NHL Without Borders: The Northern Option

Speculation about NHL expansion to Europe hasn’t set off a franchise bidding war in Berlin or St. Petersburg.

But Hamilton is still getting plenty of support.

Last week, NHL VP Bill Daly spoke of “increasing movement into Europe” and possible playing there “in ten years time.”

Maybe he’s serious, or maybe it's just a swipe at the Continental Hockey League, barely off the ground and already creating headaches for the NHL.

Response has been muted. It seems many hockey folks would rather skip the overseas adventure and put more teams in Canada.

Carolina Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford would rather see “a couple more teams back into Canada, get back into Winnipeg and put another team in Ontario.”

Hockey deity Wayne Gretzky appears to agree.

"I don't think there's any question that Hamilton or Kitchener or that area, that region, could definitely support a National Hockey League team,” he told Canadian Press on Friday.

The head of the NHL Players’ Association is also on record as supporting the Canadian option.

Kind words do not a franchise make. (Gretzky, in particular, has mastered the art of saying noncommittal nice things.) But more noise about Hamilton and other Canadian locales doesn’t make life any easier for commissioner Gary Bettman. Especially when teams like Florida and Atlanta continue to struggle.

And it suggests that pipe dreams about Europe should be forgotten until the NHL cleans up its act at home in North America.

After all, Canada is where the money is. And NHL owners love their money.