Pro sports leagues are weird things. On the one hand, they exist solely for profit. They always have, that's why they have been created. The NHL generates billions of dollars in revenue each year. To that end, they sell everything from merch to tickets to tours to TV rights. They only really want to remind you of the for-profit nature of the beast when there's a player transaction. A player is traded or not re-signed and everyone sighs and says "it's a business, oh well" like something being a business makes it okay.
Fine, it's a business. We're reminded of that every day.