Canadian city that deserves to be part of the expansion conversation: Quebec City, QB
Like Atlanta and Phoenix, Quebec City had an NHL team leave the city in the past few decades. The Quebec Nordiques left for the Mile High City to become the Colorado Avalanche in the 1990s. Financial struggles and market size caused the Nordiques to leave over 30 years ago.
While the Quebec City metro has grown substantially since 1995, adding around 200K residents in the past 30 years or so, this region is still relatively small when compared to an average NHL market in 2026. Has Quebec City grown enough to overcome the market size issues and financial strain that the city and franchise with the Nordiques faced a few decades ago?
The arguments in favor of Quebec City are also pretty clear. Regarding youth hockey participation rates, and local interest in the sport, you probably won't find a better city for expansion culturally than Quebec City.
Quebec City is the only Canadian city with a population of over 500K that doesn't have an NHL team within 150 miles of the city center. Quebec City has also produced more than 50 NHL players in the history of the league, which is something that no American city has accomplished in professional hockey.
If this discussion purely revolved around the strength of the existing hockey culture in a particular region or city in North America, Quebec City is probably the most deserving city on this list to receive an NHL expansion team. But the financial implications and smaller metro and TV market size could keep Quebec City from being selected in another round of NHL expansion talks.
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