Buffalo, Ottawa and Detroit are options as well. None of them are any good but they all have a bunch of young talent and will be good (or in Detroit's case, not quite as bad) going forward.

If you live in Canada I'd cheer for a Canadian team then. So either the:

Edmonton Oilers
Winnipeg Jets
Calgary Flames
Vancouver Canucks
Montreal Canadiens
Toronto Maple Leafs
Ottawa Senators

The Oilers have Connor McDavid who is known as the best hockey player in the world. He's also the fastest player in the world

Any of these teams are good to cheer for though

Considering your username, I’d say Detroit but we’re going to suck for a few years. Gordie Howe was named “Mr. Hockey”.

its a good foreplay before watching the actual ducks play

I feel you, a handful of years I got into the NFL and college football and couldn't find a team. I ended up picking the Baltimore Ravens and LSU Tigers

Here's what I did

Look at some logos and jerseys of all the teams, this will give you an idea of what you like

Once you've found some logos you like, then do a little research on those teams. Find out what kind of team they are, which players they have and what the long term outlook is like. I'd also look back at some past greats that have worn the colours and memorable seasons

The most important thing I'd say is to try and find some full games on youtube, see what the atmosphere is like for home games, particularly playoff games. I also put some stock into location, where's a spot that I would love to catch a game, something to add onto the bucket list.

I would recommend keeping an open mind and to be honest watch almost a full season before deciding. There's no need to rush into this, take the time, find a team you enjoy watching and then you are set! Good luck, keep us posted!

I so far liked the canucks, oilers, ducks, flames, lighting, kings, blues, avalanches, wild, sharks, knights. Could you help me condense the list because I don't know much about any of these teams history and stuff.

I suggest cheer for the Edmonton Oilers! Nashville is a good one (that’s my second favourite). But in the end it’s up to you.

My advice watch YouTube highlights of each team or watch a few games and decide for yourself don’t let anyone else pick for you because that’s heavily opinionated. I’m a hockey enthusiast, I played, I have a talk show, I’ve done announcing for high school games, I’ve coached, and I don’t hate any teams and I really don’t dislike any team. But my suggestion find your own path into the fandom and what team you wanna root for. When you pick a team, this place has a lot of good people to give you information of what you need to know about relevant information and the teams history. I’m more than happy to show you all of the advanced stats you need for any sort of trade or value argument and even who is better arguments.

ok

In other words, you don't wanna win.

Some good advice there, only thing I would add is there some amazing rinks with amazing loyal fanbases out there, and you will recognize it, when you get a chance to catch a full building with noise and atmosphere to solve it. I’m biased towards my jets and what seems to be a noisy sell out most nights. But enjoyed Chicago and Minnesota when I caught games there and Vegas surprised me in inaugural year. Phoenix I enjoyed outside the rink and the day spent there, but fanbase didn’t quite have what the other rinks had. Anaheim was all right, calgary and Edmonton quality too. You can’t go wrong, depends on patience and or needing a winner quick lol

I think it is important to remember a few things about what you hear about Toronto.

There are a ton of haters from outside the fanbase and even more from within.

There are a few reasons for this but to put it simply: the Leafs are the empire. We are the largest individual market and so we dominate the media like no other team could even dream of doing. The team is one of the original 6 franchises and has a longer history of both winning and losing than most other teams have of existing. Sure the empire has been dead for 35-40 of the last 50 years but now you are seeing a resurgence and no one outside of Toronto wants to see that. The team is young and exciting and has a lot of potential for the next decade or more, and so the other fanbases are not happy about that because, who wants to see the empire win?

In terms of the haters inside the fan base I think it is important to focus on that last statement I made: the 35-50 one. There was a period where the leafs were coming back in the mid 90's early 2000's and a ton of Leafs fans remember this as the glory days since we went into the darkest decade in the teams history after the lockout in 04-05. Thought the 90's and the early 2000's That team was a tough team headed by guys like Wendel clark, Darcy Tucker, tie domi, etc and their hockey opinions got shaped by those years. Since we have been **** ever since they still hold onto those teams as the goal to strive for despite the fact that the NHL has changed and modern roster construction has changed with it.

The new organisation that these old school leafs fans hate are one of the most cutting edge organizations in the sport and leverage the fact that we are the empire to out compete everyone at everything. Whether that is European free agent signings or contract structures that no one else can afford to give the modern leafs have and use every advantage available.

That breeds hate from the other fanbases.
What the old school fanbases hate is that the roster that led us to the conference finals all those years ago isn't how the modern team is being built, or at least how it isn't being focused on. The modern team is all in on skill and a possession style that as mentioned before is cutting edge thinking. People like what they know and unfortunately what these old school leafs fans know has been out of date for 20 years. Combine that with the other fanbases hate for the empire and the constant media attention and it isn't surprising you've heard bad things about the team.

Since the leafs are your closest team I highly suggest cheering for them as they are primed to be good for the next 10 years + and are local. If you have any questions about anything you've heard about them or want to know anything in particular feel free to ask, I am happy to help you out.

Plus if you get on now, you will be getting on before the band wagon really gets going and it'll be all the better.

Here's some thoughts on your listed teams

Golden Knights- the newest team in the league for now. Fantastic gameday atmosphere and a very good team

Sharks- they are reaching the end of a 15 year run of being a good team. They have a great fan base, but as a new fan I would maybe steer away from them as they might be heading for a rebuild.

Wild- the Wild have very good fans, the state of Minnesota is known as the state of Hockey. However, the Wild aren't the most entertaining team to watch.

Avalanche- one of the best teams in the league. Very exciting team to watch. Nathan Mackinnon and Mikko Rantanen are two of the better players in hockey

Blues- defending Stanley Cup champions, a very good team obviously. They might be losing their captain to free agency though.

Kings- are well into a rebuild of their team. They have a lot of good prospects and could become very good soon, but still a few more years of struggling are ahead.

Ducks- like the Kings are rebuilding, they are probably slightly behind the Kings in terms of how far away they are from playoff contention.

Lightning- they are arguably the best team in hockey, very fun to watch. That being said, they have a salary cap crunch and are going to be losing some key players soon

Oilers- Draisaitl and McDavid are two of the top 5 players in the league. The Oilers have a very loyal fan base, have a very nice arena

Canucks- very good chance that they will have the past 2 rookie of the year winners on their team, Hughes and Pettersson. Canuck fans are very passionate.

Flames- my favourite team. They are getting a brand new arena in a couple seasons. They have one of the most unique players in the game, Matthew Tkachuk. There aren't a lot of players that play the way he does anymore, lots of fanbases would love to have him. The battle of Alberta is a lot of fun, as long as you are on the right side of it . Attached is a video from this season
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmmVD_YrK-Y

What about the islanders, leafs and rangers.