If you were an NHL player, who'd be on your 10 team NTC?

[eanyills]

Tampa, Florida, Ottawa, Columbus, St Louis, Winnipeg, Dallas, Utah, Calgary, Edmonton.

There were a few others I wanted to add- NYI, Buffalo (sorry!), Pittsburgh, Nashville, Las Vegas, Detroit…

If I get to call my shot as somebody who can live comfortably anywhere, I’m going to want to be somewhere I want to live. I’d need myself like a 5 team trade list. It’s why I can’t fault guys like Larkin for wanting to only go a few places.

Edited July 17 by eanyills

[Ctaeth]

Toronto #1 on the list. 

But if I was an nhl player, I would probably be a Canadian and therefore wouldn't have toronto #1.  

[oddoublee]

I am genuinely surprised by the amount of people who have selected tampa bay. Panthers....ok....

But Tampa is a great hockey city and a really great organization. 

I'm befuddled a bit.... 

[...]

On 7/16/2026 at 7:43 PM, Taro T said:

Please no spoilers, just a simple yes or no, because had never heard of the movie until seeing a very cheap 2 DVD pack of Nobody and it's sequal a few weeks ago (bought it, but still haven't watched either); is the movie "Nobody" any good?

If you like that kind of movie, both are excellent entertainment. 

On the topic of a 10 List NTC - 10 would not be enough.

[GASabresIUFAN]

I'm surprised Nashville is on anyone's list.  Nice medium size and growing city where you can still walk downtown, no state taxes, great entertainment scene and a passionate fanbase.

In the poll Toronto leads followed by Calg, Van, Sea, Wpg, Tor, Columbus and Edm.

Edited July 18 by GASabresIUFAN

[#freejame]

7 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I'm surprised Nashville is on anyone's list.  Nice medium size and growing city where you can still walk downtown, no state taxes, great entertainment scene and a passionate fanbase.

In the poll Toronto leads followed by Calg, Van, Sea, Wpg, Tor, Columbus and Edm.

I’m not expecting our fanbase to know all of this but Nashville has by far the worst infrastructure of anywhere I’ve ever lived. There’s a ton of sprawl and the cost of living continues to increase. It’s in no means a cheap city. Grocery tax is a thing there. Property tax keeps going up. 9.5% sales tax. Homes are incredibly overpriced. Sure, you can check out the Ryman, but I know of very, very few people who live in Nashville that want anything to do with broadway. Germantown neighborhood is pretty easily my favorite place I’ve ever lived, but the city overall leaves a lot to be desired.  It’s a collection of cool areas that are often very inconvenient to get to.

You are correct that the fanbase is prettt good. You’ll see more Predators stuff in the community than any team outside of the SEC, minus probably Vandy. The in-game stuff definitely isn’t hockey focused but people love games there. 

Edited July 18 by #freejame

[Kr632]

All the Canadian teams plus Utah, Dallas and Detroit. 

[Nacho Libre]

 

[mjd1001]

13 hours ago, oddoublee said:

I am genuinely surprised by the amount of people who have selected tampa bay. Panthers....ok....

But Tampa is a great hockey city and a really great organization. 

I'm befuddled a bit.... 

It might go back to the weather/climate/lifestyle.

A lot of us as Sabres fans live in the north/near Buffalo or other parts north. Many of us had options to move out of the area if we wanted, but we chose not to...for a variety of reasons, but a large part of that is we don't mind the climate and don't mind the lifestyle.  Tampa is totally different.

I lived in Florida for years. We still own a house in Florida we rent out. We have family we visit in Florida every year (sometimes twice a year). When I worked there, I had to go to the Tampa area frequently. I HATED just about everything about the lifestyle of living down there. Gated communities. Strip plaza after strip plaza. Traffic. The heat and humidity.  Very few streets to walk down a sidewalk lined with maple or oak trees giving off shade.  Yeah, there are some people who like the florida lifestyle (most people I know living there have nice houses with screened in inground pools, but they barely ever leave the house except to go to work and/or someplace that looks like a mall or strip plaza).

My brother-in-law is building a $1million+ house rigtht now in Florida. No basement (hate it), no sidewalks in the community (hate it). No trees lining the street (hate it). Gated community (hate it).  In a filled-in swamp (hate it). MILES from the nearest group of restaurants/stores (hate it).  Even those restaurants stores are catered around the automobile (drive thrus everywhere) and in strip plazas (hate it).  His community is close enough to I-95 that you can hear trucks all night (hate it). The school bus will not come into their gated community, so they have to drive, or have someone else drive my nephew to and from school everyday (hate it).  Yet he can't figure out why my wife and I don't want to move back to Florida, he loves it so much that he actually uses the words "this is my paradise".

He has dreams of living in his nice air conditioned house, going out in his air conditioned car, driving to a strip plaza to his favorite air conditioned chain restaruant, and then driving home in his air conditioned car back to his air conditioned house. For him, that is what he likes. 

So again, we are all different, but I think a lof of us simply do not like the climate and lifestye of florida.  But Those who live in Forida, they can't fathom why everyone else isn't jealous of their lifestye..because they DO like it, hence why they are living there.

But at least for me, it has not much to do with the organization (Tampa) but rather everything else about the region/state.

Edited July 18 by mjd1001

[EM88]

Las Vegas is on the top of my list.  That lifestyle is just not for me.

My father had one of his co-workers that retired and moved to Henderson Nevada. He bought a house in one of those brand new developments were 100s and 100s of houses were right next to each other. But the area was a maze. He could walk into his backyard, and shake the hand over the fence of the neighbor who lived directly behind him. However, there is no direct route to that neighbors front door.  If he wanted to drive to that neighbors house, he had to drive multiple miles, as there were so many twists and turns in the street there was no direct route there.

The newer, faster growing cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, most of Texas and Florida are not for me.  It appears most young NHLers with money love those places, but I would want to stay far away from them.

[oddoublee]

2 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

It might go back to the weather/climate/lifestyle.

A lot of us as Sabres fans live in the north/near Buffalo or other parts north. Many of us had options to move out of the area if we wanted, but we chose not to...for a variety of reasons, but a large part of that is we don't mind the climate and don't mind the lifestyle.  Tampa is totally different.

I lived in Florida for years. We still own a house in Florida we rent out. We have family we visit in Florida every year (sometimes twice a year). When I worked there, I had to go to the Tampa area frequently. I HATED just about everything about the lifestyle of living down there. Gated communities. Strip plaza after strip plaza. Traffic. The heat and humidity.  Very few streets to walk down a sidewalk lined with maple or oak trees giving off shade.  Yeah, there are some people who like the florida lifestyle (most people I know living there have nice houses with screened in inground pools, but they barely ever leave the house except to go to work and/or someplace that looks like a mall or strip plaza).

My brother-in-law is building a $1million+ house rigtht now in Florida. No basement (hate it), no sidewalks in the community (hate it). No trees lining the street (hate it). Gated community (hate it).  In a filled-in swamp (hate it). MILES from the nearest group of restaurants/stores (hate it).  Even those restaurants stores are catered around the automobile (drive thrus everywhere) and in strip plazas (hate it).  His community is close enough to I-95 that you can hear trucks all night (hate it). The school bus will not come into their gated community, so they have to drive, or have someone else drive my nephew to and from school everyday (hate it).  Yet he can't figure out why my wife and I don't want to move back to Florida, he loves it so much that he actually uses the words "this is my paradise".

He has dreams of living in his nice air conditioned house, going out in his air conditioned car, driving to a strip plaza to his favorite air conditioned chain restaruant, and then driving home in his air conditioned car back to his air conditioned house. For him, that is what he likes. 

So again, we are all different, but I think a lof of us simply do not like the climate and lifestye of florida.  But Those who live in Forida, they can't fathom why everyone else isn't jealous of their lifestye..because they DO like it, hence why they are living there.

But at least for me, it has not much to do with the organization (Tampa) but rather everything else about the region/state.

For the record, I also lived there for 2 years. Year in Lauderdale and a year in Orlando. I have many similar feelings you do - and I'm much happier living up north again (Cleveland). I'd never move back there by my own choosing. 

However, if the Sabres trade me and my 5 million a year contract to Tampa ... I'll suck it up for just a bit 😂

[SwampD]

My list.

1. Islanders - Long Island sucks.

2+3. Any team in Florida - I am not a fan of Florida.

4,5,6. Any team in California - Also not a fan of California.

7. Washington - D.C sucks.

8. Utah - I, too, like bars.

9. Dallas - I would never keep my pick-up as shiny as it would need to be in order to fit in.

10. St. Louis - That part of the country just doesn't interest me, but would probably waive my NTC If the BBQ was worth it..

Edited July 19 by SwampD

[SABRES 0311]

CGY, NJD, OTT, and DET are boring teams. Only thing making them worth watching is the Sabres. Couldn’t imagine being a part of those teams.

Similar for STL, NSH, and DAL. I’ll add EDM too. Yeah they have McDavid and Leon but they as a team they are boring to watch.

[LGR4GM]

21 hours ago, EM88 said:

Las Vegas is on the top of my list.  That lifestyle is just not for me.

My father had one of his co-workers that retired and moved to Henderson Nevada. He bought a house in one of those brand new developments were 100s and 100s of houses were right next to each other. But the area was a maze. He could walk into his backyard, and shake the hand over the fence of the neighbor who lived directly behind him. However, there is no direct route to that neighbors front door.  If he wanted to drive to that neighbors house, he had to drive multiple miles, as there were so many twists and turns in the street there was no direct route there.

The newer, faster growing cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, most of Texas and Florida are not for me.  It appears most young NHLers with money love those places, but I would want to stay far away from them.

What's interesting about 3 of those places is they already don't have enough water (west Texas).

[Rasmus_]

East:  Toronto, Ottawa, Columbus, Boston, Carolina

West:  Calgary, Winnipeg, Chicago, St Louis, Seattle

 

These were to based on the teams upside and personal dislike.  Not exactly the best of reasons lol

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

I played nice, but I could / would list The Great Satan 10 times.  And then 10 times again, just for good measure and then add 5 more.

[Pimlach]

On 7/16/2026 at 3:46 PM, JoeSchmoe said:

I agree with @PerreaultForever- any big city with a bad commute is my #1 hard pass.

That's Toronto, NYR, NYI, NJ, LA, CHI, and BOS I would guess. I heard SEA isn't great either.

WPG is a no. I've heard only bad things about St Louis. 

Aside: IMO I think Calgary is a pretty good city. Not as cold as Winnipeg or Edmonton, but has a decent downtown with one of the greatest places on earth in Banff just an hour away.

Further Aside: For any US Americans that have never put Calgary/Banff on their radar screens, I can't stress enough that you should go. Yes, there are Rocky Mountains in the US, but the geography/geology of the mountain peaks pale in comparison to Banff National Park. First time I went to Denver, I remember thinking, "Is this it?", having seen the Canadian Rockies first. The US Rockies are rounder and far less dramatic than their northern counterparts. They don't have the emerald lakes and the vegetation is less pretty. 👍

You don’t play hockey to ski the highest mountains, that’s a vacation.  You play to make money and win and have a nice lifestyle. 
 

bottom 10 

Winnipeg
Edmonton

Calgary

Ottawa

Toronto

NY Rangers

New Jersey

NYI

San Jose

Columbus 

 

 

 

Edited July 20 by Pimlach

[GASabresIUFAN]

The poll is pretty evenly divided between East and West

Calg and Ott lead with 16 votes

Toronto second with 13, followed by Edm 12, Wpg 11.  Van, Columbus and the NYR have 9 each .

Then their are 4 teams tied for 9th on our list - NYI, NJ, Stl and Utah.

[#freejame]

I can understand not wanting to live in Toronto or even Montreal, but it blows my mind that Boston has as many votes as it does. Great organization and an amazing city. 

[Weave]

3 minutes ago, #freejame said:

I can understand not wanting to live in Toronto or even Montreal, but it blows my mind that Boston has as many votes as it does. Great organization and an amazing city. 

I’m sure its mostly due to Boston being a hated rival.

[#freejame]

29 minutes ago, Weave said:

I’m sure its mostly due to Boston being a hated rival.

I get that but I guess I’d like to think most people would be professional enough to play for whomever as long as it wasn’t in some awful city like Winnipeg (IM JOKING THORNY). Outside of Gauthier I can’t think of a single NHLer who said no I won’t play for you because when I was a kid I didn’t like you guys. 

[Weave]

8 minutes ago, #freejame said:

I get that but I guess I’d like to think most people would be professional enough to play for whomever as long as it wasn’t in some awful city like Winnipeg (IM JOKING THORNY). Outside of Gauthier I can’t think of a single NHLer who said no I won’t play for you because when I was a kid I didn’t like you guys. 

Maybe you were expecting rational choices in an irrational, unrealistic scenario?

[Hoss]

24 minutes ago, Weave said:

Maybe you were expecting rational choices in an irrational, unrealistic scenario?

You trying to say none of us will ever have the opportunity to sign an NHL contract that includes a 10-team no-trade clause? SMH. Nothing but hate in that heart.

[#freejame]

48 minutes ago, Weave said:

Maybe you were expecting rational choices in an irrational, unrealistic scenario?

Are you telling me none of us are getting contracts? Way to ruin my weekend 

[Weave]

1 hour ago, #freejame said:

Are you telling me none of us are getting contracts? Way to ruin my weekend 

Well, some of you anyway.