People need to get over comparing the NHL to the NBA, NFL and soccer. ESPN barely mentions the league anymore since they no longer own any broadcasting rights and NHL fans get pissed off about it, needlessly. Hockey has millions of fans in Canada, the US, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Czech, good enough! The United States has 330 million people, most of them will never be hockey fans because they're not exposed to playing it, kids grow up with basketball and football as part of their lives. Unless somebody is going to build a ton of expensive ice rinks in every corner of the US hockey will remain a niche regional sport - which is great, I like that about it, it IS 'the coolest sport on earth'.
That said the NHL really has to do something to increase scoring, of all the leagues the NHL is the least progressive, run by dinosaurs. If I were a multi billionaire I'd start up a new league playing 4 on 4 hockey. It's exciting as hell, pond hockey with hitting.
There are idiots in the US sports media who marginalize hockey, saying it doesn't really deserve to be included in this imaginary '4 major pro sports' class.
I think in this day and age websites are about the best indicator and Alexa shows the NHL absolutely belongs. For all the people who hate Gary Bettman, and that seems like every NHL fan - the man has done a fantastic job, the owners winning the lockout season did the sport a world of good.
NBA.com Global Rank 360
MLB.com Global Rank 594
NFL.com Global Rank 741
NHL.com Global Rank 830
