The NHL doesn’t seem likely to be a 32-team league for much longer.
Allan Walsh, one of hockey’s premier player agents, is never one to be afraid to cause a stir, and did so on Thursday when he tweeted, “NHL expansion is coming,” and identified Houston and Atlanta as cities likely to receive teams in the near future.
Walsh’s tweet came in response to an article from The Sporting News’ Jennifer Streeter, which outlined the factors that the league evaluates when determining which city is best suited for an NHL franchise.
The NHL has been a 32-team league since the 2021-22 campaign, when the Seattle Kraken played their inaugural season. The only movement since then has been the Arizona Coyotes ceasing operations following the 2023-24 season, with their hockey-related assets transferred to the league’s newest expansion team, the Utah Mammoth.
Houston is a newer name than Atlanta in expansion discussions, with rumors really picking up steam early this offseason. In late June, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman shared with the NHL Board of Governors that the league was beginning a six-month exploration process into Houston and Austin as potential expansion cities.
The NHL also announced that the Friedkin family would be the prospective owners of the new team, a likely $3.5 billion-plus investment. The Friedkin Group already owns two professional sports teams: Italian soccer club AS Roma and English Premier League club Everton.
Houston is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the US. The city will already be getting a hockey team for the 2026-27 season, with the NAHL announcing the move and renaming of the North Iowa Bulls to the Houston Bulls in March.
Atlanta has previously had two NHL teams, both of which were eventually relocated. The Atlanta Flames played in the city for eight years, from 1972 to 1980, before moving to Calgary, and the Atlanta Thrashers played down south from 1999 to 2010 before relocating and rebranding as the Winnipeg Jets.
Bettman has previously stated that past failures will not deter future expansion to Atlanta, and the city has been making moves to prepare itself for a franchise in the past year, including a redevelopment proposal in Alpharetta and an approved plan in Forsyth County for potential NHL-ready arenas — one of the biggest prerequisites for the league.
When the NHL inevitably makes the move to add a 33rd and likely 34th team, it will be the first major sporting league in North America to go past 32 franchises. The NFL first hit the 32-team mark in 2000, when the Houston Texans were officially founded and began playing games in 2002.
