One Owner....

"An investment firm and a sports advisory company reportedly made a joint proposal to buy all 30 NHL teams for as much as $3.5 billion."

Very interesting.....

The scenario I would like to see:

The investment company buys the NHL and maintains control over all teams and players. All existing player contracts are voided and every player gets a new contract for $1,000,000.00/year. Based on previous years' statistics, a player rating system is employeed and all players are ranked. The players are then split up and teams are made that are 'equal' according to the new player rankings. Players could earn incentives based on performance and team performances. They would also share in merchandise revenues (e.g. Mark Messier would get 5% of all sales of merchandise with his name/picture).

$1,000.000.00/year is a lot of money. Granted, home-town favorites would probably be playing for a different team, but no one can watch their favorites play now anyway. I think it would garner a lot more fan interest than if they were to just restart the season with the existing teams. Maybe not because of the different rosters, but maybe because of the bold moves made. It would almost be like making a fresh start.