2010 NHL Troubled Teams Report Card

After 2009, a troubled year for the NHL in which 10 of its teams lost money and it was discovered that more than a third of its revenue comes from Canada, how have some of these franchises progressed in 2010?

There was some good news for the league, but there are still dark clouds hanging over the heads of many of those same teams.

New York Islanders

The Islanders owner, Charles Wang, managed to do a concessions deal that improves revenue, which may buy some time for the team but still has not addressed the need for a new arena for the long term. 

Apparently the team is not considering the new arena in Brooklyn and after the poor turnout in Kansas City for an exhibition game, they ate not threatening to move there either.

On the ice, the Islanders got a new star in John Tavares and a better regular season record. They will also get a high draft pick in the coming NHL draft.

So, 2010 was better year for the Islanders, but did not solve their long-term future.  The arena issue is still present but not as pressing.

Tampa Bay Lightning

They will have had the best year of any of the troubled teams because their long term ownership issue is supposed to be resolved. 

If that is indeed true, then the team can finally concentrate on repairing the damage on the ice that has occurred since the team won the Stanley Cup.

The emergence of Steve Stamkos to go along with their other stars can only help at the gate.

Tampa's biggest problem now is to find a goalie to get them back into the playoffs.

If the ownership problem is finally out of the way, Tampa Bay can look to long term healthy future.

Nashville Predators

Nashville played good hockey during the regular season but local fans have seen that before.

The future of the franchise begins in the playoffs.  The team must be seen to significantly progress by winning at least one playoff round so that it can connect more thoroughly with the public and corporate sponsors.

If the team fails to advance in the playoffs, it will still be seen as spinning its wheels despite the regular season improvement, and invite further indifference, which will still leave it a target to be moved at some future date.

It can truly be said that the players are playing for things off the ice as well as on it.

Columbus Blue Jackets

They seemed to be turning the corner at last in 2009 by finally making the playoffs for the first time.

But when I made my first round playoff predictions that year, I sensed that the team was brittle, and since then nothing has gone right.

The team failed to win a playoff game and then had a disastrous 2010 season which saw them tumble badly down the slope they climbed the year before.

Ken Hitchcock was fired as coach and the goaltending, which was a strength the year before, was mediocre.

Columbus is on its way to becoming the Western Conference equivalent of Atlanta.

Even though they are located in the north, for some reason the states of Ohio-Indiana have never taken to hockey.

Indianapolis and Cincinnati were both failed WHA franchises and the NHL pulled out of an 18,000 seat arena in Cleveland after two years, during which the Barons averaged about 6,000 fans, probably the worst attendance for a franchise in NHL history.

Lying between the hockey enthusiastic regions of Chicago-Detroit-Minnesota in the west and Buffalo-Pennsylvania in the east, it remains a puzzle why the intervening region remains a wasteland like some of the southern teams.

All the off ice troubles that Blue Jackets banished in 2009 may now return after this catastrophic 2010 season.

They need to bounce back 2011 or there may be new mutterings about the future of this franchise.

Florida Panthers

The NHL badly wanted this team to make the playoffs after it came so close in 2009, but instead it finished further away.

Florida is heavily subsidised by discount deals which Canadian hockey fans wish they could get in their own markets.

The league also tinkered with its ownership, though there is no reason at present to regard the Panthers future with the same optimism as that of Tampa Bay.

The team is certainly on a list of possible franchises to be moved.

The best that can be said is that it is in speculation limbo.  If the team turns around, nobody will be surprised if it stays.

If it leaves, nobody will be surprised at that, either.

Atlanta Thrashers

Like Florida, the NHL prayed that the Thrashers would make the playoffs and show some promise.

Instead the team was forced to trade its best player, Ilya Kovalchuk, right when they needed him the most, in the middle of the playoff race, and then watch their playoff prospects fade away.

A top draft choice will help, but this team needs a franchise player like Kovalchuk, maybe even more than one.

Nobody will be surprised if this team becomes the second hockey team to leave the Atlanta region.

Atlanta would be at the top of the list of NHL teams to be moved if it wasn't for...

Phoenix Coyotes

A lot of people, including probably the NHL, are hoping this team goes deep into the playoffs, so that they can turn the 1980 "Miracle On Ice" into an equivalent 2010 "Miracle Off Ice."

But in truth, unlike Nashville, the playoff fortune of this team means nothing. 

What counts off ice is how to turn a profit, and hoping for deep Stanley Cup playoff runs every year to balance the books is unrealistic.

This team needs to find a way to make profits during the regular season and get significant corporate and media support.

A good playoff run will help but it is too little, too late.

The team has the worst attendance in the NHL and is projected to lose another $20 million, down from $58 million the year before.

What the team does on the ice during the playoffs means nothing if Glendale doesn't sign a new lease that can turn a profit for a new owner.

The real drama for Phoenix during the playoffs is off-ice, not on.  If Glendale doesn't find an owner that suits them by June 30, the Coyotes will be gone even if they win the Stanley Cup.

So there is a report card for the troubled NHL franchises for 2010.

The NHL has probably turned around Tampa Bay and bought time on Long Island.

But the rest are in the same sorry shape as they were in 2009.