NHL Team Values Are Popping Exploding With Some Up over 210% In Three Years
The NHL seems to be in a good place at the moment as team values are as high as ever
The 2025-26 NHL regular season gets underway next week, and for the first time in years, it feels like the league is entering the year in a superb place.
They're coming off the massive success that was the 4 Nations Face-Off and are gearing up for a return to the Winter Olympics in February. Meanwhile, the salary cap continues to go up, and the league and the NHLPA put pen to paper on a new CBA without even a threat of a work stoppage.
And, perhaps best of all for owners, team values are as high as ever, according to a new report from Sportic, which says the average NHL team is now worth $2.1 billion.
That still makes the NHL's average franchise value lower than the MLB, NBA, and, of course, NFL, but here's the thing: that's a 17% jump from last season and a staggering 100% jump from 2022, when the average value of a team was a shade over $1 billion.
Is that good? I think that's good.
The most valuable team in the league is the Toronto Maple Leafs at $4.25 billion, a 16% increase in just one year. Behind them is the most valuable American team, the New York Rangers, at $3.65 billion, which is a 12% jump over last year's value.
Meanwhile, the least valuable team in the league, the Columbus Blue Jackets, is still over the $1 billion mark, coming in at $1.3 billion, and that's a 23% jump in one year.
The FLorida Panthers saw the biggest increase in value this year, and have jumped over 200% since 2022. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)
But the biggest increase of all belongs to the two-time reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. They're worth an estimated $1.89 billion, which puts them toward the middle of the league. However, that's a 51% increase over last year.
The Panthers, along with the Carolina Hurricanes (who jumped 51%) and the Utah Mammoth (formerly the Arizona Coyotes), have increased in value by 210% or more in just the last three years.
Of course, for Utah, a big part of that was simply moving out of a rough situation in Arizona…
It's great to see this kind of growth among the "non-traditional market" teams (I hate that term), and hopefully this trend will continue next season.