Despite the NHL showing significant interest in expansion, including adding a second team in Texas, the league is in no rush to make it happen, according to TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger. <\/p>\n
During Thursday\u2019s edition of Insider Trading<\/a>, Dreger mentioned expansion has been put on the \u201cbackburner\u201d for the time being due to concern from owners regarding competitive balance. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going slower, it is not going faster, and it was pushed to the backburner,\u201d Dreger explained. \u201cThere\u2019s some NHL owners who want to be heard because they do not feel like expansion is a good idea. They don\u2019t believe that the talent pool is deep enough to sustain a competitive balance. Furthermore, another team in a non-taxed state like Texas – in Houston or Austin – further erodes competitive balance. So there\u2019s a ton of work before they get close to saying they\u2019re moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Houston and Austin seem to be the frontrunners for the NHL\u2019s 33rd team when expansion does occur. <\/p>\n Houston mayor John Whitmore<\/a> is pushing to bring the team to his city, backing it over Austin, which sits roughly 265 kilometres away.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re ready,\u201d Whitmore told Jennifer Streeter of The Sporting News in the summer.<\/a> \u201cIn fact, we\u2019re talking to multiple parties that are interested … So when we get a proposal, if the city can do something to a system, we\u2019ll be there. We\u2019ll definitely be a better location than Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n Houston boasts the fourth-largest market in the United States, while Austin is viewed as an intriguing option in a unique, emerging city.<\/p>\n \u201cI think [the NHL] would never regret it if they gave a franchise to Houston. They\u2019d never regret it,\u201d Whitmire added. \u201cAustin is a great city, but it\u2019s not Houston … If you talk to the sports franchises in town, I think they\u2019d tell you we\u2019re great partners.\u201d<\/p>\n In August, Bill Daly told TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston a city in Texas could have a team by the 2029-30, adding the NHL is in talks to add a 34th team as well. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re projecting the ability to start play in 2029-30,\u201d Daly said in The Athletic.<\/a> \u201cSo we will have one down and potentially one to go. We have ongoing discussions both with people in the Phoenix marketplace, but also Atlanta, and then we\u2019ll see what comes of those discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n The Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> became the NHL\u2019s 31st team in 2017 while the Seattle Kraken<\/a> joined as team No. 32 in 2021. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the NHL showing significant interest in expansion, including adding a second team in Texas, the league is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[712,49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-926590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}