All 32 franchises, ranked. Aggregated from Forbes 2025 with revenue, operating income, and year-over-year change. The Institute's plain-English reference for readers who want to understand what pro hockey is worth as a business — and why Toronto, the Rangers, and Montreal have opened a structural gap on the rest of the league.
Source: Forbes, The NHL's Most Valuable Teams 2025, by Justin Teitelbaum and Brett Knight. Published December 11, 2025. Forbes original article →
What the Institute adds. We save the reader the time to aggregate and check sources — every valuation on this page traces to Forbes with the publication date noted — and we bring an original point of view once the record is on the table. Thirty-one years as a CPA, plus decades as a controller, CFO, and family-office operator, sit behind the read of what the numbers mean for franchise economics, ownership succession, and league-level trends. Aggregation is the floor; the practitioner interpretation is the reason to read us.
What the reader should know: Forbes' figures blend team-level financials with market, arena/stadium, and brand value. They are the most-cited valuations in the sport but they are estimates, not audited disclosures — NHL teams do not publish audited financial statements.
| # | Team | State / Province | Value | YoY | Revenue | Op. Income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toronto Maple Leafs | Ontario | $4.40B | +16% | $375M | $191M |
| 2 | New York Rangers | New York | $4.00B | +14% | $322M | $182M |
| 3 | Montreal Canadiens | Quebec | $3.40B | +13% | $320M | $136M |
| 4 | Edmonton Oilers | Alberta | $3.20B | +21% | $431M | $244M |
| 5 | Los Angeles Kings | California | $3.10B | +7% | $333M | $129M |
| 6 | Boston Bruins | Massachusetts | $2.90B | +7% | $275M | $73M |
| 7 | Chicago Blackhawks | Illinois | $2.80B | +14% | $272M | $95M |
| 8 | Philadelphia Flyers | Pennsylvania | $2.70B | +17% | $315M | $124M |
| 9 | Washington Capitals | District of Columbia | $2.55B | +19% | $282M | $92M |
| 10 | Detroit Red Wings | Michigan | $2.50B | +18% | $250M | $69M |
| 11 | New Jersey Devils | New Jersey | $2.40B | +14% | $303M | $98M |
| 12 | Dallas Stars | Texas | $2.30B | +15% | $250M | $70M |
| 13 | Vegas Golden Knights | Nevada | $2.20B | +19% | $250M | $77M |
| 14 | Vancouver Canucks | British Columbia | $2.15B | +10% | $235M | $55M |
| 15 | New York Islanders | New York | $2.10B | +11% | $220M | $50M |
| 16 | Tampa Bay Lightning | Florida | $2.05B | +14% | $240M | $60M |
| 17 | Carolina Hurricanes | North Carolina | $2.00B | +60% | $218M | $41M |
| 18 | Colorado Avalanche | Colorado | $1.95B | +15% | $222M | $47M |
| 19 | Calgary Flames | Alberta | $1.90B | +15% | $210M | $70M |
| 20 | Seattle Kraken | Washington | $1.85B | +16% | $235M | $66M |
| 21 | Minnesota Wild | Minnesota | $1.80B | +16% | $240M | $68M |
| 22 | Pittsburgh Penguins | Pennsylvania | $1.75B | 0% | $230M | $60M |
| 23 | Florida Panthers | Florida | $1.70B | +21% | $230M | $45M |
| 24 | Nashville Predators | Tennessee | $1.60B | +7% | $203M | $35M |
| 25 | St. Louis Blues | Missouri | $1.55B | +7% | $208M | $20M |
| 26 | San Jose Sharks | California | $1.50B | +11% | $182M | $28M |
| 27 | Utah Mammoth | Utah | $1.45B | +21% | $195M | $32M |
| 28 | Anaheim Ducks | California | $1.40B | +8% | $185M | $26M |
| 29 | Ottawa Senators | Ontario | $1.375B | +20% | $181M | $21M |
| 30 | Winnipeg Jets | Manitoba | $1.35B | +29% | $187M | $26M |
| 31 | Buffalo Sabres | New York | $1.325B | +20% | $175M | $11M |
| 32 | Columbus Blue Jackets | Ohio | $1.30B | +30% | $161M | $19M |
All figures rounded per Forbes reporting convention. Operating income is stated pre-interest, tax, depreciation, amortization, and non-cash items — consistent with Forbes' methodology across leagues.
The Institute's plain-English read of the 2025 Forbes NHL data:
1. The whole league is worth about $70 billion. Summing the 32 franchise valuations produces an aggregate market value of roughly $70 billion — up from about $61 billion a year ago. The 15% year-over-year lift is respectable but trails the NFL and NBA meaningfully.
2. Toronto is the most valuable NHL team for the third straight year. $4.4B franchise value, up 16%. The Maple Leafs and the Rangers are the only two hockey clubs worth at least $4 billion. Toronto's Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) ownership structure — Rogers Communications and Bell each holding 37.5%, plus Larry Tanenbaum's Kilmer Sports at 25% — is currently unwinding as Rogers moves to acquire full control.
3. Carolina Hurricanes +60% is the largest one-year revaluation in the league. Playoff runs, on-ice competitiveness, and a strong local-market thesis under Tom Dundon's ownership drove the move from $1.25B to $2B. The Hurricanes are the poster child for what a small-market club can do inside the salary cap.
4. Every NHL franchise is now worth at least $1.3 billion. That floor — the Columbus Blue Jackets, which rose 30% in a single year — is worth more than what the top NHL franchise was worth as recently as 2015. The rising tide reflects the successful 2005 salary cap system, expansion economics (Vegas, Seattle, Utah), and Canadian-team currency tailwind.
5. Operating income tells the salary cap story. Toronto ($191M op income), Edmonton ($244M — the league's leader), and the Rangers ($182M) print money. Buffalo ($11M), Ottawa ($21M), and Columbus ($19M) barely break even at the operating line. The gap is arena ownership, market size, and local-media capture — not on-ice payroll (the cap enforces parity there).
The Baratelli Institute does not produce original NHL franchise valuations. Forbes does that, Sportico does that, Sports Business Journal does that. We aggregate what those sources publish into a single reference destination and then bring a practitioner's read to what the numbers mean — how franchise valuations connect to family-office capital structure, how arena and stadium deals interact with municipal bond markets, how media rights economics compare across leagues, and how ownership succession is playing out at individual clubs.
Every number on this page traces to a filed or published source. The Forbes 2025 ranking is the primary source. Historical valuations trace to Forbes' annual publications. Where per-team pages include salary cap detail, they source from Over The Cap, Spotrac, or PuckPedia with the reference date noted. Where we discuss ownership, we source from public filings, press disclosures, and the ownership family's own communications. Where we discuss arena or stadium economics, we source from municipal bond issuances, lease agreements filed with local governments, and league-published revenue-sharing formulas.
The reader who wants a specialist's read on any single team should start here, then read the primary sources and the team's local press coverage. We are a starting point that saves the reader the time to aggregate the field — and a practitioner voice once the record is on the table.
Primary source: Forbes 2025 NHL Team Valuations, by Justin Teitelbaum and Brett Knight. December 11, 2025. Forbes original →
Institute contribution: aggregation into a single reference destination, plain-English read of what the ranking means, cross-references to case studies, ownership and arena/stadium context, cross-league benchmarking.
Corroborating sources: Wikipedia's Forbes list of the most valuable NHL teams (updated 2025); prior Forbes rankings; league revenue-sharing disclosures; individual team press releases.
Refresh cadence: annual, following Forbes' publication. Next update expected December 2026 for the Forbes 2026 ranking.
Editorial disclosure: the Institute has no financial relationship with any NHL franchise, Forbes, Sportico, or any other data source referenced. Published as an educational reference. Not investment advice.