In the early 1990s, the National Hockey League almost created the office of the Commissioner, joining MLB, the NFL, and the NBA as leagues with commissioners. I even read that their first choice was disgraced NBA executive Gary Bettman, whom the NHL hoped would be their answer to labor issues, never mind that league president Gil Stein did a fine job of taking the first steps to creating labor peace in hockey.
The other thing that they were considering was expansion into southern markets. There are a few teams farther south, like the LA Kings and the Dallas Stars, but even the Whalers picked Columbus instead of Raleigh. I wonder what the league would look like if the NHL had gone full-hog into places like Miami and Atlanta. I wonder if an Atlanta team would try to get the Flames name back.