For years, Dom Luszczyszyn has done a nice job at The Athletic of compiling the NHL front-office confidence rankings, the latest version of which you can read here.
We’ve decided to expand that out this season into a new set of rankings, one evaluating the 32 ownership groups across the league.
Our 2024-25 owners breakdown will ultimately take into account more than your votes, but we want to have a component of our analysis that comes right from the fans who go to games and are directly impacted by ownership decisions. From there, we will take the responses and combine them with in-depth analysis of every ownership group in a variety of other areas.
If your team has had a recent ownership change, try to base your answers primarily on the current group in charge. If your team has had the same owner for a long time, try to base your answers more on recent seasons (i.e. within the past 10 to 15 years) than any ancient glories.
We will be asking you to evaluate your favorite team’s ownership group in the following categories:
1. Willingness to spend. Fairly straightforward, although this can extend beyond whether a team spends up to the salary cap. Are they willing to invest in the top coaches and executives in the game? In building a deep roster of front-office staff and retaining that talent? In redeveloping the arena and surrounding area? Or do they cut corners?
2. Overall organizational stability. Ultimately, the strength of most NHL teams comes back to having good ownership. Owners, after all, are involved in selecting team presidents and general managers and often have enormous influence on the business side and at the league level. Instability for a franchise often starts at the top, so keep that in mind when evaluating this category.
3. Treatment of the fan base. This category will be open to interpretation, as every fan’s experience with their team is different. But it can involve anything from how season ticket holders are handled to how accessible the owner is to the fan base. Are there perks to being a fan of your team? Do you feel valued and treated well? Or taken advantage of?
4. Franchise vision. Does ownership pursue the right course of action at the right time? Do they meddle in operations or hire talented people and let them do their jobs? This could mean making a regime change in the front office at the right moment, going all-in with a talented roster or embracing a rebuild when the time comes. Franchise vision is about having the right plan to succeed in the NHL, both on the ice and off it.
The survey will also ask if your confidence in ownership has changed at all recently and if you have any other comments about your franchise’s owner. Some of the top comments will be included in the final story.
The final results will be made available later this season as part of a larger story. Click below to make your contribution.
(Photos of Florida’s Vincent Viola and Utah’s Ryan Smith: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
