I won’t beat around the bush.

I am not in support of NHL expansion. A 33rd NHL team? Is there any good reason besides billions of dollars in expansion fees? (He asks, knowing that’s hard to argue against).

I don’t think so. The Houston Aeros? Sorry, no thanks.

But this is not necessarily the league’s point of view, as the NHL is flirting with lucky No. 33. Don’t be surprised if five years from now the league is 34 teams deep.

Out of the June Board of Governors meeting, Commissioner Gary Bettman sounded different than the guy who told us just a few weeks earlier the league was not ready to expand yet.

I get the sense he’s warming to the idea.

There had been rumblings about Houston. Atlanta was suggested because the third time is the charm. Austin is in the mix, but no word on Joe Rogan.

Regardless, the Friedkin family wants an NHL team to add to their portfolio, owning Premier League team Everton and Serie A squad AS Roma. It’s gonna cost some $3.5 billion for expansion fees and the cost of building a brand-new arena, Bettman says.

“We have been in discussions for the better part of two years with the Friedkin family, principally for the last two years about Houston as an expansion opportunity,” said Bettman on June 23.

“But as we continued to focus with them, particularly on the need for a new arena in Houston, the discussions morphed into also a discussion about Austin, which would also need a new building. But we are going to work together under the terms, a term sheet that we were able to agree upon, in terms of a framework to consider what makes the most sense moving forward.”

Thus begins a six-month period to investigate, evaluate, and commiserate that the NHL will water itself down by another three per cent or so.

After that process, if the NHL feels comfortable, the Board of Governors will move forward with a vote.

Why is Houston a leading candidate for NHL Expansion?

I have no personal beef with Houston, but some Edmonton Oilers fans might due to some uncomfortable history. They remember 1998 when Les Alexander was just hours away from taking our muse and shipping operations south to join his portfolio with the Houston Rockets.

Houston is obviously attractive to the NHL. It’s a massive market with tons of international business. By population, it’s the fourth-largest city in the United States and fifth-largest in terms of metropolitan area, according to 2025 figures, with roughly 7.9 million residents in the Houston-Pasadena-Woodlands area.

But as we........

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