A tied game with little time remaining. Skating on slick ice going 20 plus miles per hour on a two on one rush. All of a sudden a whistle blows before a shot is taken. It’s offside. One of the players crossed the blue line in the attacking zone before the puck. A shade of red develops across the players face from frustration and slamming their stick into the boards knowing they’ve missed an opportunity to score and potentially win the game. The crowd expresses the same frustration by unanimous sounds of disappointment. However, every season this scenario plays out, the crowd is getting louder as the growth of hockey is finally on the rise.
Star players in the National Hockey League (NHL) such as Connor Mcdavid, Nathan Mckinnion, Connor Bedard and the Hughes brothers have started to attract an even bigger audience for the league. Spikes in game attendance have occurred from these stars and plenty of other stars around the league. As the
NHL continues to market some of their stars they have also been expanding into different franchises for a marketable profit.
In 2019 the NHL put in stone their new expansion team. The Seattle Kraken came into the league and immediately attracted new hockey fans. With people all of the Seattle area finally taking an interest in hockey now they have a team in their own area. Students here at North Creek have also gained interest in hockey due to the kraken “I went to my first Kraken game and I’m starting to get into hockey a bit more,” junior Nola Williams said. Since the Seattle Kraken have attracted new fans it’s sparks these fans to develop a love for watching the game and event watching more teams that aren’t just the kraken.
As the NHL continues to grow just from the regular season itself, the league had a significant spike in viewership in the four nations tournament. For the first time ever the NHL created a short tournament between four nations, The United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland. Many people who have never or rarely watched hockey before took an immediate interest. The first game between the
USA and Canada attracted 4.4 million viewers just in the United States. However, the championship game against the same teams attracted 10.4 million views in the States and over 16 million across North America making it the most watched ice hockey game ever “I had seen advertisments for it, my dad was in the living room and had one of the games on I chose to stop and watch it for a bit,” junior Mckenna Swenson said. With these three main factors of NHL stars, expansion teams and the four nations tournament it has created hockey fans here at North Creek “I grew more interested in following the sport as a whole,” Swenson said.
As the NHL has accomplished very successful fan engagement and they are hoping to keep these newer fans by continuing to market their stars and are considering doing more international tournaments in the next couple years after the 2026 winter Olympics that will feature NHL stars