{"id":414172,"date":"2026-08-22T23:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414172\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T23:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:08:08","slug":"nhl-notebook-nhl-expects-to-expand-to-houston-or-austin-texas-by-2029-2030","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414172\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Notebook: NHL expects to expand to Houston or Austin Texas by 2029-2030"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome back to NHL Notebook \u2014 the series here at\u00a0<a class=\"text-accent\" href=\"https:\/\/canucksarmy.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CanucksArmy<\/a>\u00a0where we deliver you news and notes from around the National Hockey League \u2014 oftentimes through a\u00a0<a class=\"text-accent\" href=\"https:\/\/canucksarmy.com\/combinations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a>-tinted lens!<\/p>\n<p>We all knew expansion was at the top of the NHL\u2019s priority list, and we have further confirmation of a time frame and location after what NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>NHL planning to expand to Texas<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Athletic\u2019s Chris Johnston at the NHL European Media Tour in Munich, Germany, Daly shared the NHL\u2019s plans to expand to 33 teams, the new team being located in either Houston or Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re moving forward in Texas,\u201d <a class=\"text-accent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7531325\/2026\/08\/22\/nhl-expansion-houston-austin-bill-daly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Daly said.<\/a> \u201cI expect ultimately we\u2019ll be in a position to bring something to the board to get their view on it. So, that\u2019s proceeding at a pace. We\u2019ll probably get together with the group again in September and kind of see where they are in the process and what they want us to do to help, to the extent they need anything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we finalize that and the board approves it, then (at the) end of this calendar year we\u2019ll have an announcement that we\u2019re expanding to either Houston or Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Based on the <a class=\"text-accent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Whats-the-largest-US-city-by-population\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">2024 US Census population<\/a>, Houston is the fourth-largest American city at a population of roughly 2.4 million, while Austin ranks 13th at 993 thousand. Houston is the highest-populated city in the USA without an NHL team.<\/p>\n<p>Once expansion is officially confirmed, the National Hockey League will be the largest of the big-four North American sports leagues. The National Football League has 32 teams, while the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball remain at 30.<\/p>\n<p>If all goes smoothly, the Friedkin ownership group projects a debut season for the newest Texas team in 2029-2030.<\/p>\n<p>But the NHL isn\u2019t planning to stop at 33 teams. According to Daly, the league is also in active talks to add a 34th team, listing potential destinations as Atlanta or Phoenix. Both of those cities have previously had an NHL franchise, but both have relocated. Atlanta had the Thrashers, who were in the league from 1999-2011, while Phoenix had the Coyotes from 1996-2024.<\/p>\n<p>Daly shared that he does not view it as necessary for both the 33rd and 34th teams to enter the NHL in the same year.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last 10 years, the NHL went from 30 teams to 32, after adding the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 and the Seattle Kraken in 2021. And by the end of the calendar year, we may hear an official announcement that, by 2029, the NHL will expand to Texas with the league\u2019s 33rd franchise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to NHL Notebook \u2014 the series here at\u00a0CanucksArmy\u00a0where we deliver you news and notes from around&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-414172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}