Why Rangers are ranked as NHL’s second-most valuable team by CNBC
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
