Potential National Hockey League expansion


The National Hockey League has undergone several rounds of expansion and other organizational changes during its 102-year history to reach its current thirty-one teams: twenty-four in the United States, and seven in Canada. The league is in the process of a two-team expansion, which added the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 and the Seattle Kraken set to begin play in 2021, at which point the league will have thirty-two teams. The league's most recent relocation was in 2011, when the former Atlanta Thrashers relocated to become the second and current incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets.
To gauge interest and help determine whether the NHL should entertain further expansion, the NHL Board of Governors accepted applications for new franchises during the 2015 offseason. Two potential ownership groups submitted applications for prospective teams in Las Vegas and Quebec City. The geographic distribution of teams between the NHL's two conferences was not a primary consideration for expansion, and the earliest time when a new franchise could start play was the 2017–18 season. On June 22, 2016, the NHL approved expansion to Las Vegas starting in the 2017–18 season with the Vegas Golden Knights. With the Quebec City bid still shelved by the league's board of directors, the league opened up another expansion window in December 2017, specifically to allow an ownership group from Seattle to place a bid; no other cities were allowed to submit bids in that window. The Seattle bid was approved on December 4, 2018, with the team scheduled to begin play in 2021; at the same time, commissioner Gary Bettman tacitly rejected the Quebec City bid by stating the league would not expand any further for the foreseeable future. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly stated that the league may revisit expansion in the near future if it is deemed in the best interest of the league.

Expansion sites in Canada

The potential of adding additional franchises in Canada had been an ongoing source of controversy for the NHL in recent years as numerous groups proposed expanding the league into a new Canadian city, or purchasing a struggling American franchise and relocating it north; to a certain extent, these issues continue even after the Atlanta Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg, becoming the country's seventh active team. Quebec City and the Golden Horseshoe area of Southern Ontario are most frequently proposed as locations for new Canadian teams, as was Winnipeg prior to the announced relocation of the Thrashers.

Background

History of Canadian franchises (1967–present)

Throughout the history of the NHL, attempts to bring franchises to Canadian cities have caused points of contention. Among them, the league's existing Canadian teams, especially the Montreal Canadiens, historically have raised concerns about further dividing the NHL's Canadian television revenue.
Vancouver's rejected bid for one of six new franchises added in 1967 outraged Canadians, who felt they had been "sold out". Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson stated that "the NHL decision to expand only in the U.S. impinges on the sacred principles of all Canadians."
Three years later, the Vancouver Canucks joined as the league's third Canadian franchise.
The 1979 defeat by a single vote of a merger agreement between the NHL and the rival World Hockey Association that would have resulted in three Canadian WHA franchises joining the NHL led to a mass boycott of Molson products across Canada. In a second vote, the Montreal Canadiens, owned by Molson, reversed their position, allowing the Oilers, Nordiques, and Jets to join the NHL for the 1979–80 NHL season. The Calgary Flames became Canada's seventh franchise in 1980, relocating from Atlanta.
There was considerable upheaval amongst Canadian franchises in the 1990s. In 1992, the NHL returned to Ottawa, beating out Hamilton for an expansion team. However, the declining value of the Canadian dollar at that time, coupled with rapidly escalating salaries, placed hardships on Canadian franchises. As a result, the Nordiques and Jets left Canada, becoming the Colorado Avalanche in 1995 and the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996 respectively. Fears persisted up to the 2004–05 NHL lockout that the Flames, Oilers, and Senators could follow suit. The financial fortunes of Canada's teams rebounded following the lockout: Canada's six franchises represented one-third of NHL revenues in 2006–07, primarily due to the surging value of the Canadian dollar.
In May 2011, True North Sports and Entertainment, an ownership group with the support of billionaire David Thomson, 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet, purchased the Atlanta Thrashers and moved the team to Winnipeg, Manitoba. This was the first franchise relocation since 1997 and the first franchise to locate in Canada since the Ottawa Senators entered the league in 1992. At the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, it was announced that the team would be named the Jets.

Current views on Canadian expansion

Former National Hockey League Players Association executive director Paul Kelly has repeatedly argued in favor of bringing a new team to Canada. In early 2008, he described the Canadian market to The Palm Beach Post: "The six Canadian franchises do so well, they pack the buildings, get great TV, great revenue streams. If you put another team up there, be it in Nova Scotia or Hamilton, it would be more of the same." Prior to the relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke in favor of another team in Canada, stating he has spoken with NHL owners in the past about bringing a new team to southern Ontario.
A study published in April 2011 by the University of Toronto's Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation concluded that Canada can support 12 NHL teams, twice the number it had at the time of the study, including second franchises for Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
In May 2013, Nate Silver, editor of the polling and statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight, concluded that there were about as many avid hockey fans in Canada as in the United States, despite the U.S. having nine times Canada's population. He determined that among current NHL media markets, the average Canadian market had considerably more hockey fans than the typical U.S. market, and that Canada could support 11 or 12 teams, with two additional franchises in the Golden Horseshoe, a second franchise in Montreal, and a team in Quebec City. Silver also believed Vancouver could support a second franchise, although he thought that some of the Vancouver-area hockey market could be drawn by a Seattle-based team.

Quebec City

has been home to two NHL hockey teams. The first, the Quebec Bulldogs, lasted from 1878 to 1920, after which they moved to Hamilton, Ontario. The second, the Quebec Nordiques, called Quebec City their home from 1972 to 1979 in the World Hockey Association, and from then on to 1995 as a National Hockey League team, at which point they moved to Denver to become the Colorado Avalanche. Part of the challenge for both the Bulldogs and Nordiques was that Quebec City was by far the smallest market in the NHL. According to the Television Bureau of Canada, a prospective Quebec City team would now be in the league's second-smallest market, ahead of only Winnipeg. However, Silver's analysis suggested that the Quebec City market was comparable to the U.S. markets of Buffalo and Washington, D.C. in terms of avid hockey fans.
In 2009, Alexander Medvedev, founder and president of Russia's Kontinental Hockey League, stated his interest in purchasing an NHL team for Quebec City, saying that it was "very strange" there was no NHL team there. Medvedev later shelved plans to buy a North American team after NHL representatives told him that the league would never allow him to own one of its clubs. In October 2009, Quebec City mayor Regis Labeaume spoke with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and former Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut regarding a team. Bettman stated that Quebec City could be considered as a candidate for an NHL team provided it built a new arena and a team were for sale.
In May 2011, Labeaume stated that Pierre Karl Péladeau, then-president and CEO of Quebecor, was in talks with the NHL regarding a franchise in Quebec City. He later became a politician for the Parti Québécois, a sovereignist political party in the province. In September 2012, then-Quebec premier Jean Charest claimed that the political aspect might hinder Quebec City's chances of getting the Nordiques back, saying that Bettman might be less likely to allow a team to move if sovereignists were in power. According to Sports Illustrated, the league is wary of the Quebec sovereignty movement because of concerns that it could destabilize the Canadian dollar. However, Mayor Labeaume insists that Péladeau's involvement in politics will hinder neither the management of the new arena nor the negotiations over the return of the Nordiques.
Prior to the 2011–12 NHL season, an exhibition game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning was played at the Colisée Pepsi, the former home of the Nordiques. The Canadiens were well received despite being from rival Montreal, and the designated away team of the game. Montreal was also scheduled to host the Carolina Hurricanes at the Colisée Pepsi in 2012; however, that game was canceled due to the lockout. In September 2012, construction started on an 18,000-seat arena in Quebec City that would eventually become known as Centre Vidéotron, the cost of which was split equally between the provincial and municipal governments. The arena opened on September 12, 2015.
In July 2013, ex-Nordiques coach Michel Bergeron accused Bettman of arranging a Glendale City Council vote concerning the relocation of the team then known as the Phoenix Coyotes, although the team would have more likely moved to Seattle. Bergeron called it "an obvious lack of respect and I find it disgusting," and claimed that Bettman is averse to moving teams out of the United States. In March 2014, news broke that former Canadian prime minister and vice-chairman of Quebecor Brian Mulroney was also involved with negotiations. Labeaume pointed out that Mulroney and Bettman had been negotiating directly for some time, and that "Mr. Bettman is a businessman. The Quebec sovereignty project will not bother him."
On June 24, 2015, Quebecor announced that it planned to apply for an NHL expansion franchise, with the aim of bringing the Nordiques back to Quebec City. Nearly a month later, on July 20, 2015, Quebecor formally announced it had submitted an application to the NHL for an expansion franchise. On July 21, 2015, the NHL confirmed it had received an application from Quebecor. On August 5, 2015, it was announced that Quebec had moved on to Phase II of the expansion process. The bid subsequently advanced to Phase III, which ended on September 4.
Centre Vidéotron hosted a neutral-site preseason game between the Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins on September 28, 2015. The following day in New York City, Quebecor and the Las Vegas ownership group presented their bids to the NHL's executive committee. However, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stated in a press conference after the NHL's Board of Governors meeting that though the league continued to explore the possibility of expansion, no deadline had been established for a decision. Commissioner Bettman also said that expansion requires a three-quarters affirmative vote from the Board of Governors, but the members of the executive committee would first have to make a recommendation to the group.
Quebec City's 2015 bid on an expansion team, while not entirely ruled out, was significantly weakened after the Canadian dollar declined in value against its U.S. counterpart., the Quebec City bid was said to be still being seriously considered, but not yet decided. The league ultimately decided to "defer" the Quebec bid until a later time. Centre Vidéotron was awarded some exhibition games leading into the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, an international tournament operated by the NHL, as well as a pair of NHL preseason games in successive years; on October 4, 2016 and September 18, 2017, between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens.
In announcing the Seattle expansion team in December 2018, commissioner Gary Bettman stated that no further expansion teams would be considered for the foreseeable future, effectively rejecting the dormant Quebec City bid.

Hamilton

mayor Jack MacDonald attempted to lure the Colorado Rockies to Hamilton in 1980, an effort that ended when he lost his re-election bid. Hamilton was also a candidate for expansion in 1990, being one of the favorites, but it lost out to the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning. Hamilton's bid group attempted to negotiate the $50 million expansion fee; a condition the NHL rejected. While it was speculated that the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres did not want an NHL team in Hamilton due to territorial competition, former league president Gil Stein has denied that was the case.
has been at the center of three attempts to bring an NHL team to Southern Ontario.
BlackBerry founder and former co-CEO Jim Balsillie has made several attempts to purchase an existing NHL team with the purpose of bringing it to Southern Ontario. He signed an agreement in principle to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins for US$175 million on October 5, 2006. Penguins' majority owner Mario Lemieux agreed to the sale after struggling to gain support from local governments to build a new arena. Balsillie's purchase agreement offered to help finance a new arena, but also contained a stated intention to relocate the team to Hamilton or Kitchener-Waterloo if no deal on a new arena could be reached. Balsillie later retracted his bid, claiming that the NHL had placed conditions on the sale that he was not comfortable with, including a commitment to keep the team in Pittsburgh under any circumstances.
Balsillie then reached an agreement to purchase the Nashville Predators for $238 million on May 24, 2007, and began a season ticket campaign in Hamilton a week later intending to prove that the city was capable of hosting an NHL team. Thousands of fans purchased tickets, however the sale again fell through a month later when Predators owner Craig Leipold terminated the agreement. The Predators were later sold to a group of ten investors, led by Nashville businessman David Freeman, who promised to keep the team in Nashville. Leipold accepted $40 million less from Freeman's group than Balsillie offered, and later ended up as the majority owner of the Minnesota Wild.
During the 2008–09 NHL season, the future of the Phoenix Coyotes was on shaky ground as the team expected to lose as much as $45 million, and the league had to step in to assist with paying the team's bills. Coyotes' managing partner Jerry Moyes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early May 2009. Immediately afterwards, an offer by Balsillie to purchase the team was made public. The NHL challenged the Coyotes' ability to file for bankruptcy, claiming that as a result of the financial support the league had been offering the franchise, the league itself is in control of the team, and that Moyes did not have authority to act as he did. Balsillie launched a public relations campaign aiming at igniting Canadian nationalistic feelings and the perception that Bettman had an anti-Canadian agenda, including a website. His bid to purchase the Coyotes failed as the bankruptcy judge ruled his offer did not meet the NHL's rules on relocation.
The Hamilton Spectator reported in May 2009, that a Vancouver-based group led by Tom Gaglardi was planning to make a bid to purchase the Atlanta Thrashers and relocate the team to Hamilton in time for the 2010–11 NHL season. This never materialized, and the idea was eventually rendered moot by the Thrashers' sale and relocation to Winnipeg. Gaglardi later purchased the Dallas Stars and kept the team in Dallas.
Under NHL rules, an expansion or relocation of a team to Hamilton could potentially be blocked by the Buffalo Sabres or the Toronto Maple Leafs, because FirstOntario Centre, the likely venue for a Hamilton NHL team, is located less than 50 miles from the Sabres' and the Leafs' home arenas. Roughly 15% of the Sabres' business comes from residents of the area of Ontario between Hamilton and Buffalo, and the Sabres or the Leafs could require "an enormous indemnification payment" to allow an additional team to be established within a 50-mile radius. An unnamed bidder made a bid for the Sabres in February 2011, offering $259 million for the team to move it out of Buffalo, which would either mean the team would relocate to Hamilton or it would clear the way for another team to make such a move. The bid was rejected in favor of an offer from Terry Pegula, who planned to keep the team in Buffalo.

Greater Toronto Area

Although Toronto is already home to the Toronto Maple Leafs and that team's AHL development team, the Toronto Marlies, its suburbs have been mentioned as potential sites for an NHL franchise, under the premise that the Greater Toronto Area, or GTA, is the most-populous metropolitan area in Canada and therefore could support two NHL teams. Unlike other potential expansion markets, a new arena would need to be constructed, and most of the proposals for a new Toronto area team include a new arena along with them.
In April 2009, a group of businesspeople met with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly to discuss the possibility of bringing a second NHL franchise into the Toronto area, most likely in Vaughan, Ontario. Despite the talks, Daly reportedly stated the NHL is "not currently considering expansion nor do we have any intention or desire to relocate an existing franchise."
In June 2009, a group headed by Andrew Lopez and Herbert Carnegie proposed a $1 billion plan for a second Toronto team, called the Legacy, to begin play no earlier than 2012. The group announced a plan for a 30,000-seat arena, half of which would be priced at C$50 or less. The arena would be situated in Downsview Park in the north of the city. Twenty-five percent of net profits would be given to charity.
In 2011, a proposal surfaced to build a multi-purpose 19,500-seat arena in Markham, Ontario, northeast of Toronto, that could be used for an NHL team. The C$300 million arena is part of a proposed entertainment complex. The company behind the proposal, GTA Sports and Entertainment, is headed by W. Graeme Roustan. Roustan, a Montreal-raised private equity investor whose firm Roustan Capital, partnered with Kohlberg & Company and purchased Bauer from Nike, was also the chairman of Bauer. The proposed location for the arena is near the Unionville commuter train station on land owned by Rudy Bratty, chairman and CEO of Remington Group, an organization that is charged with the development of Markham's downtown. However, the GTA Sports and Entertainment Group did not file an application for expansion prior to the July 20, 2015 deadline.

Saskatoon

, the founder of the Edmonton Oilers, had an agreement to purchase the St. Louis Blues and move the team to Saskatoon as the Saskatoon Blues in the 1983–84 NHL season, with Don Cherry provisionally hired to be head coach; however, the NHL vetoed the sale. Faced with the prospects of either having to allow the sale or contract the franchise, the league found an owner willing to keep the team in Missouri and, in an eleventh-hour deal, preserved the Blues in St. Louis, where they remain. Saskatoon again bid for a franchise during the league's early 1990s expansion, but the bid was considered a long-shot and was withdrawn before the league made its final decision.
A proposal from Ice Edge Holdings to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes would have moved a portion of the team's home games to Saskatoon in an effort to maintain the team's viability in its main home in Phoenix, similar to the former Bills Toronto Series arrangement in the National Football League; the group, had it bought the team, was ready to go forward and had leased Saskatoon's SaskTel Centre for five home games in the 2009–10 season. The group was believed to lack the funds to buy the team outright, but remained in contention as potential minority owner until May 2011, when it pulled out of negotiations. Some members of the Ice Edge group later joined the ownership group led by Canadian businessman George Gosbee who ultimately purchased the Coyotes and kept them in Arizona.
On Ice Management, an ownership group backed by auto racer, former Moncton Wildcats owner, and former professional hockey player John Graham, is backing a long-shot bid to bring the NHL to Saskatoon. The Calgary Flames were scheduled to host the Ottawa Senators in Saskatoon, for a preseason game in September 2013; that game led to speculation that the city may host the Flames if the team's regular arena, Scotiabank Saddledome, which had been damaged in the 2013 Alberta floods, did not complete its repairs in time for the 2013–14 season. In the end, repairs were completed on a compressed schedule, and the Saddledome reopened in September 2013. Although neither Graham nor any other bidder representing Saskatoon placed a bid in the expansion window, the city again hosted a neutral-site preseason game in 2015.

Expansion sites in the United States

Several cities in the United States have been mentioned in the media as possible future sites for new or relocated NHL teams. In December 2007, organizations from Kansas City, Las Vegas, Houston, and Seattle presented their proposals for a franchise to the NHL's Executive Committee.
The five largest metropolitan regions without NHL franchises are Houston, Atlanta, San Diego, Baltimore and Portland; Portland being the only metropolitan area of the five to have never hosted an NHL or World Hockey Association team in the past. In addition, the Birmingham, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Hartford, Indianapolis, and Kansas City metropolitan areas have previously hosted an NHL or WHA team for at least two complete seasons. As of 2019, all but Houston and Baltimore host a minor league hockey team, with Cleveland, Hartford, and San Diego in the American Hockey League; Atlanta, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Kansas City in the ECHL, and Birmingham in the SPHL. During the 1970s, Cleveland was home to the Cleveland Barons, which failed to draw fans or revenue, and was merged with the Minnesota North Stars after two seasons; prior to the Barons, Cleveland hosted a WHA franchise, the Crusaders from 1972 to 1976. The Atlanta Flames joined the NHL in 1972 and played in the city for eight years before being moved to Calgary in 1980 and becoming the Calgary Flames. The Atlanta Thrashers played in the NHL from 1999 to 2011 until their move to Winnipeg for the 2011–12 season. The Kansas City Scouts joined the NHL in 1974 and relocated to Denver after two unsuccessful seasons, becoming the Colorado Rockies in 1976. The Rockies subsequently moved to the New York/New Jersey region to become the New Jersey Devils in 1982. The Houston Aeros of the WHA existed from 1972 until 1978, where they won the Avco World Trophy twice and enjoyed a large and loyal fanbase; despite the Aeros' relative stability, the team was excluded from the merger discussions and attempts to relocate an existing NHL franchise to Houston were unsuccessful, leading to the Aeros' folding following the 1977–78 WHA season. The Birmingham Bulls played in Birmingham from 1976 until 1979 after relocating from Toronto. The Bulls were left out of the WHA/NHL merger of 1979 because of the league's reluctance to place another team in the Deep South due to the struggles of the Flames in nearby Atlanta. The Cincinnati Stingers of the WHA existed from 1974 until 1979, and were the final cut from the WHA/NHL merger of 1979 despite having a loyal fanbase. The San Diego Mariners of the WHA existed from 1974 to 1977; while the Mariners made the playoffs in all three seasons of their existence, the team was not successful at the box office. The Indianapolis Racers of the WHA existed from 1975 to 1979, and folded mid-season during their final season. Hartford hosted the New England Whalers of the WHA starting in the 1974–75 season. The team was renamed the Hartford Whalers in 1979, when it was the only U.S.-based WHA team merged into the NHL. The franchise relocated to North Carolina in 1997, becoming the Carolina Hurricanes.
Among NBA cities lacking an NHL franchise, Houston, Cleveland, Portland, Sacramento, and Orlando have arenas capable of hosting NHL games. Cleveland, which had a failed franchise for only two seasons, is unlikely to receive a team due to its close proximity to the existing NHL franchise in Columbus, southwest of Cleveland via Interstate 71. Similarly, Orlando would be unlikely to receive a franchise due to its close proximity to Tampa and its franchise via Interstate 4.
Other NBA arenas specifically designed for NBA franchises, such as San Antonio's AT&T Center, Charlotte's Spectrum Center, Memphis's FedExForum, and Atlanta's State Farm Arena, feature sightlines maximized for the smaller area of a basketball court, resulting in ice surface configurations that are off-center and often feature obstructed views. The New York Islanders have cited such issues with Brooklyn's Barclays Center, which they have played in since the 2015–16 season and which was designed for the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, as a reason for building their own new arena in Elmont, New York, which is scheduled to be completed by 2021; until that time they are splitting their home schedule between Barclays Center and their original home of Nassau Coliseum, which was reduced in capacity as part of renovations following the Islanders' departure and is no longer large enough to be a full-time NHL arena.
Milwaukee has been considered at times for an NHL team due to the popularity of ice hockey in Wisconsin; the city's Fiserv Forum is also built to NHL specification. However, Milwaukee has never received a team due to its small market already being home to multiple major professional teams; in addition to the Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Bucks, the market also de facto supports the Green Bay Packers, who used to play some home games in Milwaukee, and its close proximity to Chicago and the Chicago Blackhawks wanting to protect its market. The city hosts an American Hockey League team, the Milwaukee Admirals, at the considerably smaller UW–Milwaukee Panther Arena.
During the 1990s, the Hampton Roads region of Virginia was in contention for an NHL expansion or relocation, which would have been known as the Hampton Roads Rhinos. Other cities such as Oklahoma City, San Diego, and Portland, Oregon, had expressed interest in landing an NHL team. Baltimore, which was a "backup" option had one of the Expansion Six not been able to launch in 1967, is unlikely to get a team due to its close proximity to the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers; the main arena in Baltimore, Royal Farms Arena, is both undersized and outdated. Proposals to replace the Royal Farms Arena have not been made for attracting an NHL or NBA team.

Hartford

was the home of the NHL's Hartford Whalers from 1979 until 1997, when the team relocated to North Carolina under then-owner Peter Karmanos. Like the Quebec Nordiques, the Whalers had entered the NHL as one of four WHA teams absorbed by the league in 1979. Also, like Quebec City, Hartford is the one other NHL city from the 1980s and 1990s that was abandoned and has not yet regained an NHL team.
Hartford is currently the largest United States television market that has no MLB, NBA, NFL, or NHL team. As the only major professional sports team in Connecticut during their existence, the Whalers generated an interest in hockey that persists in the state. The 2013 analysis of potential NHL markets by Nate Silver found more avid NHL fans in Hartford than in Miami, Nashville, Las Vegas, Houston, Milwaukee, or Kansas City.
The Whalers' popular logo has continued to drive apparel sales in the years following the team's 1997 departure. Under its current owner Thomas Dundon, the Whalers' successor team, the Carolina Hurricanes, has occasionally worn the Whalers' logo and colors.
Despite the contributions of talented players including Gordie Howe and Ron Francis, the Hartford franchise earned few playoff victories. In its later years, it suffered from inconsistent attendance and a lack of premium seating in its 1975 arena, now known as the XL Center. Since 1997, the XL Center has hosted the Hartford Wolf Pack, the AHL affiliate of the NHL's New York Rangers. Since 2015, it has also been the home venue for the University of Connecticut men's hockey team.
Following advice from a 2008 meeting with the NHL, Hartford city officials have been working with the Connecticut state government to renovate or replace the aging XL Center with hopes of again hosting an NHL team. Former Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy had spoken with potential investors in a Hartford-based NHL franchise during his tenure in office. In 2017, Malloy and Hartford mayor Luke Bronin formally invited the New York Islanders to play in Hartford during a time period when the Islanders' future location was in doubt.

Houston

is the largest market in terms of both city proper and metro population, in the US or Canada without an NHL franchise; since 2016, Houston is also now the largest metropolitan area without a complete set of teams in the major professional sports leagues. The area ranks second in the nation with 22 based Fortune 500 companies, only behind New York City, which has 45.
Professional ice hockey dates back to 1946 in Houston with the establishment of the Houston Skippers. This was followed by the Houston Apollos, the Houston Aeros of the WHA and the Houston Aeros of the AHL. The WHA Houston Aeros were an original member of the World Hockey Association. From 1972 to 1978, the Aeros twice won the AVCO World Trophy and featured the first father/son combination to play together in professional hockey, Gordie Howe and his two sons Mark and Marty. The Aeros, despite being a successful franchise, were left out of the NHL-WHA merger and were forced to fold in 1978. Another team also named the Aeros, of the American Hockey League, played at The Summit, and moved to the Toyota Center in 2003; the Aeros were unable to negotiate a lease extension, leading to the team's departure from Houston in 2013.
As part of the lease agreement between Toyota Center and the Houston Rockets, only an NHL team owned by the owner of the Rockets is allowed to play at the Center. The Rockets have twice explored the purchase of an NHL team for the building, with the closest being then-owner Les Alexander's attempt to purchase the Edmonton Oilers in 1998 which was thwarted when a local ownership group came together and matched his offer.
In 2017, the Toyota Center and Houston Rockets were purchased by Tilman Fertitta. In a press conference, Fertitta expressed his interest in bringing an NHL team to the Toyota Center and he had reportedly met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Fertitta has stated his intentions of possibly finding a tenant that could help fill the building throughout the year, including the mention of the NHL.

Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri has hosted NHL hockey before. The Kansas City Scouts played in Kemper Arena from 1974 until 1976. The team averaged only 8,218 in attendance per game in the 17,000-seat arena, leading to the team's sale and relocation to Denver to become the Colorado Rockies. Professional hockey continued at the arena in the form of the minor league Kansas City Blues, followed by the Kansas City Blades and the Kansas City Outlaws. The ECHL's Kansas City Mavericks currently play at the suburban Silverstein Eye Centers Arena in Independence, Missouri.
Kansas City opened an NHL-ready arena named the Sprint Center in 2007. The arena is managed by the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the Los Angeles Kings, among other sports interests. In 2007, when the Pittsburgh Penguins faced financial troubles and no prospect of a new arena, the president of AEG offered to relocate the team to Missouri to play in the new Sprint Center rent-free and to become managing partners in the facility. The Penguins, however, remained in Pittsburgh and got their new arena in 2010.
Kansas City sports investor Lamar Hunt Jr. called the NHL's $500 million price tag for an expansion franchise "a ridiculously big fee," and said that he is not aware of anyone in Kansas City who will make a push for a team. Neither he nor Cliff Illig, co-owner of MLS's Sporting Kansas City, have any intention of bidding in the NHL expansion window.

Possible relocation candidates

The leading candidate for relocation has long been the Arizona Coyotes. The team has been unprofitable since its relocation from Winnipeg to the Phoenix metropolitan area in 1996 and went bankrupt in 2009. The league actively resisted selling the team to interests that would have relocated the team out of Arizona, and made numerous efforts to sell the team to owners that had intended to keep it in the state. The league convinced the eventual owners of the Winnipeg Jets to buy the Atlanta Thrashers instead of returning the Coyotes to their original home in Winnipeg.
None of the numerous prospective owners the league had hoped would buy the team, and keep it in Arizona, followed through on their sale until 2013 when IceArizona purchased the team. Within a year of that sale, IceArizona spun off the team to hedge fund manager Andrew Barroway. The Coyotes' lease on Gila River Arena was revoked in June 2015 due to concerns the lease was illegal under conflict of interest laws. The Coyotes intended to fight the revocation in court. The team had indicated that if it cannot stay at the Gila River Arena, it could move back to downtown Phoenix and the Talking Stick Resort Arena. On July 24, 2015, the Coyotes announced that Glendale City Council had enacted an agreement allowing the Coyotes to stay in the Gila River Arena for the next two seasons. With the arrival of the Vegas Golden Knights, the Coyotes gained a geographic rival within the Pacific Division, which was expected to help the Coyotes' long-term viability much like the Anaheim Ducks helped the Los Angeles Kings long-term. However, the Golden Knights instead developed a vicious rivalry with the San Jose Sharks, and additionally, with the Seattle team moving into the Pacific Division in 2021, the Coyotes will be moved into the Central Division, breaking any potential rivalry.
, the Coyotes still have an operating loss of $19 million, making it the least profitable team in the league. The team was again sold in August 2019, this time to Alex Meruelo, again under the requirement that the team remain in Arizona.

Expansion outside Canada and the United States

Speculation about NHL expansion to Europe took place as far back as the 1960s. David Molson, then-owner of the Montreal Canadiens, stated that he looked forward to a "world playoff" for the Stanley Cup. In 1969, Clarence Campbell, president of the NHL, was quoted as saying "It is conceivable that the Stanley Cup will be played for in Moscow in the not too distant future. When it does, the World Tournament as we know it will just disappear.... The game will continue to expand."
Although no European cities have been named in recent years, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly stated in 2008 that expansion into Europe was a possibility "within 10 years' time." In August 2010, the International Ice Hockey Federation president René Fasel stated that he would strongly oppose any expansion by the NHL into European markets. Time zone complications would also be an obstacle. 2008 was also the year that the Russian Superleague evolved into the Kontinental Hockey League, which is recognized as one of the world's premier professional leagues after the NHL and has grown to include several other European cities.