from Robert Passikoff of Forbes,

Sure, winning is good, and winning a championship trophy is even better, but doing that alone doesn’t automatically skate a team to the top of the loyalty list. Winning gives fans bragging rights but there are other engagement values that have to be taken into account. And from a marketing perspective, loyalty – because it’s a leading-indicator of positive consumer behavior correlating, highly with viewership, licensed merchandise sales and, to a more-or-lesser, degree, attendance – represents the ultimate trophy a sports marketer can win.

These assessments come from 150 self-classified fans in each of the teams’ own DMAs, and the current 2014 NHL top-5 and bottom-5 brand loyalty rankings are as follows, with last season’s ranking in parentheses:

Top-5

1. Chicago Blackhawks (#2)

2. New York Rangers (#1)

3. Boston Bruins (#2)

4. San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues (#3 and #6)

5. Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings and

Philadelphia Flyers (#4, #5, and #5)

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