Why Is The NHL Attacking The Toronto Maple Leafs?

The NHL singles out the Toronto Maple Leafs for no good reason.

In the last week, the NHL has twice come out and put a stop to some things the Toronto Maple Leafs have been doing, both in recent return-to-play practices (bringing professional referees to practice to mimic real game situations) and in the past (keeping practice facilities open in the offseason).

Both of these cease and desist orders are stupid and show what a joke of a league the NHL can be at times.

I’ll preface the rant that is coming by saying that everything in this piece is strictly my personal opinion, and does not reflect on the values of any person or organization but myself, because this is going to get heated.

It all began when the following Tweet popped up on my feed:

And then, the follow-up, which really got my blood boiling:

So, first impression, is that this truly, definitively cements the Toronto Maple Leafs as the center of the hockey universe. Anyone ever says differently, tell them to tell their GM and owner to stop thinking about the Leafs 24/7 and pay their own damn bills.

As it stands, the Leafs (and their fans) bankroll most of the league, only Montreal, Chicago, and the New York Rangers bring in revenue on the level that Toronto does. It just makes sense that they’d use some of that money to better their players, that’s something that every team in the NHL should be doing? Right?

Well, apparently not, since it’s right there in black and white “we don’t like prospects improving as players.” What kind of backwards, upside-down world are we living in?

Is this seriously something that should even be a debate? Literally, every team can do this, if they don’t, there’s only one thing to blame, and it is certainly not the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It’s the owners being cheapskates.

Now, I’m not an economist, I have no idea what it costs to run an NHL practice facility for a couple of extra weeks a year, but you know a really good way to offset those costs?

Maybe, just maybe, take a team or two out of places that are definitively non-hockey markets, like South Florida, where the average person doesn’t know or care what a hockey puck looks like.

Put them somewhere that will generate revenue, rather than sink more and more money into these teams that rely on revenue sharing just to break even while doing absolutely nothing to raise the overall value of the NHL. Wild idea, I know.

The Toronto Maple Leafs earned the money they use to run their practice facility, they pay more than their fair shake of the league-wide revenue shares, they can and should spend their money as they wish.

And furthermore to that point, this is not a recent development. The Leafs have kept their facilities open for players and prospects (not just from their own team, but any team) to use for summer development for years.

It wasn’t an issue in 2015-16 when they were bottom-feeders in the standings, but now all of a sudden that they’re contenders, it’s an “unfair advantage” when it’s something that every single team in the league could be doing?

Get out of here with that nonsense.

The league wants to erase what they perceive as “unfair advantages”?

Start with the cap circumvention happening in places like Tampa where taxes are much lower instead of trying to dictate how the rich teams can or can’t spend their money.

The league has the salary cap locked for an undetermined amount of time because of a financial crisis due to the pandemic. Once it is safe to do so, all teams need to do their part to raise revenues, so it’s time to put up or shut up.

If the owners are going to continue to cheap out on their franchises in locations that are not going to grow the game in any tangible way, relocate them.

Maybe the new owner will realize that, gasp, giving your players the best opportunity to develop equals higher profits in the long run, because the team will perform better.

Rant over.