Quote:Written Task: How do you feel about hockey's social media culture? Specifically with regards to top players in the world. A common complaint is that the NHL does not have the star power of a league like the NBA, and that the players are much more boring. Do you think this ties in to social media, and the unwillingness many players to engage beyond the officially sanctioned opportunities? Is it unrelated? If so, how do you think the league should go about making their stars more marketable and exciting? Does it even matter? (150+ words)

As hilarious as it might sound to most people, I think the main reason the NHL lacks popularity in comparison to other leagues is quite frankly the sport itself. Speaking as a native of a tropical country, the idea of playing hockey itself sounds like an expensive endeavour compared to others such as association football (which I do play every now and then), basketball and even something more complex such as gridiron. So naturally, you're bound to not have the same traction power as anything that more people can do.

I believe popularizing the sport in more countries would be the way to go but how to do that is another can of worms, mainly one on the lap of the league itself as opposed to the players. Hell, I don't blame them since their job is literally to play a sport and not serve as spokespeople for a league that bailed out the Coyotes three times for whatever reason.