The irony is that overall, NHL players have the lowest salary in all of the major league sports (I'm not counting MLS here).
Basebally, Basketball, and Football all have incredible salaries, but, they have a much broader audience. You can play these sports anywhere. Hockey? Natively, you cannot play it in Florida, Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, and southern California. That eliminates the Panthers, the Hurricanes, Thrashers, Stars, Coyotes, Ducks and Sharks. These teams are losing money at a steady rate, as nobody really cares. It expanded far too quickly. Stick to the places where you get ice naturally, and people still love the game- Boston, NYC, Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota.
