The Canadiens surpass Leafs in Forbes' ranking, now the second-most-valuable NHL franchise

According to Forbes, the Montreal Canadiens are the second most valuable franchise in the NHL, surpassing their Canadian rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

At first glance this seems like an impossible change, seeing as the Leafs have been the most valuable franchise in the league for a decade.

Their reasoning is that the Leafs lost 12% of their value, dropping to $1.15B, whereas the Canadiens added 18% to their franchise evaluation, and are worth $1.18B.

The Rangers took the top spot, with a $1.2B evaluation.

From Forbes

Moving up from third in 2014 to second are the Montreal Canadiens, worth $1.18 billion, 18% more than last year. Of the seven Canadian teams, Les Habitants were the only one to increase in value over the past year. Last season, the Canadiens began a long-term local television deal with Réseau des sports that will pay the team an average of C$68 million a season, more than double their previous agreement

Here are the top 10 franchises:

Of course, if we're being honest, if all the listed teams were sold the highest pay out would probably still go to the Maple Leafs, so we might want to take these evaluations with a grain of salt.