With 32 teams, 16 of them are making the playoffs if I'm understanding your point. As I understand it, that presents the highest playoff "opportunity" out of the four major sports, I know it definitely is over the NFL and MLB formats, I haven't followed pro hoop the last couple decades. Stability of franchises also factors in, which I didn't really consider earlier, as we could be running into situations where teams like AZ relocate to places like Houston if things go south in the current locations. I can't recall where I read this, it may have been another forum or an article, but someone pointed out that the NHL does blanket two countries, opposed to a 32 team NFL that's in US-only markets....when I read that, it was one of those forehead-slapping "duh" moments, one of those obvious things that hides in plain sight. So if we get really crazy and speculate an NHL of 40 teams with the addition of two of those being Canada-based (let's say Quebec and Hamilton or Saskatchewan), the league is still inhabiting only 32 US markets in that scenario. I'm guessing at that point we may be looking at 8 5-team divisions to further regionalize, and possibly a retooling of the playoff format, but I'm getting a bit above my understanding of the viability of that as maybe maintaining the larger divisions makes more sense due to tradition, maintaining certain rivalries, etc. I don't think an NHL of 36 or even 40 teams is out of the realm of possibility, especially if the sport keeps tapping into new fan bases....and some of that speculation is certainly driven in part by the Commish and the Board, who seem to be on their decision-making A-game as the sport is riding a wave of increased fan interest (for all I know that's a dangerous statement and there's Bettman haters out there). But I can plead ignorance, as I'm one of those new fans. I'm quickly understanding it's a different fan experience from baseball, which I've been attending regularly since the late 70s. So some hockey nuances are definitely lost on me, as I'm learning....but as a newer fan, this I know -- the product the NHL puts on the rink is by far superior to football and hoops in terms of thrill and intensity. I won't try comparisons to baseball, as they're just way too different. But my observation is that hockey seems to be riding a crest, and teams beyond 32 seem possible and viable if we consider how they blanket markets in two countries.