If the NHL is set to expand to more teams anytime soon, it doesn’t seem to make those plans very public anytime soon.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was on hand today for an event in Toronto, launching the league’s Faceoff: Inside the NHL series with Prime Video.
Speaking to the media following the conclusion of the event, Bettman shot down the idea that the league adding more teams was imminent.
“We’re not going through an expansion process,” Bettman said in a small scrum today. “Other than updating the [league’s] board [of directors] in October of the places that expressed interest, nothing else is gonna be done. Everything else was either speculation or had no basis.”
The quotes from Bettman appeared to be in response to a recent report from hockey insider Kevin Weekes.
In an X post last Thursday, Weekes shared, “There are currently 32 teams, but with plenty of expressions of interest from many suitors hungry for a franchise — I wouldn’t be surprised to see between 34-36 NHL teams at some point.”
However, the topic of league expansion remains a hot one.
In February, at the NHL’s All-Star Weekend, Bettman confirmed that groups from Houston, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Omaha had shown interest in hosting an NHL franchise.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly also discussed the topic in August at the NHL Player Media Tour in Prague but said that if an expansion were to occur, it would only occur “at the appropriate time.”
“Doesn’t mean that it’s imminent, doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen in the next year or so,” he said.
Daly didn’t provide a concrete answer for how many new teams the NHL might add but acknowledged that there is a limit.
“Yes. Do I know what that number is? No,” Daly added.
The last two expansion teams officially began play in the NHL in 2017 and 2021, when the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken joined the league.
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