Quote:
Originally Posted by butterfly
Easily. They're all hockey fans and they have money. People from Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph...even Oakville, Milton, and maybe Mississauga would also be attracted. So easy to make money with a team like that.
The 641st-680th players aren't going to water down the league. They are just as good as the 601st-640th players who are in the league now. And the new teams will grab players in the expansion draft and the amateur draft.
|
They are though. Expansion wouldn't result in 46 more 'average' players, it would add 46 players from the bottom of the pyramid. The question is: how much weaker would it be? And, as you say, there isn't much drop off to those players, so I think the drop would be marginal and the league could digest it with little impact to the quality of the game.
There are more available players all the time, as countries like Germany, Norway, Slovakia, etc, are starting to churn out more and more NHLers. And the US is producing many more quality players than they used to. I think the quality of the product is fine, and could easily absorb 2 more teams over the next 5 years or so.