At the most recent NHL Board of Governors meeting in New York City, league commissioner Gary Bettman opened up about the progress of potentially adding a 33rd franchise, expressing that there is still a lot of work to do before any final decision is made.
Hold onto your cowboy hats.
While the NHL may have previously shown interest in heading to the heart of Texas to expand the league from 32 to 33 teams in the very near future, with Houston or Austin as potential locations, commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters at the Board of Governors meeting in New York City on Tuesday that the league is still in a "wait-and-see" approach.
"We continue to evaluate and receive expressions of interest, which I guess is a really good thing," Bettman told reporters. "Expansion is a multibillion-dollar transaction, which has an impact on all the other clubs in the league. If there's going to be expansion, three-quarters of the governors are going to have to be comfortable that this makes sense to them.
"And that's not something you do overnight."
In addition to Houston or Austin, the NHL has also received "unsolicited expressions of interest" from groups trying to expand to Atlanta, Ga., as well as Phoenix, Ariz, according to Bettman.
However, it's The Friedkin Group, led by Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin, who entered a six-month non-binding term sheet with the NHL in late June 2026 to evaluate a team and arena feasibility in either Houston or Austin, that appears to be at the top of the list.
Putting a team in either Houston or Austin would represent a $3.5-billion investment, which would cover both the expansion fee and the cost of the arena construction. But as of now, the league is still not sure which city makes the most sense for having a team — and is in no rush to make any decisions.
"I don't think we're putting time limits on things. We're working through the process. They're working through the process," said Bettman. "Originally, we contemplated at least knowing where we are in December.
"I expect we will certainly know a lot more than we do now, come December, but I don't think there's any magic date by which something has to get done or not get done."
The lack of urgency echoes what deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Hockey News and other reporters a couple of weeks ago at the Player Media Tour in Las Vegas when asked whether a new team would be added within the next two or three years.
"We're too premature to say I'm firmly confident, because I just don't know enough yet," said Daly. "I don't think there's any magic about the date of entry. If it's not 29-30, it'll be 30-31. I don't think that’s going to be a prime gating factor."
Complicating the discussion is that there are advantages and disadvantages to expanding to either Austin or Houston.
"Austin, we'd be the first of the major four to put a franchise there. And there's some benefit to coming first," said Daly. "It's an up-and-coming, growing city, young, affluent — it has a lot going for it.
"But Houston is enormous and it is a major market that we're not in. We don't have the same footprint across the United States that the other major professional leagues do. So to add a city of Houston's size and demographics to our league, there would be certainly benefits associated with that."
"Then you have to know what's available to you and what the local market conditions are. And what the feasibility of having another new building in Austin is, because the Moody Center (a multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of Texas) only opened a couple years ago and I don't think they're looking to host either an NBA or an NHL team.
"So I think you still need a new arena in Austin. I don't know what the conditions are like to get that arena. So there'll be a lot of factors that come into play when and if we're called on to make that decision."
Another factor is whether the league can handle more than 32 teams at this time, or whether the other team owners even want to expand. So far, the NHL has not brought up expansion to a board vote. It probably won't until it gets closer to a reality.
"I think there are probably some owners who think expansion is the greatest thing ever," Bettman told reporters on Tuesday, "and I think there are some people who say, 'Why do we need to expand?' I can't tell you the numbers."
The NHL added a 31st team (Vegas) in 2017-18 and a 32nd team (Seattle) four years later in 2021-22. The idea of adding one or two more teams in the next three to four years could water down the talent pool and make winning the Stanley Cup — or even qualifying for the playoffs — a lot more difficult.
"In recent weeks and as recently as the June board meeting, we actually did have some clubs that expressed some concern," Daly said earlier this month. "I don't want to get ahead of the board. I don't want to treat it like a done deal because it's not. It's not a done deal on the Friedkin side and it's not a done deal on our side. And that's why it's kind of a nonbinding term sheet. We're both going to work hard to achieve that goal. But, at the end of the day, it might not happen.
"In terms of kind of the mathematical probability of winning Stanley Cups based on the number of teams in your league, I think it's fair and I think some of our clubs may be concerned about that.
"We don't have clear direction yet from our board that everybody wants to expand … it's been my impression over the last two years that if we found the right place and the right owners and it would add to the league, that there would be support — board support — for expansion. But we'll make sure of that before we expand, for sure."
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