What NHL Fans Are The Most Engaged?

The 2023-24 NHL season is over, but it’s always hockey season here at OntarioBets.com.

Whether it’s about the next Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup or which NHL coach will be the next to get fired, OntarioBets.com is your source for the latest hockey news and odds from Ontario sportsbooks.

But not everything about Canada’s favorite sport happens on the ice. We’re also interested to learn about the fans of the 32 NHL franchises. To do that, we analyzed each NHL fanbase from the past season to see which fans are the most engaged. We scored teams based on social media following, what percentage of home seats were filled, and general fan ranking voted by Reddit.com users in r/NHL.

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Ranking NHL Fan Engagement

Rank	Team	Total Score
1	Vegas Golden Knights	80
2	Pittsburgh Penguins	76
3	Toronto Maple Leafs	68
4	Tampa Bay Lightning	66
5	Washington Capitals	65
6	Boston Bruins	63
7	Montreal Canadiens	62
8	Detroit Red Wings	61
9	Edmonton Oilers	60
10	Vancouver Canucks	59
11	Minnesota Wild	57
12	St. Louis Blues	56
13	Dallas Stars	54
14	New York Rangers	53
15	Nashville Predators	52
16	Seattle Kraken	51
17	Colorado Avalanche	47
18	New York Islanders	45
19	Florida Panthers	44
20	Los Angeles Kings	43
21	Ottawa Senators	41
22	Carolina Hurricanes	40
23	Chicago Blackhawks	39
24	Philadelphia Flyers	35
25	New Jersey Devils	34
26	Calgary Flames	33
27	Anaheim Ducks	30
28	Winnipeg Jets	26
29	Columbus Blue Jackets	24
30	San Jose Sharks	23
31	Buffalo Sabres	16

Sources: Reddit.com and NHL attendance data

Note: We did not rank the Utah Hockey Club, which is moving from Arizona and will begin playing in Salt Lake City in the 2024-25 season.

Check out our reviews of Ontario sports betting apps before the 2024-25 NHL season begins.

Vegas Now A Hockey Haven

The Vegas Golden Knights have taken the NHL by storm since joining the league in 2017. They made the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season, and they won it all in 2023. Vegas has made the playoffs in all but one season in the team’s seven-year history and will once again be a top contender next season. NorthStar Bets Ontario Sportsbook is offering odds of +1300 for the Golden Knights to win their second Stanley Cup. That’s the seventh-lowest price at the authorized Ontario sports betting operator.

However, it’s not just about the on-ice performance of the Golden Knights. This past season, the team had an average attendance of 18,13 for its 41 home games at T-Mobile Arena. That average was 13th in the NHL, but their 103.6% capacity percentage was second only to the Minnesota Wild as the Golden Knights packed them in their home on The Strip.

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Penguins Remain A Top Attraction

The Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t one of the league’s Original Six franchises, but they have a lot of history, nonetheless. Thanks to legends like Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the Pens have won five Stanley Cups. All of those have come since 1990, and no other team has won that many in the past 35 seasons.

Pittsburgh hasn’t had much success in recent seasons, missing the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. Still, thanks to popular players like Crosby and Malkin, the Pens still are among the NHL’s most popular teams. More than 17,900 fans per game cheered on the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena this past season, a capacity rate of 97.4%.

The Pens also have a strong social media following. According to Statista, the team’s nearly 1.9 million followers on X (the platform once called Twitter) were the third most of any NHL team.

A sixth Stanley Cup doesn’t appear to be in the cards for the Penguins anytime soon. Oddsmakers at BetMGM Ontario Sportsbook give Pittsburgh +5000 odds to be the last NHL team skating next year.

Maple Leafs Rake In The Fans

Few teams have fan bases as passionate as the Toronto Maple Leafs. The NHL team in Canada’s largest market has more than 2.1 million X followers. Only the Chicago Blackhawks post to a larger audience. Toronto also ranked eighth in the league with an average attendance of 18,789. The 99.8% capacity figure means almost every game is a sellout.

What might help the Maple Leafs advance from their current bronze medal status? The team’s first Stanley Cup since 1967 would certainly help (see our Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup odds heading into the 2024-25 season).

Playoff success, in general, has eluded the Leafs in recent years. Despite making the postseason every year since 2017, the Maple Leafs have only escaped the first round once. The last time the Leafs reached the conference finals occurred in 2002.

Ontario’s other NHL team, the Ottawa Senators, rank No. 21 on our list of teams with the most engaged NHL fans. Aside from the Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens are the hishest-ranking Canadian team on our list, coming in seventh.

Despite Toronto’s recent postseason futility, oddsmakers continue to make the talented Leafs one of their top contenders for the Stanley Cup. Pinnacle Ontario Sportsbook lists Toronto at +1500. That’s the eighth-shortest price on Pinnacle’s futures board.

USA Today photo by Tom Szczerbowski