Leafs, Rangers, Habs are most valuable NHL clubs

New York, N.Y. - While the average NHL hockey club is worth around $490 million, there are three seemingly in their own league, enjoying a valuation of over $1 billion.

Toronto's Maple Leafs were ranked first-overall by Forbes, their ninth-straight year at the top, worth $1.3 billion.

That, despite the Leafs suffering a 47-year championship drought, having last lifted Lord Stanley's Cup in 1967.

The New York Rangers came second, worth $1.1 billion, thanks to an increase in income during their Stanley Cup Playoff run last season, which Forbes estimated at north of $20 million last season. 

Worth an estimated $1 billion, the Montreal Canadiens round out the top three, in large part to a Bell Centre sell-out streak lasting seven years straight, despite charging the second-highest prices in the league.

The average worth of NHL franchises increased 18.6 percent over the past year, to about $490 million. 

That increase has been attributed to a landmark deal between the league and Rogers Communications, the large Canadian television broadcaster. 

Forbes reports the contract to be worth $4.6 billion over 6 years, giving the conglomerate the right to broadcast every hockey game played in Canada, including every Stanley Cup Playoff matchup.

The Chicago Blackhawks came in fourth on the valuation list, at $825 million, and, according to the report, boast the highest average attendance (21,775) and the largest local television viewership, on CSN Chicago (153,000).