NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman Releases Frustrating Statement About Additional Expansion Teams
Photo credit: Scott Rovak - USA Today Sports
Amid a lot of speculation that the NHL was planning on potentially expanding in the near future, Gary Bettman has finally addressed those notions publicly.
Late last week, news was filtering out from several media outlets that NHL owners were set to be meeting and subsequently voting on the idea of expansion and adding a few more teams to the pool of NHL clubs.
Andy Strickland of Bally Midwest and Kevin Weekes were among several reporters who brought forth the news that Houston and Atlanta were leading the way in terms of expansion candidates. Weekes even added that because so many cities and groups were in the process of bidding, there's a chance the NHL thinks about expanding to 36 teams in the near future.
However, according to Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star, those notions can be set aside for the time being, as NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has seemingly put a pin in those plans:
"Everything that's been written in the last week is categorically wrong," Bettman told the Star on Monday. "We're not going through an expansion process. And other than updating the board on Oct. 1 as to places that have expressed an interest, there's nothing else that's going to be done on expansion."
"Everything else was either speculation, or I don't know what to call it, but it had no basis in fact," Bettman said.
"Everything else was either speculation, or I don't know what to call it, but it had no basis in fact," Bettman said.
There's certainly a lot of steam and sometimes where there's smoke, there's fire, but with the NHL already having added Vegas and Seattle into the fray in recent years, Bettman is in no rush and is willing to wait things out despite there being a lot of opportunities on the table. Houston and Atlanta remain the hottest commodities in terms of expansion, with other cities like Portland and Quebec City not too far behind.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 24 | 681 ANSWERS NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman Releases Frustrating Statement About Additional Expansion Teams When do you think the NHL will approve of another expansion? | ||
| Ahead of the 2025-26 season | 122 | 17.9 % |
| Ahead of the 2026-27 season | 169 | 24.8 % |
| Ahead of the 2027-28 season | 149 | 21.9 % |
| Not any time soon | 241 | 35.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
MUST READ
TRENDING NOW
