New NHL expansion team on track to be announced by end of year: report
Expect a new NHL expansion team to start play over the next couple of years.
It sounds like the league is progressing quickly in adding a 33rd team, and it appears that Texas is the favourite to land a new franchise. Reports from earlier this summer indicated that the NHL has been working with Texas billionaire Dan Friedkin to bring another team to the Lone Star State.
Both Houston and Austin are in the running to land a team, and it looks like the league is closing in on making things official.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly recently spoke with The Athletic’s Chris Johnston, where he all but confirmed that a new team is coming to Texas and the league could make an official announcement by the end of the year.
“We’ll probably get together with the group again in September and kind of see where they are in the process and what they want us to do to help, to the extent they need anything,” Daly said.
“If we finalize that and the board approves it, then, end of this calendar year we’ll have an announcement that we’re expanding to either Houston or Austin.ā
Friedkin has reportedly already agreed to pay the $2 billion expansion fee and will now need to show a plan to build an arena in either market and get final approval from the NHL Board of Governors.
Daly mentioned that if everything goes smoothly, the NHL’s newest team could begin play as soon as the 2029-30 season.
The deputy commissioner also told The Athletic that the league is actively gauging interest with various groups to bring in the NHL’s 34th team as well, although that is not expected to get done as quickly. Among the cities named as possible destinations were a return to Phoenix, Arizona, and Atlanta, Georgia.
Canadian hockey fans may be disappointed not to see Quebec City on that list yet, but Daly previously outlined the issues preventing that from happening earlier this summer.
Adding two more teams would give the NHL the most teams of the big four North American sports leagues. Right now, the NHL is tied with the NFL with 32 franchises, while the NBA and MLB currently boast 30 teams.
The Seattle Kraken were the most recent expansion team to join the NHL, having started play in the 2021-22 season.