NHL expansion

[-Blueski-]

Toronto will go to Orlando
Calgary will go to Atlanta
Montreal will go to Kansas city
Vancouver will go to Oklahoma City
Ottawa will go to Indianapolis
Winnipeg will go to Portland

Edmonton goes dark and McDavid comes to St. Louis

[DawgDad]

I live down here in the Atlanta metro area (Gerogia, not Atlanta MO). The arena project is in Forsyth County, north of Atlanta, and most importantly NOT in Fulton County. This is akin to the Braves moving to Smyrna, also outside of Fulton County. Draw your own conclusions but I will opine Occum's razor clearly applies.

I lived down here through the entire tenure of the Thrashers. That franchise was cursed and not by the fans. In expansion they were treated like the Washington Capitals, their early teams played horrible hockey. That should not happen again, and hopefully the ownership wouldn't sabotage their own franchise. Forsythe location much better.

https://fetchyournews.com/featured-stor ... -district/

[SRV1990]

I think they will add 4 teams over the next ten years. Atlanta and Houston will be likely. Arizona will be a strong possibility.

For the 4th team, key an eye on San Diego. Believe it or not, Stan Kroenke is behind an NHL/NBA sized arena project near downtown in SD that is gaining some momentum.

My sentimental favorite for the 4th team would be Quebec City.

Will not happen in SD. Just left there cuz taxes in CA are obnoxious. But SD Gulls are already there along with a lot of other "peripheral" sports teams in lacrosse, rugby, soccer... Stan will get no and I mean zilch $ from the city, and his M.O. is to screw over anybody and everybody. The Chargers left with more city support than Stan would ever get. After a baseball town, soccer is most likely to succeed with the demographics. And a nice day outside can ruin attendance. Lets go get some tacos...

A little off topic... but [fork] STANK!

[Old_Goat]

Atlanta, Phoenix, Houston and…idk. They need 1 more. Portland? Milwaukee? Austin? I doubt they ever consider Quebec City again but maybe.

That said, I’d vote for no more expansion. 32 is always too many IMO. But I get the sense the owners are now addicted to the expansion fee so they’ll keep going and then once Bettman retires, push for expanding the playoff field beyond 16 teams.

Little Rock, Arkansas.
Enough of this nonsense...I agree, no more expansion.

[Cedar]

I think they will add 4 teams over the next ten years. Atlanta and Houston will be likely. Arizona will be a strong possibility.

For the 4th team, key an eye on San Diego. Believe it or not, Stan Kroenke is behind an NHL/NBA sized arena project near downtown in SD that is gaining some momentum.

My sentimental favorite for the 4th team would be Quebec City.

Agree with this - four new teams in 10 years. Houston and Atlanta are virtual locks. Arizona will get another shot if capable owner with an arena plan rises up, but it will be in the latter part of the 10 years. The fourth is up in the air. A second team in Toronto would add so much money they should tell the Leafs to deal with it.

[moose-and-squirrel]

Houston should be a no brainer

Portland is interesting, but no idea about the demographics etc..

Atlanta SHOULD be a good market,but..

Quebec would be cool, but the government there seems dead set against helping make that happen. not sure why. who wouldn't want 20+ new millionaires paying taxes there?

[callitwhatyouwant]

It's clear they want to try and make Atlanta a thing, the only question I have for hockey is how far can it go? is 40 an OK amount of teams? They are at 32 with 4 conferences. You have to figure out how you are going to balance it. If you keep the 4 then you need 4 or 8. Eventually there is a playoff expansion necessary. Seems like most leagues prefer the playoffs to be around 50 percent number.

[IsDurbanodoingtime]

Sadly the Canadiens will under the radar block any expansion back to QC Francois Legault's lobbying notwithstanding. I think the slump in the cdn and current economics have made a new nordique a pipe dream. The only remote possibility is if the Winnipeg ownership decides to pull the plug and relocate.

[Bob39]

Atlanta and Houston will always be in the mix because those are huge markets. We would all love to have the Nordiques back or another Canadian market (maybe Regina or Saskatoon), but smaller Canadian markets have struggled, even with ticket sales at times. Milwaukee as mentioned earlier would make a lot of sense. Kansas City would be great for us, but I don't know if they have an ownership group who is serious and well funded.


If it's two it will be either Atlanta or Houston plus a more traditional market to make hockey people happy.

[TheJackBurton]

If they do this expansion then that would start to eliminate out of conference play, which I'm sometimes ok with and other times not ok with.

Focus of the schedule should always be on division play, but it is always good to see the top players of the league come in. However for Eastern teams not having to leave a time zone for 95% of the year is a major advantage.

[dr0zombie]

It’s gonna be 2….Atlanta and Houston

This is the safe bet. Though you would think spiritually Quebec.

[dr0zombie]

I live down here in the Atlanta metro area (Gerogia, not Atlanta MO). The arena project is in Forsyth County, north of Atlanta, and most importantly NOT in Fulton County. This is akin to the Braves moving to Smyrna, also outside of Fulton County. Draw your own conclusions but I will opine Occum's razor clearly applies.

I lived down here through the entire tenure of the Thrashers. That franchise was cursed and not by the fans. In expansion they were treated like the Washington Capitals, their early teams played horrible hockey. That should not happen again, and hopefully the ownership wouldn't sabotage their own franchise. Forsythe location much better.

https://fetchyournews.com/featured-stor ... -district/

Also in the area. I feel until I see major work or create a new exit for this I still think it is wishful thinking. Though I would really love to see it come true.

My bet is Atlanta and Houston will be the next cities as they are the big markets the NHL doesn't have teams in.

[HazeGray977]

I think they will add 4 teams over the next ten years. Atlanta and Houston will be likely. Arizona will be a strong possibility.

For the 4th team, key an eye on San Diego. Believe it or not, Stan Kroenke is behind an NHL/NBA sized arena project near downtown in SD that is gaining some momentum.

My sentimental favorite for the 4th team would be Quebec City.

Will not happen in SD. Just left there cuz taxes in CA are obnoxious. But SD Gulls are already there along with a lot of other "peripheral" sports teams in lacrosse, rugby, soccer... Stan will get no and I mean zilch $ from the city, and his M.O. is to screw over anybody and everybody. The Chargers left with more city support than Stan would ever get. After a baseball town, soccer is most likely to succeed with the demographics. And a nice day outside can ruin attendance. Lets go get some tacos...

A little off topic... but [fork] STANK!

Actually, that's never off topic....for sure, [fork] STANK!

[LGB73]

That said, I’d vote for no more expansion. 32 is always too many IMO. But I get the sense the owners are now addicted to the expansion fee so they’ll keep going and then once Bettman retires, push for expanding the playoff field beyond 16 teams.

Yes it's money not sense driving the expansion bus. The NFL is the #1 sports league in North America and they haven't expanded past 32 and the last started playing 23 years ago. Lets wait 20 years before even thinking about adding another team. Think of the depth of talent in the league if we just stopped watering it down with new teams.

[billybaseball]

It will 100% be Atlanta and Houston. Houston is a no-brainer because of market and the local support/ownership group is extremely strong.

Atlanta Thrashers failed because of the ownership group not because of the market. I'm just going to say it. Atlanta is an extremely segregated market. Atlanta Braves moved out of downtown due to the demographics shifting and the perception of downtown Atlanta becoming "Blacklanta". This 100% had an effect on the downfall of the Thrashers. But the teams failure was on ownership, the relocation was due to no viable ownership group wanted to keep the team in downtown Atlanta. The new team will not be located downtown and will be another mixed-use development in the suburbs like the Braves had so much success doing.

[2forDiving]

It’s gonna be 2….Atlanta and Houston

You don’t think quebec will come back?

Not in my lifetime

Yeah, I think the struggles the Jets are currently facing has put a the proverbial nail in the coffin of Quebec’s NHL days.