NHL shows blatant favouritsm with their 2024/25 travel schedule

Given the size of North America and the sheer distance between teams in the NHL, there's no way to limit the ridiculous amount of travel that happens over an 82 game regular season, but looking at the statistics, it's hard not to see favouritsm from Gary Bettman and the NHL.

One social media user recently looked into the travel, and it's clear to see that there's a major discrepancy between teams, with the Pittsburgh Penguins coming in on the low end at 31,700 miles travelled. On top of that, the Eastern Conference has the 10 teams with the least amount of travel, and while it's not all the NHL's fault due to how close the teams are, it's hard to ignore.

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On the other hand you have the Dallas Stars, who will top over 56,000 miles next season, being one of four teams (all in the Western Conference) to notch over 50,000 miles of travel. The separation of teams in the West doesn't make this easy, but for teams travelling almost twice as much as others, it's easy to see why many believe there's a competitive imbalance in the NHL.

Ultimately though, two of those top four teams played in the Stanley Cup Finals this past season, so whether or not it puts teams at a disadvantage, talent and depth allows teams to overcome that, so we will see how it plays out in 2024/25.

Source: Hockey Feed
Huge discrepancies in travel for NHL teams next season.