For the first time, hockey team valuations have crossed the $4 billion threshold, with CNBC's NHL valuations led by the Toronto Maple Leafs at $5.4 billion, the New York Rangers at $4.7 billion, and the Montreal Canadiens at $4.1 billion, CNBC reported. The average NHL team is now worth $2.71 billion, 23 percent more than a year ago.
The only NHL control sale to close over the past 12 months was the $1.8 billion sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Hoffmann family. Although the transaction was approved by the league in June, the price was negotiated about 18 months ago, CNBC reported, and is a poor guide to today's market. Minority-stake deals are a better signal. In March the NHL approved the sale of a 12.5 percent stake in the Carolina Hurricanes by Tom Dundon in a transaction that valued the team at $2.66 billion. Scott Malkin and other shareholders are close to selling a 15 percent stake in the New York Islanders at a $3 billion valuation. Sports bankers told CNBC those deals are representative of what control stakes in the two teams would sell for.
"Like the other major sports leagues there is a strong demand to own hockey teams because their media content values are high and there is a scarcity of teams," said Sal Galatioto, whose firm, Galatioto Sports Partners, advises clients on both the buy and sell sides. "Capitalism and technology are creating more wealth and the NHL, like the NFL, NBA and MLB, is an industry with a very long product life cycle, a hedge against risk in AI."
Ratings, a media-rights clock, and expansion talk
The NHL's current national media rights deals with Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are worth a combined annual average of close to $650 million through the 2027-28 season, but a big increase could be in the offing after strong television ratings. "The 2025-26 NHL regular season averaged 546,000 viewers across ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports, up 25 percent from last year and the highest average in more than a decade," Sports Media Watch wrote, as quoted by CNBC. The 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged 1.8 million viewers in the United States across those networks, up 68 percent from 2025, and the highest average on record for the playoffs on American television going back to 1994.
The NHL is pondering adding teams in cities such as Houston and Atlanta, and another factor fueling valuations is the belief that expansion fees paid by new teams would surpass $2 billion. The Seattle Kraken, the league's most recent expansion team, paid a $650 million fee to join for the 2021-22 season, CNBC reported.
According to CNBC's figures, revenue for the league's 32 teams averaged $257 million for the 2025-26 season, 6 percent more than the previous year, while EBITDA averaged $48 million per team, a decline of 11 percent due to arena expenses. The league's profitability should rebound as hospitality, concessions and merchandise boost revenue, CNBC reported. In April 2025, the NHL and Rogers Communications agreed to a 12-year national Canadian media rights deal worth $7.79 billion, another pillar under the values at the top of the list, especially in Toronto and Montreal.
The Penguins sale is already stale as a comparable. The market that matters now is the one in which three clubs are already above $4 billion, and the average franchise has climbed 23 percent in a year.