Almost every NHL team has had a new building since the Saddledome opened

After the multi-party announcement of a new Calgary arena deal, and the provincial election results that all-but-confirmed the deal, many in the hockey world are breathing a sigh of relief. The Calgary Flames have been playing out of the building originally known as the Olympic Saddledome since 1983.

Since the Saddledome first opened its doors, 36 newer buildings have opened throughout the league and regularly hosted NHL games.

And yeah, we made a list.

Since the Saddledome opened in 1983, every NHL team except for the New York Rangers has played regular in a newer building than the ‘Dome. And the Rangers have conducted extensive, expensive renovations to Madison Square Garden – not quite as extensive as the ones that turned Key Arena into basically a brand-new building in Seattle, but extensive enough to not make it feel like a building that opened in 1968.

Heck, a few of teams (Arizona, Florida, Tampa, Islanders, Atlanta/Winnipeg) have played in multiple newer buildings than the Saddledome, which drives that number up north of the amount of NHL franchises that exist now. (And let’s give a shout out to Tampa, who have played out of the Thunderdome and the Ice Palace, two amazingly-named buildings.)

Now, a good chunk of the 36 newer buildings were new builds for expansion teams: a full dozen of them were buildings that were built in anticipation of (or as part of) an expansion process – or a relocation process, in the case of the Hurricanes. Two more buildings already existed when Winnipeg moved to Phoenix and Atlanta moved to Winnipeg. But that means 22 buildings were built to give existing NHL teams newer digs.

Finally, you can kinda see the patterns of development throughout the league. From 1993 and 2000, most of the league got fancy new buildings. And based on a 30-35 year lifespan for buildings, it feels likely that we’ll start seeing either massive renovations in the early ’90s builds to bring them up to current standards… or the beginning of another wave of arena development throughout the league.

But if nothing else, at least the decades-long arena saga in Calgary seems close to a resolution.