Potential National Hockey League expansion

The National Hockey League (NHL) has undergone several rounds of expansion and other organizational changes during its 100-plus year history to reach its current thirty-two teams: twenty-five in the United States, and seven in Canada. The last time the NHL added expansion teams was in , when the league approved the Seattle Kraken for play in the 2021–22 season. The league's most recent relocation was in 2011, when the former Atlanta Thrashers relocated to become the modern Winnipeg Jets.
To gauge interest and help determine whether the NHL should entertain further expansion, the NHL Board of Governors accepted applications for new franchises during the 2015 off-season. Two potential ownership groups submitted applications for prospective teams in Las Vegas and Quebec City. The geographic distribution of teams between the NHL's two conferences was not a primary consideration for expansion, and the earliest time when a new franchise could start play was the 2017–18 season. On June 22, 2016, the NHL approved expansion to Las Vegas starting in the 2017–18 season with the Vegas Golden Knights. With the Quebec City still shelved by the league's board of directors, the league opened up another expansion window in December 2017, specifically to allow an ownership group from Seattle to bid on a team; no other cities were allowed to submit bids in that window. Seattle was awarded a franchise, but a major renovation to the Key Arena which involved everything being replaced but the roof would make it so the team would not join the league until 2021-22; After the resulting Kraken began play inside the NHL, commissioner Gary Bettman then stated the league would not expand any further for the foreseeable future, while deputy commissioner Bill Daly stated that the league may revisit expansion in the near future if it is deemed in the best interest of the league. In 2023, NHL insiders Kevin Weekes and John Buccigross hinted that the league was considering franchises in Houston and Atlanta. In January 2024, the Smith Entertainment Group, chaired by Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, issued a formal request for the NHL to open an expansion process to bring a team to Salt Lake City. Two weeks later, during the 2024 All-Star Weekend, commissioner Bettman publicly listed six cities that had expressed interest in expansion. In March, former player Anson Carter and the newly-formed Alpharetta Sports & Entertainment also issued a formal request to bring the NHL back to Atlanta. This would come to fruition in very short order as the Arizona Coyotes were announced as relocating to Salt Lake City's EnergySolutions Arena for the 2024-25 NHL season shortly after the completion of the 2023-24 regular season.
==Expansion sites in Canada==
thumb|200px|Hamilton, Ontario has been a rumored expansion and relocation target. In 1985, the Copps Coliseum was built to try to make that happen.
The potential of adding additional franchises in Canada had been an ongoing source of controversy for the NHL in recent years as numerous groups proposed expanding the league into a new Canadian city, or purchasing a struggling American franchise and relocating it north; to a certain extent, these issues continue even after the Atlanta Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg, becoming the country's seventh active team. Quebec City and the Golden Horseshoe area of Southern Ontario are most frequently proposed as locations for new Canadian teams, as was Winnipeg prior to the announced relocation of the Thrashers.
===Background===
====Early National Hockey League Era (1917-1938)====
The NHL was originally an all-Canadian league until the addition of the Boston Bruins in 1924. Teams in Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, and Hamilton would all serve as short term homes to NHL teams with some teams being financially ruined by outside events such as World War I and the Great Depression. The Montreal Wanderers would withdraw after the Montreal Arena burned down on January 2, 1918. The Ottawa Senators (original) existed from 1884 until relocating to St. Louis in 1934 crushed by debt and playing in the smallest market in the league. The Quebec Bulldogs existed from 1888 to 1920 (which included sitting out the 1917-18 and 1918-19 seasons) and were relocated to Hamilton to become the Hamilton Tigers (NHL) after the league took over the franchise earlier in 1920. In turn, the Tigers would be taken over by the league after a player strike over wages for a longer playing season. They would then form the nucleus of the New York Americans franchise when it started in 1925. The Montreal Maroons would join the NHL in 1924 and would last until 1938 when competing with the Canadiens and the Great Depression lead to the team suspending operations and attempting to sell the team and have the team move to St. Louis fell through. 
The largest cities by population in order as of the 1921 Census was Montreal (618,506), Toronto (521,893), Winnipeg (179,087), Vancouver (162,229), Hamilton (114,151), Ottawa (107,843), Quebec City (95,193), Calgary (63,305), London (60,959), and Edmonton (58,821). Halifax fell out of the top 10 with the 1921 Census after being in the top 10 since the first census in 1871. Windsor would end up in the top 10 from 1941 to 1956 swaping in and out with London during that time frame. The cities would remain constant in the top 10 unitl 1966 when Laval would enter the top 10.
Potentially, the only realistic possibilities for expansion of the NHL in Canada prior to 1938 would have likely been Windsor, Ontario and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Both cities would have been out of consideration for teams by 1926 for different reasons. Halifax would have been out of consideration by the end of 1917 as the city suffered a massive explosion which destroyed what would have been the only likely home for a team was destroyed in that explosion (and much of the city's north end) and the replacement, the Halifax Forum didn't open until 1928 by which point it would have been too late for Halifax to be considered based on the size of the cities the league was putting teams prior to that point. Any chance for Windsor was out when Detroit was awarded a team in 1926. The ironic part is that the team would start out playing at the Border Cities Arena while the Detroit Olympia was being built. The Peace Bridge Arena in Fort Erie, Ontario would serve as temporary part time homes for the Chicago Black Hawks in 1928-29 and 1929-30 as Chicago Stadium was being built, and for the Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL) as the team tried to stay afloat in 1929-30 prior to relocating to Philadelphia for 1930-31. the Pirates would also play some games in Atlantic City, New Jersey repeating what the Ottawa Senators (original) had done previously in playing a Boardwalk Hall. Fort Erie is a suburb of Buffalo and would serve as home to the minor league Buffalo Bisons (IHL) from 1929 until the roof collapsed on March 17, 1936 and leading that team to disband and ending professional hockey in the area until the building of the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and the relocation of the Syracuse Stars to the new arena when it first opened in 1940. If the NHL had expanded at this point Buffalo would have been a possible candidate for a team.
The only other cities in Canada to be able to have any chance of occurring would have been if the NHL merged with the Western Canada Hockey League. This could have potentially included Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Vancouver and Victoria. American cities would have included Portland and Seattle. The absorption of the WCHL involved the formation of the Maroons, Cougars, and Black Hawks from Vancouver, Victoria, and Portland respectively. 
The only other major city in Canada not mentioned above was Winnipeg. Winnipeg would very likely have received a team in the league if the WCHL had merged with the NHL as it has Shea's Amphitheatre which seated 5,000 and was for a time the only rink with artificial ice between Toronto and Vancouver in Canada. 
====History of Canadian franchises (1967–present)====
Throughout the history of the NHL, attempts to bring franchises to Canadian cities have caused points of contention. Among them, the league's existing Canadian teams, especially the Montreal Canadiens, historically have raised concerns about further dividing the NHL's Canadian television revenue.
Vancouver's rejected bid for one of six new franchises added in 1967 outraged Canadians, who felt they had been "sold out". Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson stated that "the NHL decision to expand only in the U.S. impinges on the sacred principles of all Canadians."
Three years later, the Vancouver Canucks joined as the league's third Canadian franchise.
The 1979 defeat by a single vote of a merger agreement between the NHL and the rival World Hockey Association that would have resulted in three Canadian WHA franchises (the Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets) joining the NHL led to a mass boycott of Molson products across Canada. In a second vote, the Montreal Canadiens, owned by Molson, reversed their position, allowing the Oilers, Nordiques (who were owned at the time by then-rival brewery Carling O'Keefe) and Jets to join the NHL for the 1979–80 NHL season (along with the New England Whalers, who would be renamed the Hartford Whalers). The Calgary Flames became Canada's seventh franchise in 1980, relocating from Atlanta.
There was considerable upheaval amongst Canadian franchises in the 1990s. In 1992, the NHL returned to Ottawa, beating out Hamilton for an expansion team. However, the declining value of the Canadian dollar at that time, coupled with rapidly escalating salaries, placed hardships on Canadian franchises. As a result, the Nordiques and Jets left Canada, becoming the Colorado Avalanche in 1995 and the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996 respectively. Fears persisted up to the 2004–05 NHL lockout that the Flames, Oilers, and Senators could follow suit. The financial fortunes of Canada's teams rebounded following the lockout: Canada's six franchises represented one-third of NHL revenues in 2006–07, primarily due to the surging value of the Canadian dollar.
In May 2011, True North Sports and Entertainment, an ownership group with the support of billionaire David Thomson, 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet, purchased the Atlanta Thrashers and moved the team to Winnipeg, Manitoba. This was the first franchise relocation since 1997 and the first franchise to locate in Canada since the Ottawa Senators entered the league in 1992. At the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, it was announced that the team would be named the Jets.
====Current views on Canadian expansion====
Former National Hockey League Players Association executive director Paul Kelly has repeatedly argued in favor of bringing a new team to Canada. In early 2008, he described the Canadian market to The Palm Beach Post: "The six Canadian franchises do so well, they pack the buildings, get great TV, great revenue streams. If you put another team up there, be it in Nova Scotia or Hamilton, it would be more of the same." Prior to the relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke in favor of another team in Canada, stating he has spoken with NHL owners in the past about bringing a new team to southern Ontario.
A study published in April 2011 by the University of Toronto's Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation concluded that Canada can support 12 NHL teams, twice the number it had at the time of the study, including second franchises for Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
In May 2013, Nate Silver, editor of the polling and statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight, concluded that there were about as many avid hockey fans in Canada as in the United States, despite the U.S. having nine times Canada's population. He determined that among current NHL media markets, the average Canadian market had considerably more hockey fans than the typical U.S. market, and that Canada could support 11 or 12 teams, with two additional franchises in the Golden Horseshoe, a second franchise in Montreal, and a team in Quebec City. Silver also believed Vancouver could support a second franchise, although he thought that some of the Vancouver-area hockey market could be drawn by a Seattle-based team.
===Quebec City===
See also: Quebec City NHL expansion bid
Quebec City has been home to two NHL hockey teams. The first, the Quebec Bulldogs, lasted from 1878 to 1920, after which they moved to Hamilton, Ontario. The second, the Quebec Nordiques, called Quebec City their home from 1972 to 1979 in the World Hockey Association, and from then on to 1995 as a National Hockey League team, at which point they moved to Denver to become the Colorado Avalanche. Part of the challenge for both the Bulldogs and Nordiques was that Quebec City was by far the smallest market in the NHL. According to the Television Bureau of Canada, a prospective Quebec City team would now be in the league's second-smallest market, ahead of only Winnipeg. However, Silver's analysis suggested that the Quebec City market was comparable to those of Winnipeg, Buffalo, and Washington, D.C. in terms of avid hockey fans.
In 2009, Alexander Medvedev, founder and president of Russia's Kontinental Hockey League, stated his interest in purchasing an NHL team for Quebec City, saying that it was "very strange" there was no NHL team there. Medvedev later shelved plans to buy a North American team after NHL representatives told him that the league would never allow him to own one of its clubs. In October 2009, Quebec City mayor Regis Labeaume spoke with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and former Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut regarding a team. Bettman stated that Quebec City could be considered as a candidate for an NHL team provided it built a new arena and a team were for sale.
In May 2011, Labeaume stated that Pierre Karl Péladeau, then-president and CEO of Quebecor Inc., was in talks with the NHL regarding a franchise in Quebec City. He later became a politician for the Parti Québécois, a sovereignist political party in the province. In September 2012, then-Quebec premier Jean Charest (a member of the rival Liberal Party and whose government had invested in the new arena) claimed that the political aspect might hinder Quebec City's chances of getting the Nordiques back, saying that Bettman might be less likely to allow a team to move if sovereignists were in power. According to Sports Illustrated, the league is wary of the Quebec sovereignty movement because of concerns that it could destabilize the Canadian dollar. However, Mayor Labeaume insists that Péladeau's involvement in politics will hinder neither the management of the new arena nor the negotiations over the return of the Nordiques.
Prior to the 2011–12 NHL season, an exhibition game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning was played at the Colisée Pepsi, the former home of the Nordiques. The Canadiens were well received despite being from rival Montreal, and the designated away team of the game. Montreal was also scheduled to host the Carolina Hurricanes at the Colisée Pepsi in 2012; however, that game was canceled due to the lockout. In September 2012, construction started on an 18,000-seat arena in Quebec City that would eventually become known as Centre Vidéotron, the cost of which (C$400 million) was split equally between the provincial and municipal governments. The arena opened on September 12, 2015.
In July 2013, ex-Nordiques coach Michel Bergeron accused Bettman of arranging a Glendale City Council vote concerning the relocation of the team then known as the Phoenix Coyotes, although the team would have more likely moved to Seattle. Bergeron called it "an obvious lack of respect and I find it disgusting," and claimed that Bettman is averse to moving teams out of the United States. In March 2014, news broke that former Canadian prime minister and vice-chairman of Quebecor Brian Mulroney was also involved with negotiations. Labeaume pointed out that Mulroney and Bettman had been negotiating directly for some time, and that "Mr. Bettman is a businessman. The Quebec sovereignty project will not bother him."
On June 24, 2015, Quebecor announced that it planned to apply for an NHL expansion franchise, with the aim of bringing the Nordiques back to Quebec City. Nearly a month later, on July 20, 2015, Quebecor formally announced it had submitted an application to the NHL for an expansion franchise. On July 21, 2015, the NHL confirmed it had received an application from Quebecor. On August 5, 2015, it was announced that Quebec had moved on to Phase II of the expansion process. The bid subsequently advanced to Phase III, which ended on September 4.
Centre Vidéotron hosted a neutral-site preseason game between the Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins on September 28, 2015. The following day in New York City, Quebecor and the Las Vegas ownership group presented their bids to the NHL's executive committee. However, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stated in a press conference after the NHL's Board of Governors meeting that though the league continued to explore the possibility of expansion, no deadline had been established for a decision. Commissioner Bettman also said that expansion requires a three-quarters affirmative vote from the Board of Governors, but the members of the executive committee would first have to make a recommendation to the group.
Quebec City's 2015 bid on an expansion team, while not entirely ruled out, was significantly weakened after the Canadian dollar declined in value against its U.S. counterpart. As of June 2016, the Quebec City bid was said to be still being seriously considered, but not yet decided. The league ultimately decided to "defer" the Quebec bid until a later time. Centre Vidéotron was awarded some exhibition games leading into the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, an international tournament operated by the NHL, as well as a pair of NHL preseason games in successive years; on October 4, 2016 and September 18, 2017, between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens.
Among sporting events held in Quebec include the Rendez-Vous '87,  1978 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, 2008 IIHF World Championship
===Hamilton===
Hamilton mayor Jack MacDonald attempted to lure the Colorado Rockies to Hamilton in 1980, an effort that ended when he lost his re-election bid. Hamilton was also a candidate for expansion in 1990, being one of the favorites, but it lost out to the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning. Hamilton's bid group attempted to negotiate the $50 million expansion fee; a condition the NHL rejected. While it was speculated that the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres did not want an NHL team in Hamilton due to territorial competition, former league president Gil Stein has denied that was the case.
BlackBerry founder and former co-CEO Jim Balsillie has made several attempts to purchase an existing NHL team with the purpose of bringing it to Southern Ontario. He signed an agreement in principle to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins for US$175 million on October 5, 2006. Penguins' majority owner Mario Lemieux agreed to the sale after struggling to gain support from local governments to build a new arena. Balsillie's purchase agreement offered to help finance a new arena, but also contained a stated intention to relocate the team to Hamilton or Kitchener-Waterloo if no deal on a new arena could be reached. Balsillie later retracted his bid, claiming that the NHL had placed conditions on the sale that he was not comfortable with, including a commitment to keep the team in Pittsburgh under any circumstances.
Balsillie then reached an agreement to purchase the Nashville Predators for $238 million on May 24, 2007, and began a season ticket campaign in Hamilton a week later intending to prove that the city was capable of hosting an NHL team. Thousands of fans purchased tickets, however the sale again fell through a month later when Predators owner Craig Leipold terminated the agreement. The Predators were later sold to a group of ten investors, led by Nashville businessman David Freeman, who promised to keep the team in Nashville. Leipold accepted $40 million less from Freeman's group than Balsillie offered, and later ended up as the majority owner of the Minnesota Wild.
During the 2008–2009 NHL season, the future of the Phoenix Coyotes was on shaky ground as the team expected to lose as much as $45 million, and the league had to step in to assist with paying the team's bills. Coyotes' managing partner Jerry Moyes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early May 2009. Immediately afterwards, an offer by Balsillie to purchase the team was made public. The NHL challenged the Coyotes' ability to file for bankruptcy, claiming that as a result of the financial support the league had been offering the franchise, the league itself is in control of the team, and that Moyes did not have authority to act as he did. Balsillie launched a public relations campaign aiming at igniting Canadian nationalistic feelings and the perception that Bettman had an anti-Canadian agenda, including a website. His bid to purchase the Coyotes failed as the bankruptcy judge ruled his offer did not meet the NHL's rules on relocation.
The Hamilton Spectator reported in May 2009, that a Vancouver-based group led by Tom Gaglardi was planning to make a bid to purchase the Atlanta Thrashers and relocate the team to Hamilton in time for the 2010–11 NHL season. This never materialized, and the idea was eventually rendered moot by the Thrashers' sale and relocation to Winnipeg. Gaglardi later purchased the Dallas Stars and kept the team in Dallas.
Under NHL rules, an expansion or relocation of a team to Hamilton could potentially be blocked by the Buffalo Sabres or the Toronto Maple Leafs, because FirstOntario Centre, the likely venue for a Hamilton NHL team, is located less than 50 miles from the Sabres' and the Leafs' home arenas. Roughly 15% of the Sabres' business comes from residents of the area of Ontario between Hamilton and Buffalo, and the Sabres or the Leafs could require "an enormous indemnification payment" to allow an additional team to be established within a 50-mile radius. An unnamed bidder made a bid for the Sabres in February 2011, offering $259 million for the team to move it out of Buffalo, which would either mean the team would relocate to Hamilton or it would clear the way for another team to make such a move. The bid was rejected in favor of an offer from Terry Pegula, who planned to keep the team in Buffalo.
The city has hosted more than 10 Grey Cups (Canadian Football League Championship Games), the 1930 British Empire Games (now known as the Commonweath Games), 1986 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, 1996 Men's and Women's World Curling Championships, and the 1997 IIHF Women's World Championship.
===Greater Toronto Area===
Although Toronto is already home to the Toronto Maple Leafs and that team's AHL development team, the Toronto Marlies, its suburbs have been mentioned as potential sites for an NHL franchise, under the premise that the Greater Toronto Area, or GTA, is the most-populous metropolitan area in Canada and therefore could support two NHL teams. Unlike other potential expansion markets, a new arena would need to be constructed, and most of the proposals for a new Toronto area team include a new arena along with them.
In April 2009, a group of businesspeople met with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly to discuss the possibility of bringing a second NHL franchise into the Toronto area, most likely in Vaughan, Ontario. Despite the talks, Daly reportedly stated the NHL is "not currently considering expansion nor do we have any intention or desire to relocate an existing franchise. In June 2009, a group headed by Andrew Lopez and Herbert Carnegie proposed a $1 billion plan for a second Toronto team, called the Legacy, to begin play no earlier than 2012. The group announced a plan for a 30,000-seat arena, half of which would be priced at C$50 or less. The arena would be situated in Downsview Park in the north of the city. Twenty-five percent of net profits would be given to charity.
In 2011, a proposal surfaced to build a multi-purpose 19,500-seat arena in Markham, Ontario, northeast of Toronto, that could be used for an NHL team. The C$300 million arena is part of a proposed entertainment complex. The company behind the proposal, GTA Sports and Entertainment, is headed by W. Graeme Roustan. Roustan, a Montreal-raised private equity investor whose firm Roustan Capital, partnered with Kohlberg & Company and purchased Bauer from Nike, was also the chairman of Bauer. The proposed location for the arena is near the Unionville commuter train station on land owned by Rudy Bratty, chairman and CEO of Remington Group, an organization that is charged with the development of Markham's downtown. However, the GTA Sports and Entertainment Group did not file an application for expansion prior to the July 20, 2015 deadline.
===Saskatoon===
Bill Hunter, the founder of the Edmonton Oilers, had an agreement to purchase the St. Louis Blues and move the team to Saskatoon as the Saskatoon Blues in the 1983–84 NHL season; however, the NHL (which did not want to leave the St. Louis market) vetoed the sale. Faced with the prospects of either having to allow the sale or contract the franchise, the league found an owner (Harry Ornest) willing to keep the team in Missouri and, in an eleventh-hour deal, preserved the Blues in St. Louis, where they remain. Saskatoon again bid for a franchise during the league's early 1990s expansion, but the bid was considered a long-shot and was withdrawn before the league made its final decision.
A proposal from Ice Edge Holdings to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes would have moved a portion of the team's home games to Saskatoon in an effort to maintain the team's viability in its main home in Phoenix, similar to the former Bills Toronto Series arrangement in the National Football League; the group, had it bought the team, was ready to go forward and had leased Saskatoon's SaskTel Centre for five home games in the 2009–10 season. The group was believed to lack the funds to buy the team outright, but remained in contention as potential minority owner until May 2011, when it pulled out of negotiations. Some members of the Ice Edge group later joined the ownership group led by Canadian businessman George Gosbee who ultimately purchased the Coyotes and kept them in Arizona.
On Ice Management, an ownership group backed by auto racer, former Moncton Wildcats owner, and former professional hockey player John Graham, is backing a long-shot bid to bring the NHL to Saskatoon.Mooney, Harrison (March 24, 2012). John Graham, the man behind Saskatoon’s NHL bid, could become the league’s most interesting owner. Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved April 9, 2012. The Calgary Flames were scheduled to host the Ottawa Senators in Saskatoon, for a preseason game (sponsored by Graham) in September 2013; that game led to speculation that the city may host the Flames if the team's regular arena, Scotiabank Saddledome, which had been damaged in the 2013 Alberta floods, did not complete its repairs in time for the 2013–14 season.Mitchell, Kevin (July 3, 2013). Flames' temporary home not Saskatoon. The Star-Phoenix. Retrieved July 7, 2013. In the end, repairs were completed on a compressed schedule, and the Saddledome reopened in September 2013. Although neither Graham nor any other bidder representing Saskatoon placed a bid in the expansion window, the city will again host a neutral-site preseason game in 2015.
The city has hosted the 1989 Memorial Cup, 1991 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, 2009 Canadian Figure Skating Championships, 2010 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, 2013 Memorial Cup, 2013 University Cup,  2014 University Cup, and UFC Fight NIght 74.
===Halifax===
The city with the longest odds that has occasionally come up in expansion discussions is Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The city presently has the Scotiabank Centre with a capacity of 10,595 which opened in 1978.  The arena has undergone some renovations that were funded as part of the naming right deal signed in 2014.  The city has had three previous American Hockey League teams (Nova Scotia Voyageurs, Nova Scotia Oilers, and Halifax Citadels) and presently has a Quebec Maritmes Junior Hockey League team (Halifax Mooseheads).  The remoteness of the city, population base, and lack of a large enough arena are major obstacles for any attempt to expand to any city into the Atlantic Canada region.  Halifax would have had to have been an early entry into the NHL if they were to have had any chance at being in the league such as the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League being a small team in a small league back in the 1920's.  The city of Halifax had one team challenge for the Stanley Cup in March of 1900 when the Halifax Crescents challenged the Montreal Shamrocks and were beaten 2 games to none.  For Halifax to have any future chance of landing a team, a new arena would be the first obstacle to overcome as the Scotiabank Centre is a less than ideal for expansion as the arena is surrounded by streets, buildings, and the Citadel Hill National Historic Site.  Second, would be ownership with deep pockets as the cost of operating a team in a city as remote as Halifax is would have a higher travel expense budget than most of the league. If a teams are added in Quebec City and Hartford; Halifax could become a little more viable as a market but at that point the league would have to be 38 to 40 team league. 
By 2018 the city had gained some more attention as a sports city with the Halifax Rainmen and then the  Halifax Hurricanes playing in the finals of the National Basketball League of Canada several seasons in a row.  The city became the destination of the Rochester Knighthawks of the indoor professional National Lacrosse League, and the formation of the Halifax Wanderers in the Canadian Premier League.  The city was also selected as host of the 2019 Memorial Cup with the Halifax Mooseheads hosting the events at the Scotiabank Centre.  The city has also hosted the 2010 Tim Horton's Brier (Canadian Men's Curling Championship), 2011 Canada Winter Games, the 2015 World Men's Curling Championship,  2015 University Cup, the 2016 University Cup, and the 2016 Canadian Figure Skating Championships.
The city is the most likely home (with Moncton mentioned as another possibility) to a conditional expansion team in the CFL pending construction of a permanent stadium large enough to host a CFL team. The CPL Wanderers are playing out of a temporary facility located on the Wanderers Grounds in downtown Halifax pending the selection of a location, financial approval and actual construction of an 20,000+ seat stadium to likely play host to both the CFL and CPL teams. The expendature by the HRM and the province would make it very unlikely for the city to build a new indoor arena anytime in the immediate future that could potentially be a location for the team.
==Expansion sites in the United States==
Several cities in the United States have been mentioned in the media as possible future sites for new or relocated NHL teams. In December 2007, organizations from Kansas City, Las Vegas, Houston, and Seattle presented their proposals for a franchise to the NHL's Executive Committee.
The four largest metropolitan regions without NHL franchises are (in descending order of population) Houston, Atlanta, , San Diego, and Baltimore. Cleveland, Kansas City, Houston, Cincinnati and Atlanta have hosted major professional hockey teams. During the 1970s, Cleveland was home to the Cleveland Barons (the former Oakland Seals), which failed to draw fans or revenue, and was merged with the Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars) after two seasons. Also the minor league Cleveland Barons (1937-1973) were conditionally approved to join the NHL in 1952 pending the ownership being able to secure $500,000 in financing to be able to make the jump to the NHL, likely along with either expanding the Cleveland Arena] or bulding a new facility. The Atlanta Flames joined the NHL in 1972 and played in the city for eight years before being moved to Calgary in 1980 and becoming the Calgary Flames. The Atlanta Thrashers played in the NHL from 1999 to 2011 until their move to Winnipeg for the 2011–12 season. The Kansas City Scouts joined the NHL in 1974 and relocated to Denver after two unsuccessful seasons, becoming the Colorado Rockies in 1976. The Rockies subsequently moved to the New York/New Jersey region to become the New Jersey Devils in 1982. The Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association (WHA) existed from 1972 until 1978, where they won two Avco Cups and enjoyed a large and loyal fanbase. The Cincinnati Stingers of the World Hockey Association (WHA) existed from 1974 until 1979, and were the final cut from the WHA/NHL merger of 1979 despite having a loyal fan base.
Among NBA cities lacking an NHL franchise, Houston (Toyota Center), Cleveland (Quicken Loans Arena), Portland (Moda Center), and Orlando (Amway Center) have arenas capable of hosting NHL games. Cleveland, which had a failed franchise which lasted for only two seasons, is unlikely to receive a team due to its close proximity to the existing NHL franchise in Columbus, southwest of Cleveland via Interstate 71. Similarly, Orlando would be unlikely to receive a franchise due to its close proximity to Tampa and its franchise via Interstate 4. Atlanta's Philips Arena was formerly capable of hosting NHL games; the arena has not been used for hockey since the Thrashers' relocation in 2011 and is currently undergoing renovations in order to optimize its sight lines for basketball, leaving the arena less than suitable for the NHL. Should the NHL return to Atlanta for a third time, the next largest hockey-ready arena in Metro Atlanta, the Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, currently the home of the ECHL's Atlanta Gladiators, is unsuitable for long-term use by a prospective NHL franchise due to being undersized at 11,300 seats.
Another arena that is specifically designed for NBA franchises is San Antonio's AT&T Center 
Milwaukee has been considered at times for an NHL team due to the popularity of ice hockey in Wisconsin; the city's Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center opened in 2018, has the capacity to host an NHL team, and the notion has garnered support from players.https://www.si.com/nhl/2015/01/27/nhl-expansion-seattle-milwaukee-rangers-islanders-rivalry However, Milwaukee has never received a team due to its small market already being home to multiple major pro teams – in addition to the Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Bucks, the market also de facto supports the Green Bay Packers – and (by some observers) its close proximity to Chicago and the Chicago Blackhawks wanting to protect its market. The Milwaukee area already hosts the NHL Nashville Predators' American Hockey League-affiliated development team, the Milwaukee Admirals.  The state of Wisconsin is one of the hot beds for hockey in the United States with many youth, junior, and collegiate programs in the state. However, Milwaukee was conditionally approved for an expansion team in the early 1990's when Lloyd Pettit was approved for an expansion team to play at the Bradley Center but he would back out due to very unfavorable terms in the conditions for an expansion draft to stock the potential team.
During the 1990s, the Hampton Roads region of Virginia was in contention for an NHL expansion or relocation, which would have been known as the Hampton Roads Rhinos. Other cities such as Oklahoma City, San Diego, and Portland, Oregon, had expressed interest in landing an NHL team. Baltimore, which was a "backup" option had one of the Expansion Six not been able to launch in 1967, is today unlikely to get a team due to its close proximity to the Washington Capitals (who play preseason games in Baltimore annually) and Philadelphia Flyers; the main arena in Baltimore, Royal Farms Arena, is both undersized and outdated. Current proposals to replace the Royal Farms Arena don't have attracting an NHL or NBA team in mind.
===Houston===
Greater Houston is the largest market in terms of both city proper and metro population, in the US or Canada without an NHL franchise; since 2016, Houston is also now the largest metropolitan area without a complete set of teams in the major professional sports leagues. The area ranks second in the nation with 22 based Fortune 500 companies, only behind New York City, which has 45.
Professional ice hockey dates back to 1946 in Houston with the establishment of the Houston Skippers. This was followed by the Houston Apollos, the Houston Aeros of the WHA and the Houston Aeros of the AHL. The WHA Houston Aeros were an original member of the World Hockey Association. From 1972 to 1978, the Aeros twice won the AVCO World Trophy and featured the first father/son combination to play together in professional hockey, Gordie Howe and his two sons Mark and Marty. The Aeros, despite being a successful franchise, were left out of the NHL-WHA merger and were forced to fold in 1978. Another team also named the Aeros, of the American Hockey League (AHL), played at The Summit (renamed the Compaq Center in 1998 and converted to a megachurch after the Aeros' departure), and moved to the Toyota Center in 2003; the Aeros were unable to negotiate a lease extension, leading to the team's departure from Houston in 2013. 
As part of the lease agreement between Toyota Center (which is NHL capacity, with 17,800 seats in its hockey configuration) and the Houston Rockets, only an NHL team owned by the owner of the Rockets is allowed to play at the Center. The Rockets have twice explored the purchase of an NHL team for the building, with the closest being then-owner Les Alexander's attempt to purchase the Edmonton Oilers in 1998 which was thwarted when a local ownership group came together and matched his offer.
In 2017, the Toyota Center and Houston Rockets were purchased by Tilman Fertitta. In a press conference, Fertitta expressed his interest in bringing an NHL team to the Toyota Center and he had reportedly met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Fertitta has stated his intentions of possibly finding a tenant that could help fill the building throughout the year, including the mention of the NHL.http://www.thehockeynews.com/news/article/bettman-meets-with-owner-of-nba-s-rockets-who-s-very-interested-in-bringing-nhl-to-houston 
===Phoenix===
With the stability of the league's members expansion is likely to take place by the late 2020's with Phoenix being a possibility as the Coyotes franchise is technically inactive despite the relocation. The situation is similar to the Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens situation in the National Football League where the team relocated to Baltimore but the team name and history stayed with a new team to begin play a few years later when a new stadium was built in Cleveland. The owner of the Coyotes has five years to obtain a site and build an arena and he can repurchase a franchise. Most of the immediate hopes lay in a land auction the state of Arizona is conducting for a lot of land on the edge of Phoenix in June of 2024. If the Coyotes return to the league another 1 or 3 team expansion is likely to happen within 1 to 3 years of the announcement of a new arena being built in the Phoenix area as 33 teams would be awkward for scheduling purposes and 36 teams would seem as optimum for scheduling and alignment purposes.
===Kansas City===
Kansas City, Missouri has hosted NHL hockey before. The Kansas City Scouts played in Kemper Arena from 1974 until 1976. The team averaged only 8,218 in attendance per game in the 17,000-seat arena, leading to the team's sale and relocation to Denver to become the Colorado Rockies. Professional hockey continued at the arena in the form of the minor league Kansas City Blues, followed by the Kansas City Blades and the Kansas City Outlaws. The ECHL's Kansas City Mavericks currently play at the suburban Silverstein Eye Centers Arena in Independence, Missouri.
Kansas City opened an NHL-ready arena named the Sprint Center in 2007. The arena is managed by the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns the Los Angeles Kings, among other sports interests. In 2007, when the Pittsburgh Penguins faced financial troubles and no prospect of a new arena, the president of AEG offered to relocate the team to Missouri to play in the new Sprint Center rent-free and to become managing partners in the facility. The Penguins, however, remained in Pittsburgh and got their new arena in 2010.
Kansas City sports investor Lamar Hunt Jr. called the NHL's $500 million price tag for an expansion franchise "a ridiculously big fee," and said that he is not aware of anyone in Kansas City who will make a push for a team. Neither he nor Cliff Illig, co-owner of MLS's Sporting Kansas City, have any intention of bidding in the NHL expansion window.
Prior to a relocation to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Kansas City was mentioned a possible destiantion for the New York Islanders as the team was struggling to get a new arena built on Long Island.
===Hartford===
Hartford was the home of the World Hockey Association New England Whalers who morphed into the Hartford Whalers when they joined the NHL in 1979.  The Whalers were based out of the then Hartford Civic Center (now XL Center).  The arena opened in 1975 and was extensively renovated from 1978 to 1980; following the roof collapsing from the weight of snow after a snowstorm. Discussion of a replacement arena dates back to 2006 when the Pittsburgh Penguins were rumoured to be moving to Hartford after negotiations on a new arena was not coming forth in Pittsburgh.  The arena has been home to an AHL team since the Whalers left in 1997.  The arena is in need of repairs or replacement.  Discussions would indicate that if the arena were to be replaced it would possibly be started and completed within a two year timeframe.  The Carolina Hurricanes were also mentioned as possibly moving back to Hartford if a new arena were built and ready to go, as the most mentioned site for the arena is the site of the present arena. The closeness to four other NHL teams would potentially be an issue with the Boston Bruins and the three greater New York teams all being within a couple of hour drive of the city.  The city was briefly mentioned as a possible destination for the New York Islanders as a temporary home if the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum was to be renovated to stay as the home for the team.  The Webster Bank Arena was also mentioned as a temporary home for a team as the arena as it is twenty five years newer than the XL Center.
==Possible relocation candidates==
As of 2024, the league worked to relocate the Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City for the 2024-25 NHL season. This marked the only major issue the league was having with franchise stability. Several cities with questions as to if they were hockey cities have been answered with a resounding yes. The Buffalo Sabres, San Jose Sharks, and Winnipeg Jets were the only 3 teams to play to less than 90% capacity for the 2023-24 season. The Sabres issues may be due to playing in a 30 year old building in a small market and not qualifying for the playoffs in 13 seasons. The San Jose Sharks future is looking brighter with the top selection in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft which will be Macklin Celebrini who already has a connection to the Bay area with his father Rick being involved with the National Basketball Association's Golden State Warriors. Winnipeg was at 89.9% capacity and questions of the franchise stability was raised as reports indicated that the team had to sell out every game to be sustainable long term.
With the stability of the league's members expansion is likely to take place by the late 2020's with Phoenix being a possibility as the Coyotes franchise is technically inactive despite the relocation. The situation is similar to the Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens situation in the National Football League where the team relocated to Baltimore but the team name and history stayed with a new team to begin play a few years later when a new stadium was built in Cleveland. The owner of the Coyotes has five years to obtain a site and build an arena and he can repurchase a franchise. Most of the immediate hopes lay in a land auction the state of Arizona is conducting for a lot of land on the edge of Phoenix in June of 2024. If the Coyotes return to the league another 1 or 3 team expansion is likely to happen within 1 to 3 years of the announcement of a new arena being built in the Phoenix area as 33 teams would be awkward for scheduling purposes and 36 teams would seem as optimum for scheduling and alignment purposes.
==Expansion outside Canada and the United States==
Speculation about NHL expansion to Europe took place as far back as the 1960s. David Molson, then-owner of the Montreal Canadiens, stated that he looked forward to a "world playoff" for the Stanley Cup. In 1969, Clarence Campbell, president of the NHL, was quoted as saying "It is conceivable that the Stanley Cup will be played for in Moscow in the not too distant future. When it does, the World Tournament as we know it will just disappear.... The game will continue to expand."
Although no European cities have been named in recent years, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly has stated in 2008 that expansion into Europe is a possibility "within 10 years' time." In August 2010, the International Ice Hockey Federation president René Fasel stated that he would strongly oppose any expansion by the NHL into European markets. Time zone complications would also be an obstacle.Also there has been talk about an NHL team in Mexico City which is the largest metropolitan area in North America and has hosted NBA and MLB games.Why not the NHL?
==See also==
* History of organizational changes in the NHL
* NHL Cities by population
==References==
==Further reading==
* 
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==External links==
* makeitseven.ca, Archived version of Jim Balsillie's attempt to bring the Coyotes to Hamilton
* Toronto Legacy bid website
Category:Ice hockey in Canada
Category:Ice hockey in the United States
Category:National Hockey League expansion
Category:National Hockey League