A Turning Point for Hockey: How the NHL Has Set Itself Up for Success
Jared Fong | 14 April, 2025
Intro and Background
When it comes to the big 4 North American sports, hockey tends to fall behind in popularity in comparison to football, basketball, and baseball. The expensive barrier to entry, limited access to rinks, and complexity of the game make it hard for many people to break into the sport. However, the current 2024-25 NHL season has been nothing but a success. Both the steps the league has taken and the on-ice product have led to immense growth and exposure for the league and the sport as a whole. What has made the NHL so successful this season is the fact that they have been able to get more and more eyeballs on both the screen and fans in the arena. This season especially has given the NHL a huge wave of momentum that the league will need to capitalize on to push the sport of hockey further into mainstream media.
What the NHL Has Done
To grow the game of hockey, the NHL has made two big moves this season. The first was relocating the Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City, Utah. For the past few seasons, the Arizona Coyotes have finished dead last in attendance. The situation became so desperate for the Coyotes that they spent their last three seasons in the Southwest playing in Arizona State University’s 5000-seat Mullet Arena. After plans to build a new arena in Arizona were shot down by the voters, the NHL began discussions of relocating the Coyotes. In April of 2024, the NHL announced the sale of the Coyotes to the Smith entertainment group led by the owners of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, Ryan and Ashley Smith, for $1.7 billion. The team would be temporarily named the Utah Hockey Club, which is still referred to as so, as a name has not yet been decided, and begin play in the Delta Center in Salt Lake City at the beginning of the 2024-25 season. With the first season for the Utah Hockey Club in the books, the move has been viewed as a success thus far. Fans in Utah were captivated by having the state’s first NHL hockey team and showed strong support for the team in its inaugural season. Attendance has nearly doubled for the franchise as the Delta Center averages approximately 11,131 fans each night, the maximum number allocated for hockey, nearly double the capacity of the Mullett Arena. This number is only expected to go up as there are plans in place for $25 million renovations for the Delta Center to increase the seating for hockey and over 30,000 deposits down for season tickets. While the Utah Hockey Club did not perform very well on the ice, from a business standpoint, their first season has had them off to a flying start. With league-wide support and a long-term plan for success, the Utah Hockey Club is primed to thrive in its new home.
The Utah Hockey Club is about to wrap up its successful first season in Salt Lake City.
The second decision the NHL made to grow the sport of hockey was replacing this year’s All-Star Game with the 4 Nations Face-Off. With hockey slated to return to the Olympics in 2026, the NHL decided to give the fans an appetizer for next February. The result was the 4 Nations Face-Off, a mini international tournament between four of the best hockey nations: the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Finland. The 4 Nations would be the first time many of the league’s best players, like Cale Makar, Auston Matthews, and Nathan MacKinnon, would get the opportunity to represent their home nations in best-on-best play.
Matthew Tkachuck (USA) and Brandon Hagel (Canada) were the first of 3 fights to open the first matchup between the United States and Canada.
The tournament blew everyone’s expectations out of the water. With international pride on the line, everyone on the ice played much harder than expected, providing for a playoff-like atmosphere in every game. The highlight of the tournament was undoubtedly the two games between long-time rivals in the US and Canada. The first matchup in Montreal began with 3 fights in the first 9 seconds of the game and was a physical affair that saw an American win with a score of 2-1. In the final game, we witnessed an exciting back-and-forth contest that saw Connor McDavid get his defining international moment by scoring the tournament-winning goal for Canada in overtime.
The Four Nations Face-Off was the first time the consensus best player in the world, Connor McDavid, got to play for his home country of Canada in best-on-best hockey.
The motivation the players had to represent their countries gave us games filled with passion, intensity, and grit. The 4 Nations Face-Off became must-see television, especially when you factor in the rising political tensions between the US and Canada and a subpar NBA All-Star Weekend that was missing some of the NBA’s best players and lacked competitive effort, something the 4 Nations had a plethora of. The 4 Nations Final, a rematch between the US and Canada, generated an undeniable buzz. With the best in the world on the ice and national pride at stake, the game garnered attention from all types of people, from hardcore fans to people who had never watched hockey but wanted to witness the spectacle of the game. Canada’s victory over the US in the final game was the second-most watched hockey game in the last decade, only trailing game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals, drawing a total of 16.1 million viewers in North America and was the most-watched non-NFL game on ESPN+. What was just expected to be a replacement for the traditional All-Star Game ended up exceeding all expectations and exposed the game of hockey to many new fans.
On Ice Product
While the NHL has made great moves with the Utah Hockey Club and 4 Nations Face-Off that have been very beneficial for the sport, the league also has to thank all of its players for producing an entertaining and intriguing product on the ice that has captivated fans. The incredible storylines and product put out on the ice by the players have been drivers to exposing new fans to hockey.
Perhaps the biggest on-ice story of the season has been Alexander Ovechkin’s chase to pass Wayne Gretzky as the greatest goal scorer of all time. Despite missing 16 games after fracturing his fibula, the ‘Great 8’ did the unthinkable, scoring his 895th career goal (42nd of the season) and surpassing Wayne Gretzky for the most goals scored by a player, a record that many thought would never be surpassed. This feat by the Russian winger captivated the eyes of a record number of viewers with the April 6th matinee game between the Capitals and Islanders generating 1.3 million viewers, the highest non-Winter Classic Regular season game ever, and was seen by over 4 million people on X.
Alexander Ovechkin netted his 895th goal on April 6, 2025, against the New York Islanders, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s goal record, solidifying himself as the greatest goal scorer of all time.
Another massive story involving an NHL superstar was the Mikko Rantanen trade saga. The Colorado Avalanche shocked the hockey world when they shipped off Mikko Rantanen, a bona fide top-10 player, to the Carolina Hurricanes. The trade to Carolina came as a surprise to everyone, as Rantanen had spent his whole career in Colorado and produced career numbers for the past several seasons. However, the pieces didn’t quite fit together in Carolina for the Finnish Superstar, and things only got crazier when Rantanen was flipped at the trade deadline to the Dallas Stars, solidifying them as one of the Stanley Cup favorites. The Rantanen trade saga captivates the eyes of many fans as it is very rare that players as talented as Mikko Rantanen are traded. The fans of the Stars especially were drawn to this story and were excited to see their new superstar in action. In Rantanen’s debut for the Stars against the Edmonton Oilers on March 8, 2025, the Stars’ new streaming service, Victory+, saw 165,000 digital-only viewers tune in for the game, a record high for the service.
Rantanen’s trade to Dallas made the Stars one of the Stanley Cup favorites and brought in new fans invested in the Stars.
Something else that has helped the NHL grow as a league is the heart and passion with which the players play. Because of the culture within hockey, players play through injury and give it their all each day and night. Auston Matthews, captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is a great example of this. Since returning to action this January, Matthews has been playing through a nagging injury to help the Leafs attempt to win the Atlantic division. With the NBA struggling to maintain viewers for a number of reasons, including load management and fans believing the players are not trying hard enough, the NHL has served as an alternative for many sports fans. Fans want to see players give it their all because it results in more entertaining games. After all, the NHL and NBA are primarily entertainment businesses. At this current moment, fans are not exactly pleased with the product on the basketball court but are finding that hockey is doing quite the opposite. The viewership numbers tend to support the claim that fans are finding more entertainment in watching hockey. While full viewership numbers are not out, the trend appears to be that NHL viewership is up substantially. ESPN recently released that ABC Hockey Saturday is averaging 1.03 million viewers per game, up 22% year over year.
The Next Steps
While the NHL has made some extremely effective moves to garner more interest in the sport of hockey, there are still some issues that remain in the league. One of the league’s biggest problems is regional blackouts. Regional blackouts prevent fans in a certain area from watching games on national TV or streaming services, as the game can only be shown on the regional broadcast. For example, fans in Los Angeles can only watch the LA Kings on FanDuel Sports Network, even if the game is on ESPN+. Because regional blackouts make it very difficult for some fans to watch their team, it encourages them to illegally stream the game or stop following altogether. It is easier said than done, but if the league wants to grow the game, the NHL has to find a way to end regional blackouts to make it easier for fans to watch. Some teams are aware of this issue and have made the games widely accessible for their fans. The Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks have both started using Victory+ to broadcast their games, which allows fans in the local area to watch their games for free on the app. However, the league should not have to rely on each team making their games free to make it easier to watch their favorite team. The NHL should take advantage of their recently signed TV deals with TNT and ESPN to broadcast games and let fans use these channels to watch the games, regardless of who’s playing and where fans live. Fans find it very frustrating to pay for a channel or service only to discover that they can’t even watch their favorite team.
The Anaheim Ducks’ usage of Victory+ has been very beneficial for the team and fans who get to watch their favorite play for free.
In addition to further growing the game, the NHL needs to capitalize on the momentum lingering from the 4 Nations Face-Off with the playoffs, which begin on April 20. The playoffs need to be exciting and full of drama for people to tune in. The good thing for the league is that playoff hockey rarely disappoints. The atmosphere of playoff hockey is unmatched; no matter where you go, the arena is always loud and rocking, and this will most certainly be on display in these playoffs. Additionally, the first round is set to be full of compelling storylines. Not everything is set in stone, but if things stay the way they are, we will be in for a treat. In the East, the battle of Ontario between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, led by 4 Nations star Brady Tkachuck, will renew one of hockey’s oldest rivalries. Also, in the East, the battle of the Sunshine State between the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning will be a heated affair between two teams that cannot stand each other. The Western Conference will certainly not disappoint either when it comes to first-round matchups. The Los Angeles Kings will be seeking revenge against the team that has knocked them out of the playoffs in the last 3 years, the Edmonton Oilers, who are led by team Canada hero, Connor McDavid. In perhaps the biggest series between two Stanley Cup favorites, the Colorado Avalanche are set to take on their rival that ended their playoff hopes last year in the Dallas Stars, led by the player that Avalanche traded away earlier this year in Mikko Rantanen. All these first-round matchups are riveting storylines that will lead to long, entertaining series that are bound to catch the eye of casual fans or people who have never watched hockey before.
The Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers will reignite their rivalry in their 4th straight first-round matchup.
The NHL is in a good spot right now. The league is healthy and is growing with each passing year. However, if the league wants to close the gap between its popularity and that of the NBA, MLB, and NFL, it still has to take a few extra steps. These playoffs will be a vital part of the league’s growth. If the league can catch some of the magic of the 4 Nations in the playoffs, then the NHL will be breaking business records left, right, and center this spring. The plan for growth overall should be a long-term outlook. The NHL has to remain consistent in making the right business decisions and delivering an entertaining on-ice product to become a more mainstream attraction.
