Relocation panic is growing around the NHL's least valuable team, and one key detail changes everything
Photo credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The Columbus Blue Jackets are the NHL's least valuable franchise, not a $2 billion team, and that gap matters more than anyone panicking this week realizes.
A post from the Union and Blue account, tagging Curtis Deem, argued that if ownership cannot afford a $2 billion operation, someone else should take over.
Sportico and Forbes both put Columbus dead last among all 32 franchises, valued around $1.3 to $1.4 billion while the league average sits near $2.1 billion.
That is not a rounding error. It is the difference between the most expensive team in hockey and the cheapest one to own.
Attendance and corporate revenue have both climbed toward two-decade highs in recent seasons, which is not what a franchise bleeding money usually looks like.
Longtime insider Jimmy Murphy amplified the moment, saying he is starting to think Columbus could become the next Coyotes. He stopped short of citing any sources confirming it.
Ownership has never shown the strain Arizona did
Majority owner John P. McConnell built his fortune running Worthington Industries, a global steel manufacturer, long before the family bought the Blue Jackets.
Arizona's relocation followed years of public arena defaults and failed ballot measures, a paper trail Columbus simply does not have on record right now.
Nobody quoted in either post named an executive, a lender, or a lease payment tied to actual distress.
The real story is a coaching change, not a moving truck
Columbus finished 40-30-12 for 92 points, then closed 2-7-1 over its final ten games under midseason hire Rick Bowness.
Don Waddell's front office made that change in January, and a rough finish under a new coach reads very differently than a franchise on its way out.
No statement has come from the NHL or the McConnell family confirming any of this, which matters when a rumor this large has zero named sources on the finance side.
Until the NHL or ownership says otherwise, the numbers point to a bad stretch of hockey, not a bad balance sheet.
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