CHART: NHL Franchise Values Show Hockey Is As Healthy As Ever

In 2011, the NHL was strongly criticized for selling their American broadcasting rights to NBC and the new NBC Sports Network instead of ESPN and their larger television audience. Just two years later, NHL franchise values are skyrocketing and the league is as healthy as ever.

According to Forbes.com's annual list of NHL franchise valuations, the average NHL franchise is worth $413 million, up 46.7% from a year ago. Values have more than doubled (up 153%) since the NHL lockout in 2004-05 and are up 458% since Forbes started tracking franchise values in 1997.

These latest values were also calculated prior to the announcement of the NHL's new record deal with Rogers Sportsnet for the broadcasting rights in Canada. That deal turned out to be more than twice as big as Forbes had projected suggesting this year's values may actually be even higher...

Data via Forbes.com and Marquette.edu