The NHL owners are mutual back-scratchers, playing "I'll help you to protect your market if you help me to protect mine." Sometimes they are more intelligent than they are at other times.

I suggest that the $-value of the Leafs would drop by many tens of millions the instant a franchise was announced for southern Ontario. Not allowing that to happen is "intelligent greed"
On the other hand, I also suggest that he NHL in Vegas will be a minimally profitable curiosity for a while, then it will fade into the desert as the CFL did - that is perhaps not so smart...