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Follow Us![[Imagn Images direct customers only] NHL commissioner Gary Bettman addresses the press beside NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly before a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at Bell Centre.](https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Bill-Daly-and-Gary-Bettman.jpg?w=1200)
As the Stanley Cup Playoffs roll on, the future of the NHL is in the news. Players will go to the 2026 Olympics, forgoing an All-Star Game to do so. Labor negotiations are in a good place, as the CBA reaches its final season. But NHL expansion has been oddly quiet. Even with rumors around Atlanta and Houston swirling, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly says the league is far away from expanding. The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun spoke with Daly in a phone interview, which was published Tuesday.
Daly was asked if he agreed that the NHL was “inching closer” to expanding beyond 32 teams. “No, I don’t, only because I might quibble with what an expansion process is defined as. I think what the commissioner has said, and I’ll echo, is that if the right opportunity for expansion came along and all the boxes were checked, we would bring that to the Board (of Governors) on some basis.
Daly continues, “We’d bring it obviously to our Executive Committee first, and then, if appropriate, the (full) Board, and kind of take their temperature on whether it’s something they want to pursue. I think what [commissioner] Gary [Bettman] is clear about is, there is no current intention to open up a formal expansion process and invite bids. It’s much more of a one-on-one conversation and relationship we have with various potential owners.”
The NHL was embroiled in a complicated move from Arizona to Utah last offseason, which stopped any expansion talk for a bit. But now, they are starting to percolate again. Multiple groups are forming in Atlanta, looking to bring the third NHL team to the area. Houston is looking to bring its first team to the city, which is the fourth largest in the country.
