Wall Street Firm Files to Launch ETFs for All 32 NHL Teams. Here's What They'd Track
Volatility Shares Trust, the issuer known for volatility-focused exchange-traded products, has filed a preliminary registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would create a separate ETF for each of the NHL's 32 teams. The proposed lineup includes an Anaheim Ducks ETF, a Boston Bruins ETF, a Toronto Maple Leafs ETF, a Vegas Golden Knights ETF, and one for every other club in the league. But if these funds ever list, owning a Maple Leafs fund would not mean owning part of the franchise, sharing in ticket sales, or collecting media-rights money.
The proposal is still at the paperwork stage. The prospectus, submitted by Volatility Shares Trust with Volatility Shares LLC as investment adviser, leaves the tickers, listing exchange, launch date, and expense ratio blank. It also includes the standard disclaimer that neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has approved the securities or passed on the accuracy of the filing. No one can buy these funds today, and the document sets no timeline for approval or launch.
The funds would not be tracking team finances. According to the filing, each ETF would seek its objective through cash-settled futures contracts tied to the team's CME FSPI NHL index, described as that team's Sports Performance Index. The underlying indexes are non-investable and are meant to measure a team's cumulative on-ice performance using 55 statistical categories plus game results. Each index starts every season at 7,500, moves up or down with official game statistics, and resets after the postseason. FutureSports, an outside provider, maintains the benchmarks.
Because the indexes cannot be bought directly, the funds would hold futures in a wholly owned Cayman Islands subsidiary. Each fund would be classified as non-diversified under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The adviser says it does not conduct conventional investment research, does not try to analyze market trends, and does not forecast market movement.
There is no direct comparable on the U.S. market today. Sports and entertainment ETFs already exist, but they usually hold baskets of league-adjacent businesses, media companies, entertainment firms, and gaming operators. None are tied to how one franchise performs on the ice. The proposed structure would let investors make a regulated, transparent bet on a single team's results without stepping into a sportsbook. That is also why the risk section reads the way it does.
The filing warns that a fund tied to one team's statistical output is exposed to player injuries, trades, suspensions, retirements, coaching changes, front-office turnover, league sanctions, labor disputes, lockouts, and other factors that affect play. This concentration will likely increase volatility in the fund's net asset value and heighten the chance of significant losses over short periods. The fund also has no ability to rotate exposure into a different team, sport, or league if things turn upside down.
There is a legal question hanging over the whole structure. Insider-trading rules are well established for stocks under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, but far less settled for futures tied to sports statistics. Team staff, medical personnel, and league insiders regularly know about injuries, healthy scratches, and lineup decisions before the public does. These funds would also start with no track record, likely modest assets, and possibly wide bid-ask spreads.
The next test is whether the SEC and the CFTC decide that a sports-statistics futures fund fits existing rules, and whether the CME futures contracts behind these funds can generate enough trading activity to support a listed ETF. Until then, the proposal remains a filing, not a product.