NHL is looking to expand the Global Series to a very surprising new location
Since 1938, the NHL has played a ton of games across the world including in Europe, Japan, China and even an exhibition match in Puerto Rico. But now the league has their eyes on a new location to host games, Australia.
During the 32 Thoughts segment on Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman mentioned that the NHL is doing a site survey in Australia next week or two and are looking at playing games there in either 2023 or 2024.
The 2022 Global Series has thus far seen the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks travel to Switzerland, Germany and the Czech Republic for games. On Nov. 4�5, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche will conclude the series with a pair of games at Tampere, Finland's Nokia Arena.
The NHL has one Australian player among its 32 teams. St. Louis Blues forward Nathan Walker, who was born in Wales but grew up in Sydney, before becoming the first Australian to be drafted to the NHL (in 2014), and the first to play in the league (with the Washington Capitals, in 2017).
Australia is no stranger to hockey and this would be a big boost to grow the game down under. In 2000, the Australian Ice Hockey League formed and currently has eight teams that play a 20 game regular season, with the top-four making the playoffs.
| POLL | ||
After Canada which country provides the best NHL players? | ||
| USA | 107 | 37.7 % |
| Russia | 66 | 23.2 % |
| Sweden | 58 | 20.4 % |
| Finland | 53 | 18.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
