Throughout this past offseason, the NHL welcomed the Utah Hockey Club to the league after relocating from the Arizona Coyotes. Along with that there has been tons of speculation that the league was considering to add another two expansion teams, with Atlanta, Houston, Quebec City, and Toronto all being frontrunners.
However, according to recent reports NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has shut down all these rumours in an interview, mainly stating all these rumours are completely false:
It doesn't seem it make much sense for Gary Bettman to shut down these rumours considering some of the top insiders within the NHL have made reports on a possible expansion coming in a few years, and to add that the new entry fee that franchises have to pay once they join the league is rumoured to be nearly $1 billion US dollars.
So despite Bettman's comments it's very likely that an expansion remains a possibility given the success of the last two teams, Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken have had great success.
It's definitely not going to be as soon as many originally thought, considering Batman�s recent comments, but with the number of players and money involved Bettman would be silly not to consider another expansion.
POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 23 | 63 ANSWERS Gary Bettman gives irritated response when asked about the future of the NHL Do you think the NHL will expanded to 34 teams within the next 5 years? | ||
Yes | 45 | 71.4 % |
No | 18 | 28.6 % |
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