Gary Bettman's NHL travel schedule reveals excessive favoritism

The last five Stanley Cup Champions include four teams from states with no income tax, highlighting a significant advantage in NHL free agency and the trade market.

But this isn't the sole issue; a recent report has unveiled a glaring discrepancy and obvious favoritism towards the Eastern Conference.

The data indicates that the Pittsburgh Penguins will travel the least in the 2024/25 season, logging only 31,700 miles, while the Eastern Conference teams dominate the top 10 with the fewest travel miles. On the other hand, the Dallas Stars will travel the most, at 56,700 miles, joining Edmonton, Florida, and Anaheim as the teams surpassing 50,000 miles.

The reason for this lies in the geographic placement of teams: Pittsburgh's division rivals are all situated within a few hours' drive, whereas teams in Florida and Western Canada must undertake extensive cross-country travel to play their divisional games.

There isn't solid data to measure the exact impact of travel on team performance, but given that two of the top four teams in travel advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals last year, it's hard to dismiss the potential major influence travel might have during the playoffs.

Source: Hockey Patrol
Gary Bettman shows absurd favouritism with NHL travel schedule