It's back in the news again: today TSN and several other Canadian news web sites are running stories that claim certain unnamed NHL Governors have mentioned a league move to put a second team somewhere in the Toronto vicinity, probably involving Research in Motion (Blackberry) CEO Jim Balsillie:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=253294&lid=headline&lpos=secStory_nhl

Meanwhile the Toronto Star is pouring water on it based on a Maple Leafs official's comments:

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/521152

Another team for my Habs to beat is always ok in my books. :)

Seriously though, the idea is kind of ridiculous. If a city like LA, NYC or Detroit can't/won't have a 2nd NHL team then why does Toronto seem to think they can do it?

It would be nice to have another Canadian based team, but why not try to get a team back into one of the cities that lost their previous teams due to the way the NHL was run at the time?

Where would they put the team? Hamilton is out due to the proximity to Buffalo.

We in North America have a strange taboo against second teams in most cities. Granted the really big cities/regions of New York and Los Angeles may have second football, basketball, baseball, and hockey teams, but generally all the others do not (Chicago has 2 baseball teams).

Throughout the world, cities of all sizes have more than 1 team in their major leagues. This is most true in football (soccer), with the City of London (yes, it is much bigger than Toronto) and its area having between 3 and 6 teams in the English Premier League depending on their performance each year. Similarly, Australia has several AFL teams in Melbourne that all do well at the turnstiles.

I think a second NHL team in the Toronto area would do well, and the Leafs would not be adversely affected.

I voted no. Hamilton should get one first.

If the Leafs have an issue with Hamilton getting a team (and they do) then they certainly have an issue with this.

It would be an insult to Canadian hockey fans to put a second team in Toronto.

Its a bigger insult to canadian Hockey fans that we only have 6 teams. Why do we need the NHL anyway. Canadians love hockey...take back the league form more teams and maybe we will "allow" Detroit and NY to join our League.


It is alot more insulting to me to have 2 teams in the state of Florida :confused:

And 1 of those teams managed to win the Stanley cup.

Did the NHL not learn that 2 wrongs does not make a right.

Don't they need one NHL team before they get a second?

No thanks. Hockey Night in Canada is already bad enough with the Toronto love. With a second Toronto team they might as well go ahead and just name their name to "Hockey Night in Toronto." Besides, there are markets that deserve a (second) chance at a team, like Winnipeg.

More on a potential 2nd team in Toronto

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081020.shoalts21/BNStory/National/home

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2008/10/21/kelley_toronto_expansion/

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2008/10/21/toronto_speculation/

The Maple Leafs are dismissing talk of a second NHL team in Toronto as little more than speculation.

Richard Peddie, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, had little to say about a report in Tuesday's Globe and Mail suggesting NHL governors are talking informally about placing a second team in Canada's largest city.

Without rejecting the idea out of hand, Peddie said any sort of reaction to such a proposal would only come once his club's board was given a league recommendation on the matter.

My vote is NO

I do think a 2nd team in Toronto will succeed but I think this will not happen in years ... Why you ask? Cause the likely owner of this so called 2nd franchise will be Jim Balsillie and he has 0% interest in the Toronto market and he will not want to deal with sharing the ACC with the Leafs, plus parking, etc... and the whole Gary Bettman thing... if anything Balsillie will either move a team to Hamilton or Kitchener/Waterloo, before even thinking of putting a team in T.O. Heck why not put 4 teams in Toronto then, if your going to do that. BTW they better not go and award any city with a NHL franchise, cause the NHL is way to over-populated with teams as it stands.

I agree with smootherator about having 1 and only 1 franchise in each city. If they really are wanting to relocate so badly then move Atlanta,Florida,Nashville or Phoenix to Winnipeg...They deserve another team. The Leafs are the Centre of the Hockey Universe and they must earn the Stanley Cup, not just given to them by getting a 2nd franchise. I highly doubt the Toronto Maple Leafs/Buffalo Sabres would allow this to happen, and same goes if Balsillie were to move a team to Hamilton, anyways that's just my two cents on this.


Go Leafs Go ... Beat the Ducks Tonight!!

The more teams in Canada, and out of the southern US, the better.

I vote no.

Let Winnipeg get the Jets back first, and let other cities like Hamilton have a team before Toronto gets a second team.

One of the rationales suggested for a second NHL team in the Toronto area is that a struggling U.S. franchise could be kept alive that way.

So, with that in mind, it will be interesting to see whether any of the U.S. owners need to sell off their hockey team due to the economic crisis happening now... it may be just the right time for Canadian cities to pick the lowest hanging fruit to bring to Quebec City, Winnipeg, Hamilton (and maybe even Halifax if a new rink could be built).

Remember that when the Calgary Flames relocated from Atlanta they played for quite awhile in the old Stampede Corral while the Saddledome was being designed and built, so it is possible that NHL teams could move right into Canadian rinks that might not initially meet NHL standards.

While I'm not sure that Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment would agree to a second team in its territory without substantial compensation (read: Payoff) I think it is an inevitability of a second NHL franchise somewhere in the GTA simply because of all the US based teams that are struggling to stay afloat as we speak in 'false hockey markets'

While I would love to see teams returned to Winnpeg and Quebec City, I don't know if the corporate dollars are there to support teams in those markets...

NefCanuck

The NHL needs to remove any compensation for existing markets, especially in areas where 2 teams could co-exist.

Toronto has been the problem and not the solution for another team in this market.

This is one of the worst non-story stories in a long time. David Shoalts in the Globe and Mail heard that some governor talked about getting another team in Toronto. He writes it and then suddenly it's news of the day around the GTA. Not just sports stations, but the news talk stations. Then Shoalts (at the end of the day, around 6pm) goes on the Fan590 and agrees with Bob McCown that there's nothing to the story and that he didn't mean to say anything was actually happening. What a useless story.

As for the OP.....a team in north TO (Vaughan) could work. There are as many Leaf haters in this town as there are Leaf fans, so the fanbase is here.

Dave Shoalts sure started a wildfire with his Globe & Mail column! :D

National Post:

http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=899030

TSN:

http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/jay_onrait/?id=253340&lid=sublink08&lpos=topRelated_nhl

Canoe:

http://blog.canoe.ca/slam/2008/10/21/second_team_in_t_o_will_never_fly

News creating news...

If the Leafs have an issue with Hamilton getting a team (and they do) then they certainly have an issue with this.

It would be an insult to Canadian hockey fans to put a second team in Toronto.
you should also include buffalo. you always seem to forget them when you start complaining about this issue.