The average NHL team is now worth $2.1 billion. What does it mean for the league?

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It’s going to take a little longer to save up to purchase your favorite hockey team these days.

According to Sportico’s annual team valuation rankings released Wednesday, the average NHL franchise is now worth an estimated $2.1 billion. This is up 17 percent from last year at this time and more than 100 percent from 2022, when the average team value was only $1.01 billion.

Leading the way are four Original Six franchises, each worth more than $3 billion: the Toronto Maple Leafs ($4.25 billion), New York Rangers ($3.65 billion), Montreal Canadiens ($3.3 billion) and Boston Bruins ($3 billion).

The teams with the largest year-over-year valuation increases, meanwhile, all reside in the U.S. Sun Belt: the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers (51 percent growth), followed by the Carolina Hurricanes (49 percent) and Anaheim Ducks (28 percent).

The Panthers’ single-year valuation increase is the equivalent of $638 million, more than the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken each paid for expansion franchises in 2017 and 2021. Vegas and Seattle are now worth $2 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively.

The average Sun Belt franchise is now worth $1.92 billion, a figure that has increased 23 percent, or $341 million, year over year.

On the lower end of the valuation report, the Columbus Blue Jackets, Winnipeg Jets, Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres are currently considered the least valuable franchises, as all are estimated to be worth around $1.3 billion.

The most interesting part of Sportico’s report is the reasons why NHL valuations have risen so much and how they compare to the other Big Four sports, which have traditionally generated far higher revenue totals. NHL revenues only grew modestly last season, around 3 percent to $6.5 billion. However, a relatively low hard salary cap ($95.5 million in 2025-26), continuous labor peace, and the newfound success for so many previously struggling Sun Belt clubs have been big drivers of increasing valuations.

The NHL’s revenue-sharing formulas, which were reworked to further benefit struggling franchises in the new CBA that starts next year, also contribute to that success, as over the past decade, most teams have been able to spend close to the salary cap.

Even the NHL’s weakest revenue drivers are pulling in more than required to meet player payroll: Aside from last-place Columbus, the next six lowest revenue-generating clubs — Buffalo, Utah, Ottawa, San Jose, Anaheim and Winnipeg — still made between $174 million and $183 million last season.

That ability for the smaller markets to earn adequate revenue has undoubtedly been a significant factor in boosting franchise values: Over the past three years, the Panthers, Hurricanes and Mammoth (who relocated from Arizona to Utah in 2024) have all increased their valuations by 210 percent or more.

That said, the NHL still leans heavily on its biggest and most established markets for revenue generation and to supply funds for revenue sharing, which the top 11 revenue-generating teams will pay into under the revised system.

The Leafs again ranked first in league revenue, with $380 million for 2024-25, more than $100 million above what the ninth-place Panthers and 22 other teams earned. The NHL’s other top revenue generators last season were the Edmonton Oilers, Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings and Rangers, all four of which pulled in $322 million or more.

The average Original Six team is now worth $3.18 billion, up $372 million (or 13 percent) from a year ago. The average Canadian franchise, meanwhile, is worth $2.38 billion, up $305 million, and the average U.S. franchise is worth $2.02 billion, up $304 million.

Those figures are in line with recent sale prices for teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins, the latter of which is rumored to be nearing a sale for around $1.75 billion — a nearly 100 percent increase over when the Penguins were bought by Fenway Sports Group just four years ago. Such rapidly escalating prices explain why the speculated starting point for future expansion franchises in Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix or other cities is around $2 billion.

It’s a long way from where the NHL was before instituting a salary cap, when the average franchise was worth an estimated $163 million — 13 times less than today.

What’s notable about this economic shift is that it doesn’t necessarily guarantee higher player salaries, as the NHL’s cap is directly tied to overall league revenues, not franchise valuations. The league’s cap is currently rising in part because players were paying back an escrow debt from the 2020 pandemic, which led to a flat cap for five years.

Whether leaguewide revenue growth gains more momentum over the coming years is unclear, given some headwinds for things like regional broadcasting rights, per Sportico. But that may not impact franchise valuations if the majority of teams remain profitable and owning them continues to come with real estate and other ancillary financial benefits.

That said, it is a significant positive for the league that the valuation gap is finally narrowing between the NHL’s have and have-not franchises. It attracts better, well-heeled ownership, which in turn leads to more stability for the league overall and higher revenues for individual markets that traditionally haven’t produced big dollars at the gate.

But the ones who benefit the most are clearly the 32 owners who currently have teams and can land an enormous windfall with a sale at any time.

(Data via Sportico; photo of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)

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