NHL expansion fees have come a long way since the humble beginnings of the Ottawa Senators. When the Sens entered the league in the early '90s, the cost for an entire franchise was reported at the time as $50 million.
Today, Auston Matthews will make that over the next three and a half seasons.
Analyst John Shannon said this week he believes the NHL will soon become a 34-team league, with two more franchises added within the next five years. Sportico reported in late June that the new NHL expansion fee is expected to be a staggering $2 billion.
To put that in perspective, that’s 40 times more than the Senators paid in 1992. And it’s 1,000 times more than in 1967, when the modern NHL first expanded beyond the Original Six.
That 1967 expansion doubled the league’s size, adding six new teams: the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and St. Louis Blues. The entry fee? Just $2 million per team.
In 1970, the NHL welcomed the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks, with their expansion fee jumping to $6 million each.
Two more teams joined in 1972–73: the New York Islanders and the Atlanta Flames. The fee stayed at $6 million, partly due to the NHL’s competition with the new rival league, the WHA. The Islanders, though, paid a little extra — $5 million — for stepping into Rangers territory.
In 1974–75, the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts joined the league, again paying $6 million. The WHA was still around, and the NHL didn’t want to push its luck.
By 1979, the WHA stopped being a problem because, well, it stopped being a league. Four of its six remaining teams joined the NHL for $7.5 million each: the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and the original Winnipeg Jets.
The next true expansion wouldn’t happen until 1991–92, when the San Jose Sharks paid $45 million to join the league.
Enter our conquering heroes.
A year later, the Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning got going. Ottawa’s expansion fee was $50 million (or $45 million depending on your source), which was money they didn’t have. Owner Bruce Firestone and his team smartly told the NHL everything…