the curve with an outstanding setup for their locker room. If Laval puts this kind of effort into everything including their play on the ice, they might be a new U SPORTS powerhouse!

This is what the players walked into yesterday when they were invited to check out their new space on campus for the first time.

Pretty nice digs, right? That looks like a great home at the Aréna du PEPS for the new women's team, and they could likely use this dressing room as a selling feature on campus tours for potential recruits. There are lots of U SPORTS programs who have nothing like this, so kudos to Laval University for investing their women!

Circle October 16 on your calendars as they'll play the Montreal Carabins that day in their first official action in the history of the school. Montreal is, of course, one of the teams that always has big seasons in the RSEQ with an appearance at Nationals almost a perennial event, so Laval will have a big test on their hands in that first game as they begin writing chapters into their history. It's said that "for one to be the best, they have to beat the best" so why not welcome the team that established the gold standard for university women's hockey in Quebec? It seems like a good measuring stick!

Of course, the team needs to look good when they step on the ice, so the jerseys should invoke a sense of pride with the design. Will Laval find the right setup? Will they bring a traditional hockey look?

The home jerseys are nearly flawless in their design, and I commend Laval for sticking to a traditional hockey sweater design. The red and white provide excellent contrast, the gold stripe fits nicely, they avoided overusing black, and the design with the shoulder yoke feels like this team has a rich history. The CCM logo above the Laval logo can go, but these jerseys hit all the checkboxes in their design.

Will the road jerseys bring that same excellent design? Let's find out!

This red jersey isn't as good as the white jersey mainly because there's way too much black. It needs more gold since Laval is the Rouge-Et-Or, and the change in the design altogether isn't quite an impactful as they may think it is. A black yoke would work if they brought back the gold stripes on the arms and the hems outlined by black, but these will work. They're clearly not as good as the white jerseys, but they'll work for Laval. I do like the gold outline on the numbers and name on the back, though, as they helps to make the name and number more readable. That's important for broadcasters!

Overall, Laval looks like they're kicking off their women's hockey history on the right foot with an amazing locker room experience and a solid wardrobe of jerseys. Their play on the ice will obviously determine where they finish in the standings, but they're off to a good start when it comes to the aesthetics of the team. Might the RSEQ might be the best-dressed conference in women's hockey?

Best of luck to the Laval Rouge-et-Or on their inaugural season! I'll be watching their progress, but I won't be doing a lot of writing about them or any other university women's team after Canada West made the decision for me to end The Rundown. I am, however, excited to see how well former Winnipeg Ice forward Talia Jones does, so there's definitiely a reason to keep an eye on the Laval Rouge-et-Or!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 727

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, takes over the UMFM studio space once again tonight to talk all things puck. Usually, we have a main story which we want to focus on to explain the nuances that fans should know, but tonight's going to be just a smorgasbord of smaller stories that will fill the hour. There will be discussions on each, but there isn't one main topic that will eat up a half-hour of show time. If you're ready for lots of little stories that need some dissecting, make sure you're ready to roll for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason will rock the hockey world by talking about a number of topics including the Hometown Remix jersey announcement, the Islanders making their third jersey official after the fan voting closed, the Gwinnett Gladiators going back to the future, the NHL allowing a banned jersey number again, the AIHL playoff picture for this weekend, Dublin's ambitious new project, a former NHLer returning to the ECHL, a Stanley Cup winner who will miss the start of the season, a Hall-of-Famer who may have suffered, and anything else that may bounce across our respective desks today! Settle in for some glove-dropping, shot-blocking, stick-swinging, and puck-chucking chatter on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason talk bad jerseys, good colours, fun numbers, Aussie madness, Irish dreams, Russians returning, Danes hurting, saving brains, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: August 27, 2026: Episode 727

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Big Signing Goes Down

Oilers fans are hoping this isn't going to be a common occurrence, but goaltender Frederik Andersen will start the season on the shelf after being injured during an off-season training session. He'll be joined by defenceman Alec Regula and forwards Mattias Janmark and Matt Savoie as players who miss training camp with injuries, but that one-year, $2.8-million contract that Andersen signed to stabilize Edmonton's goaltending will be tested in October as the Oilers are forced to start the season with a netminding tandem that is missing their big catch in free agency.

There were no reports on what may be ailing Andersen as the start of the season nears, but one has to wonder if the heavy workload he endured through the playoffs had something to do with his current injury. At the time, it was reported as a knee injury, and that should have fans worried as goalies generally need knees that work well.

Of course, this comes on the heels of Andersen missing time in late October 2024 with a lower-body issue which, eventually, required knee surgery in November 2024, and that injury kept him out for roughly three months before returning in January 2025. He practiced for a week with the Hurricanes before the team decided to place him on injured reserve again, limiting him to just 22 games in 2024-25.

Andersen is 36 years-old so he's not getting younger, and repeated "lower-body injuries" that he's had over the course of his career don't heal as fast. I respect that the Oilers saw him as an upgrade to their goaltending situation, but there's a reason why the Hurricanes went with Brandon Bussi over re-signing Frederik Andersen, and a lot of it has to do with being younger, cheaper, and more durable. That's not to say Andersen can't recover and help Edmonton win, but Andersen played just 107 games in the last four seasons for the Hurricanes.

As it stands, the Edmonton Oilers will start the season with Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi as their goaltending tandem, and Frederik Andersen will work to get himself ready for a late-October or early-November debut assuming all goes well. If the Oilers get the Tristan Jarry who sported an .858 save percentage in 19 appearances last year, the month of October could be rough. Devon Levi has yet to prove he can be an NHL goalie, so the Oilers are going to have to hope that Andersen recovers quickly from whatever this injury is.

Even if his recovery gets him back in the lineup by the start of November, he'll need some time to be game-ready as he's scheduled to miss all of training camp and the exhibition games that the Oilers play. With fifteen games in November alone, the Oilers may need all three goalies healthy if they're going to manage each one's minutes.

The Oilers will be on the road from October 31 to November 3 where they play the Islanders and Rangers back-to-back before finishing off the trip against the Devils. They return home for a game against the Ducks on November 5 that starts a four-games-in-seven-days run, and then they hit the road for six games in nine nights between November 14 and 22. If the Oilers or Andersen wanted to be thrown into the fire after his recovery, the November schedule might be that fire.

I don't know who placed the curse on Connor McDavid and/or Leon Draisaitl, but they're going to have to hope that Jarry and Levi can hold the fort while Andersen is on the mend. If the losses start piling up before Andersen's expected return, it may be too deep of a hole to dig out of when it comes to making the playoffs this season.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Return Of Double-Zeroes!

For those that are unaware, there are specific numbers that cannot be worn in the NHL and on specific teams. Most of these are retired numbers that teams no longer keep in circulation, but specific numbers like #99 are retired league-wide so no one can wear that number again. There are two numbers that the NHL demanded be removed from circulation due to their ability to mess with the NHL's early statistical programs, and those numbers are #0, last worn by Neil Sheehy, and #00, last worn by Martin Biron as seen above. However, it seems the NHL has evolved enough that these zeroes are no longer a problem for their stats programs thanks to one team's signing announcement today!

The Minnesota Wild were going about their business today by posting on their website that they had hired Peter Thome as their new Hockey Operations Analyst. Nothing in that seems earth-moving, but they tacked on that Thome will also serve as the Wild's Emergency Backup Goalie (EBUG) this season. As you may recall, every team is required to have an official EBUG under contract this season.

The former NCAA and ECHL netminder and former 2016 Columbus Blue Jackets draft pick had a short career stopping pucks at the professional level, but he's also worked as an analyst in the USHL and as a video coach in the AHL. All of that is fine and dandy for Thome while he's wearing a suit, but there was one line that stuck out about what he'll be wearing as a goaltender for the Wild if he's needed:

"He will wear sweater No. 00 with Minnesota."

How can that be after the league banned the number in 1996 over issues with their player database and the inability to accurately record players using those numbers? Did it take thirty years for the NHL to figure out how to properly enter #00 as a valid number into that database? Will we see all EBUGs wearing #00 this season based on Thome's number? We all have questions that need answers!

I've seen a few websites indicate that all EBUGs this season will be assigned #00, and that may very well happen. However, there is no language in the NHL-NHLPA CBA Memorandum of Understanding filed last season that speaks to this number assignment and that includes Attachment 87 that speaks directly to the new EBUG rules that teams are required to follow. Logically, however, that would make sense.

Whatever the case may be for the other 31 teams, there will be one player who has #00 as his assigned jersey number next season. Congratulations to Peter Thome not only on his hiring today with the Minnesota Wild, but for becoming the answer to an NHL trivia question one day! Will #0 be the next number to be reinstated?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!