Lunacy!

That was my initial reaction to reading this story. Are you kidding me? Another team in Toronto? At least they didn't suggest Montreal, that would have been true sacrilege. Okay, lets calm down a bit and  think about this rationally. How could this possibly work? The article suggests an expansion team but that seems a little outlandish considering the NHL cant even support the 30 teams it has currently. Another possibility briefly mentioned in the article is the idea of moving a current team. This clearly makes more sense but would still require quite a bit of restructuring in terms of divisions. Listen, having more teams in Canada is the best thing the league could possibly do but this is not the way to go about it. If anything the league needs to contract. Six teams need to go, one from each division to bring the league to a manageable 24 teams. There will be more sell outs and, to be honest, its time to abandon the southern hockey experiment, its just not working. With all that being said, heres my breakdown of having a team in Toronto:

Positives:

• Another Canadian team
• It would make for some great rivalries
• With the current wait list for Leafs season tickets being longer than the planet will last with global warming, it would give hockey fans in the area a chance to see a game for a change
• It could possibly get a team out of the hockey graveyard known as the south
• The Toronto media might back off of the Leafs a little with another team to pick on in the area
• If a Southeast team (*cough Panthers *cough) moved to Toronto it could pave the way for Phoenix to move back to Winnipeg
• Toronto is hockey crazy
• This would stop all the crazy talk about having teams in Kansas City and Las Vegas
• If the league restructures we could go back to the old conference and division names

Negatives:

• There will be two crappy teams in Toronto for the foreseeable future
• It could mean expansion
• The NHL would be messing with some serious history
• Hamilton deserves a team way before Toronto deserves another
• So does Quebec
• It would decrease the market for other teams such as the Sabres, Habs and, obviously, the Leafs
• The league would have to completely restructure
• The talent pool would be even more diluted
• They could never live up to the expectations and would always be overshadowed by the Leafs
• Have you ever seen an Islanders game? No one goes! It would be similar in Toronto except the fans might know something about hockey. If you missed the connection, New York has two teams, one of which is an Original 6
• What happens if the new team wins a Cup before the Leafs? Toronto would burn, thats what
• The Leafs sucking is no reason to panic
• The league will go through another lockout before this ever happens anyways

All jokes (hopefully) aside there is no way this should happen. As intriguing as it sounds there is no reason to expand. If the league just moves a team it would make more sense and almost seems like a good idea but there is still fundamentally wrong with an NHL franchise in Toronto that isn't the Leafs. Until next time, keep your head up.