It’s about team prestige/history and city reputation. Most hockey players are from a place where winter is a thing, I don’t think many of them really care about that.
I’m sure there’s a feeling to putting on a certain jersey. An original 6 team is something that comes with it’s own panache that other teams can’t replicate and most are located in world reknowned cities. Then there is another tier of teams that are in great cities, but maybe not the team history (PHI, LA, SJ, ANA, VAN). Then another group of teams that are new exciting teams in interesting locations (VGK, NSH, SEA, TBL, FLA). Then there’s a tier of sort of low key slower cities without a lot of international recognition and with spotty team history (CGY, DAL, CAR, MIN, BUF,). Then there’s a group of cities that are on a lot of people’s NTC for various reasons smaller unknown locations with little success history (WPG, CBJ, OTT, AZ).
And of course, no one wants to play in Edmonton.
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