We have researched the data to reveal the the best hockey cities to live in based on the number of sports bars, food and drink prices, as well as winning percentages and championships.
1. Denver – (7.36 hockey fan score)
Denver takes first place with a score of 7.36 out of 10. Denver ranks consistently across the board, with their local team, the Colorado Avalanche, winning almost 40% of their games in the last five years, as well as claiming three championships in their history.
2. Pittsburgh – (7.00 hockey fan score)
Two teams share second place, both with a score of 7 out of 10. Pittsburgh’s local hockey team is the Pittsburgh Penguins, who play at the PPG Paints Arena. The Penguins have won almost 39% of their games in the last five years, and have won five Stanley Cups.
3. Tampa – (7.00 hockey fan score)
Tampa shares second place with Pittsburgh, also with a score of 7 out of 10. Tampa Bay Lightning, the local team of Tampa, have the highest win rate over the last five years at an even 44%. Two of the Bolts’ three Stanley Cups came in 2020 and 2021, with their first coming in 2004.
Best Cities to be a Hockey Fan
Rank | City | NHL Team | Sports Bars per 100,000 | Stadiums | Food and Drink Price Score | Average Win % (Last 5 Years) | No. of Championships | Score /10 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Denver | Colorado Avalanche | 7.2 | 37 | 5.12 | 59.34% | 3 | 7.36 |
2 | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh Penguins | 11.2 | 33 | 4.29 | 58.22% | 5 | 7 |
2 | Tampa | Tampa Bay Lightning | 4.1 | 51 | 4.76 | 65.87% | 3 | 7 |
4 | Boston | Boston Bruins | 5.8 | 32 | 3.33 | 60.94% | 6 | 6.64 |
5 | Montreal | Montréal Canadiens | 3.1 | 33 | 7.26 | 40.47% | 22 | 6 |
5 | Toronto | Toronto Maple Leafs | 2.3 | 32 | 4.53 | 59.13% | 11 | 6 |
7 | Chicago | Chicago Blackhawks | 3.8 | 60 | 5.83 | 41.37% | 3 | 5.79 |
8 | Minneapolis | Minnesota Wild | 5 | 46 | 6.78 | 55.57% | 0 | 5.64 |
9 | Calgary | Calgary Flames | 1.1 | 41 | 9.76 | 52.99% | 1 | 5.57 |
10 | Washington | Washington Capitals | 8.8 | 26 | 4.05 | 59.13% | 1 | 5.5 |
11 | Raleigh | Carolina Hurricanes | 3.1 | 30 | 4.88 | 57.20% | 1 | 5.22 |
12 | St. Louis | St. Louis Blues | 5.7 | 27 | 4.76 | 55.13% | 1 | 5.14 |
13 | New York | New York Rangers New York Islanders New Jersey Devils | 1.2 | 91 | 2.62 | 46.59% | 11 | 5.07 |
14 | Detroit | Detroit Red Wings | 5.3 | 31 | 4.52 | 34.50% | 11 | 5 |
15 | Dallas | Dallas Stars | 2 | 72 | 4.29 | 50.89% | 1 | 4.79 |
16 | Edmonton | Edmonton Oilers | 1 | 19 | 7.62 | 52.19% | 5 | 4.64 |
17 | Las Vegas | Vegas Golden Knights | 8.6 | 32 | 2.03 | 58.69% | 0 | 4.57 |
18 | Nashville | Nashville Predators | 4.9 | 17 | 7.62 | 56.58% | 0 | 4.5 |
19 | Philadelphia | Philadelphia Flyers | 3.1 | 38 | 2.86 | 46.18% | 2 | 4.43 |
20 | Los Angeles | LA Kings Anaheim Ducks | 0.8 | 90 | 2.97 | 43.06% | 3 | 4.07 |
21 | Miami | Florida Panthers | 5.3 | 27 | 3.33 | 57.02% | 0 | 3.93 |
22 | Vancouver | Vancouver Canucks | 7.6 | 14 | 6.43 | 44.50% | 0 | 3.79 |
23 | Winnipeg | Winnipeg Jets | 1.1 | 26 | 7.86 | 54.80% | 0 | 3.71 |
24 | Columbus | Columbus Blue Jackets | 1.9 | 21 | 9.29 | 47.32% | 0 | 3.64 |
25 | San Jose | San Jose Sharks | 2.7 | 29 | 5.84 | 45.79% | 0 | 3.43 |
26 | Ottawa | Ottawa Senators | 1.4 | 13 | 7.62 | 37.21% | 1 | 3.07 |
27 | Buffalo | Buffalo Sabres | 2.8 | 16 | 6.9 | 36.00% | 0 | 2.57 |
28 | Phoenix | Arizona Coyotes | 0.7 | 51 | 3.45 | 40.68% | 0 | 2.5 |
29 | Seattle | Seattle Kraken | 4.6 | 26 | 1.19 | 13.41% | 0 | 1.64 |
Methodology
- Using our research into the teams with the best home-field advantage to get the average win percentage for each team in each city for the last five years.
- For cities with more than one team, we took the average for those teams to get the city’s average.
- We used Wikipedia to get the number of championships each NBA team had.
- Our average beer, soft drink, and hot dog prices came from Team Marketing.
- We used Yelp to find the number of sports bars, as well as the number of stadiums and arenas in each city. We looked at sports bars, stadiums, and arenas within five miles of the city center.
- We normalized the above factors to get a score out of 10, before taking an average of these scores to get our results, focusing only on the city’s local team for that sport.