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Why Rangers are ranked as NHL’s second-most valuable team by CNBC
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- Why Rangers are ranked as NHL’s second-most valuable team by CNBC
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The New York Rangers are once again the NHL's second-most valuable team, according to CNBC's official NHL team valuations released Tuesday.
CNBC values the Rangers at $3.8 billion, However, it noted that the team took an 18 percent reduction in its television rights, down to $35 million, for the year ending June 2026 as a result of an MSG Networks debt restructuring. But it also said the Rangers took in the most regular-season net gate receipts last season — $179 million – and that over the past four seasons, the Blueshirts earned $615 million from regular-season gate receipts.
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That was $152 million more than the Toronto Maple Leafs , who earned the second-most. In all, CNBC's valuations say the average team is worth $2.2 billion, up 15 percent from last year. Richer national media rights deals were the biggest driver of franchise values.
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The Leafs are ranked as the NHL's most valuable team at $4.3 billion. Toronto took in $130 million in net gate revenue last season, second in the League, according to internal NHL reports obtained by CNBC. The Maple Leafs also earn about $45 million a year from the local media rights deal with Rogers, third in the NHL.
Their next deal is expected to increase that figure to around $55 million a year, which would place the team behind only the Montreal Canadiens , who were third in the most valuable team race at $3.4 billion.
The Canadiens announced last month that they had signed a new local media rights deal with Bell Media for English- and French-language channels. It will pay the team a League-leading annual average of $70 million to $75 million beginning next season.
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Rangers remain second in CNBC's NHL team valuations
The Rangers were also second to the Leafs in Sportico's annual team valuation rankings at $3.65 billion. Those numbers were released in early October and showed the average NHL franchise was worth an estimated $2.1 billion. That's up 17 percent from the same time in 2024 and more than 100 percent from 2022, when the average team value was only $1.01 billion.
Either way, times are good for the Rangers and the 31 teams they're competing with for the Stanley Cup — and it looks like they'll keep getting better.
In April, the NHL and Rogers Communications agreed to a 12-year national Canadian media rights deal worth $7.79 billion (based on exchange rates as of Nov. 24), that will begin with the 2026-27 season. That's more than twice the amount the League is receiving from its current 12-year deal with Rogers.
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The NHL's current U.S. national media rights deals with the Walt Disney Company and TNT Sports are worth a combined annual average of $630 million through the 2027-28 season — and are likely to see a big increase in the next cycle.
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"The next U.S. rights deal for the NHL should approach a doubling," Lee Berke, CEO of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media, whose firm advises teams and leagues on media deals. told CNBC. "Sports rights move the needle for distributors, subscribers and viewers."
Average revenue for all 32 teams climbed to $243 million in 2024-25, up nine percent from 2023-24, according to CNBC. Over the same time span, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) rose 20 percent to an average of $54 million per team.
The Rangers should reap additional revenue in 2025-26 as they celebrate their Centennial season. They will wear special sweaters on 10 nights as the team commemorates famous events and players in their first 100 seasons.
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Revenue from national media rights is split evenly among the 32 teams, but increases in national media rights proportionally benefiting low-revenue teams more than high-revenue clubs. That's one reason the 16 teams with the lowest revenue for the 2024-25 season increased by an average of 19 percent during the past year, compared with 14 percent for the 16 teams that had the highest revenue.
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Teams like the Rangers that take in more ticket money and have big-money local TV deals still dominate the top of CNBC's valuations because teams keep all the money from these revenue streams during the regular season.
The two other Metropolitan-area franchises are much further down in CNBC's rankings. The New Jersey Devils are 11th, the same as the previous year, with a value of $2.45 billion, up 23 percent from a year earlier. The New York Islanders fell from 16th to 20th with a valuation of $1.82 billion, up just three percent.
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