The National Hockey League is at an odd time. The league is pulling in record revenue right now along with their continued success with attendance and ratings. There's one word on everybody's mind and this idea continues to rush at us with deafening speed.
Expansion.
The league, which hasn't expanded since adding the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild back in 2000, has been reportedly playing with the idea of expansion for the past couple of seasons. For starters, the NHL realigned the conferences before last season leaving 16 teams in the Eastern Conference but just 14 teams in the Western Conference. It's almost as if they did this with the foresight of expansion in the coming years. This big disadvantage for Eastern Conference teams essentially indicates we should expect to see two new Western Conference teams in the near future.
