https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-exploring-t...and-austin

Basically, the NHL has stated expansion to Texas will happen - Houston or Austin. Do they maintain unbalanced conferences at 33, unbalanced divisions at 34, or end up at 36 (and when)?

I think:
- Houston wins and Aeros hockey is revived. 33.
- Eventually, the NHL gets 36 with the Arizona Coyotes, Quebec Nordiques, and Atlanta Phoenix*.

* Atlanta had the Flames (fire) and Thrashers (birds). Phoenix is a bird that rises from the ashes. Ashes are a result of fire. Maybe not.

For alignment, they have a few options because 36 is such a flexible number with several workable factors. I suspect they stick with the 2x4 setup and just add 1 team to each current division.

Eastern Conference
Atlantic: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec, Tampa Bay, Toronto
Metropolitan: Atlanta, Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington

Western Conference
Central: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Utah, Winnipeg
Pacific: Anaheim, Arizona, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver, Vegas

Just for fun, 3 conferences naturally sets up for an 84-game schedule:

10 x 4 = 40 games in-conference
22 x 2 = 44 games out of conference

I guess Utah, Winnipeg, and Colorado would all go the Pacific, which becomes the new Western Conference. Detroit, Florida, Tampa Bay, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and the expansion team join the remainder of the Central Division. The remaining Texas on the Atlantic and Metropolitan merge to form the new Eastern Conference.

(06-24-2026 02:21 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  Just for fun, 3 conferences naturally sets up for an 84-game schedule:

10 x 4 = 40 games in-conference
22 x 2 = 44 games out of conference

I guess Utah, Winnipeg, and Colorado would all go the Pacific, which becomes the new Western Conference. Detroit, Florida, Tampa Bay, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and the expansion team join the remainder of the Central Division. The remaining Texas on the Atlantic and Metropolitan merge to form the new Eastern Conference.

I thought about this, too. Mine looks similar to yours.

Central: Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Houston, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Tampa Bay
> This is more of a Midwest/Southern division.

Eastern: Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, New Jersey, New York, New York, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Washington
> Starting with the Northeast, this division makes the most sense.

Western: Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, Utah, Vancouver, Vegas, Winnipeg
> The obvious 10 teams plus Winnipeg which is probably the best of not-very-good options.

They're moving to 84 games next season.

I doubt they ONLY and one team. i wonder who the other city will be, even if they aren't in the same year, they'd be close together.

(06-25-2026 03:47 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  They're moving to 84 games next season.

I doubt they ONLY and one team. i wonder who the other city will be, even if they aren't in the same year, they'd be close together.

I suspect Phoenix will be #34. Atlanta will eventually get a 3rd chance, I think, but Phoenix had a rough go will horrible ownership. I have Atlanta as #35. The wild card is #36. I would do Quebec City but it could be Kansas City, San Diego, another in the Bay Area, Portland, a 2nd in Toronto, or somewhere unexpected.

My 36 alignment options (there are tons to choose from):

Traditional - 2x3x6
> Inspired setup to 2000s/2010s structure.

Eastern Conference
Atlantic: Boston, New Jersey, New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
Metropolitan: Atlanta, Carolina, Columbus, Florida, Tampa Bay, Washington
Northeast: Buffalo, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec, Toronto

Western Conference
Central: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, St. Louis
Northwest: Calgary, Edmonton, Minnesota, Seattle, Vancouver, Winnipeg
Pacific: Anaheim, Arizona, Los Angeles, San Jose, Utah, Vegas

Modern - 2x2x9
> Today's alignment but adding 1 team to each division.

Eastern Conference
Atlantic: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec, Tampa Bay, Toronto
Metropolitan: Atlanta, Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington

Western Conference
Central: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Utah, Winnipeg
Pacific: Anaheim, Arizona, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver, Vegas

Post-Modern - 4x9
> 4 distinctly regional conferences.

Eastern Conference
Boston, Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington

Northern Conference
Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec, Toronto, Winnipeg

Southern Conference
Atlanta, Colorado, Dallas, Florida, Houston, Nashville, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Utah

Western Conference
Anaheim, Arizona, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver, Vegas

Texas, Atlanta, and Phoenix are probably the next 3. The 4th is a wildcard. Quebec City and Hamilton will lobby hard. I can also see Indianapolis or Portland join the conversation, especially if MLB passes them over.

I don’t really take New Orleans seriously as an NHL candidate. The market is small, not a traditional hockey market, and already crowded with the NBA and NFL. Not to mention college football is a religion down there.

For small markets to work, they need either be in hockey hotbeds or relatively devoid of other pro sports competitors.

New Orleans is losing pro sports (The Hornets) if anything not adding. The market doesn't even have 1 million people as it is and is cash strapped. It's a wonder how it has 1 pro sport, let a lone 2.

(06-26-2026 10:42 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I don’t really take New Orleans seriously as an NHL candidate. The market is small, not a traditional hockey market, and already crowded with the NBA and NFL. Not to mention college football is a religion down there.

For small markets to work, they need either be in hockey hotbeds or relatively devoid of other pro sports competitors.

I think New Orleans Civic leaders wanted the NHL for event-driven tourism, but the problem is that the NHL really doesn't do neutral site games. Even the existing outdoor games are held near where teams normally play. Maybe a one-off Stadium Series at the Superdome could be in play, but I agree a full team would be a poor fit in the Big Easy.

In all honesty Pensacola with a new arena would be a better NHL candidate than New Orleans; the Ice Flyers of the SPHL have been drawing exceptionally well for a SPHL team.

Here’s a question:

At 36, do they go 6 x 6 or 4 x 9 ?

Going back to 6 Divisions:

Pacific: LAK, AHM, SJS, PHX*, LVK, UTA
Northwest: SEA, VAN, EDM, CAL, COL, WPG
Midwest: MIN, CHI, STL, DET, CBS, NAS
Southeast: DAL, HOU*, ATL*, FL, TB, CAR
Atlantic: PIT, PHI, WAS, NYR, NYI, NJ
Northeast: BOS, QBC*, MON, OTA, TOR, BUF

2 games against all non-division opponents (60 games)
24 games against your 5 division opponents (4-5 games each)

(06-28-2026 02:51 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Going back to 6 Divisions:

Pacific: LAK, AHM, SJS, PHX*, LVK, UTA
Northwest: SEA, VAN, EDM, CAL, COL, WPG
Midwest: MIN, CHI, STL, DET, CBS, NAS
Southeast: DAL, HOU*, ATL*, FL, TB, CAR
Atlantic: PIT, PHI, WAS, NYR, NYI, NJ
Northeast: BOS, QBC*, MON, OTA, TOR, BUF

2 games against all non-division opponents (60 games)
22 games against your 5 division opponents (4-5 games each)

Divisions are easier sans conferences.

(06-29-2026 12:09 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(06-28-2026 02:51 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Going back to 6 Divisions:

Pacific: LAK, AHM, SJS, PHX*, LVK, UTA
Northwest: SEA, VAN, EDM, CAL, COL, WPG
Midwest: MIN, CHI, STL, DET, CBS, NAS
Southeast: DAL, HOU*, ATL*, FL, TB, CAR
Atlantic: PIT, PHI, WAS, NYR, NYI, NJ
Northeast: BOS, QBC*, MON, OTA, TOR, BUF

2 games against all non-division opponents (60 games)
22 games against your 5 division opponents (4-5 games each)

Divisions are easier sans conferences.

Exactly. What I proposed reduces the conferences to just a playoff function. The schedule is balanced. It really just influences what side of the playoff bracket you’re on.

Will NEVER understand Bettman’s obsession with the Sun Belt

(06-29-2026 05:14 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Will NEVER understand Bettman’s obsession with the Sun Belt

It's simple. The NHL started in Eastern Canada and the Northeast US. To actually grow the game, it could only go south and west. This has been true long before Bettman was commissioner.

The Sun Belt also finds itself with an increasing share of North America's largest media markets. Houston, Phoenix, and Atlanta are currently the largest markets in which the NHL does not have a presence. The NHL needs exposure in these markets to bring in revenue. It also helps that many people from the Northeast US vacation and/or retire in the South and West.

Canada is at a structural disadvantage not only due to their currency and tax regime, but the fact that Canadians already watch the NHL whether or not they have a local team. It's sort of how like Birmingham is one of the top markets for a college football game regardles of who is playing. There is no team the NHL can add in Canada that will produce the incremental revenue that a US team will.

I hate to say it, but if it had not been for the WHA, Quebec City would have never had a team. Because at the the time, NHL owners thought Quebec City should not have had a team. The WHA also gave the NHL Hartford (now Carolina) and Winnipeg (later moved to Phoenix, and officially terminated, but actually surviving as Utah). Edmonton is the only WHA team playing in its original city.

I know people will say the NHL didn't work in Atlanta or Phoenix, but it's the ownership that didn't work; attendance was not the issue. Get the right owners in those markets and teams will thrive there.

(06-29-2026 05:14 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Will NEVER understand Bettman’s obsession with the Sun Belt

(08-08-2026 06:53 PM)GeminiCoog Wrote:  I remember reading the Flames weren't working out in Atlanta, which is why they left for Calgary. I could be wrong on that, of course.

Not true. Flames once were 5th in overall attendance in the NHL. Think about that. There is and for decades has been a TON of support for and grassroots hockey all around the metro Atlanta area. There are a lot of rinks and leagues with players, kids and adults. Same for Phoenix, AZ area. The problem for the Flames was...well someone found out that the owners had been stealing from the players pension fund and they didn't want to give it back. The owner at the time still owed his expansion fee, so the league took the team, bought the owner out, forgave the rest of the expansion fee, and quickly moved the team to Calgary. The reason the Flames were the only NHL franchise to move and keep their name was it all went down so quickly that the League panicked and moved fast, so they didn't have time to change the name, and barely time to change the flaming A to a flaming C. Atlanta has and will support an NHL Hockey team with great attendance. Just need better ownership third time's a charm, hopefully.

Listen to find out what REALLY happened back then:

Quote:{One last dip into the vault before a flood of new episodes beginning next week; from 2020, our revealing conversation with a pro hockey great - and Atlanta Flames original!}

For 1970s-era NHL hockey fans who remember the eight-year adventure known as the Atlanta Flames, few are likely to forget Dan Bouchard. A tenacious, slightly eccentric and occasionally fight-prone French-Canadian goalie, “Bouch” was an immediate standout between the pipes for the NHL’s first-ever Deep South franchise (platooning with fellow Quebecois & expansion draftee Phil Myre during the club’s first five seasons) – and a survivor in a league where hard-nosed hockey was the norm and where good goalies were at a premium.

Bouchard’s big-league call-up to the Flames in 1972 came amidst a frantic period of NHL franchise expansion and relocation driven in large part by the arrival of the challenger World Hockey Association – which debuted alongside Atlanta (and the NY Islanders) that season.

And while the collective memory of the original Flames remains muddied by a woeful post-season record (reliably exiting the playoffs in the first round, despite qualifying six out of their eight seasons), as well as a then (and still?) persistent narrative of Southerners’ native distaste for ice hockey – Bouchard and Atlanta were actually more competitive and popular than many of the NHL’s other 1970s forays in places like Kansas City, Oakland, Denver, and Cleveland.

When Nelson Skalbania bought the Flames and moved them to Calgary in 1980, most in Atlanta and around the league assumed that the well-publicized financial struggles of the team and owner Tom Cousins (who also controlled the Omni arena and the NBA Hawks) were to blame.

But as Bouchard outlines in this revealing conversation, an explosive league-wide issue was festering behind the scenes – of which he was uniquely aware and determined to address – regardless of the potential consequences to his playing career.

Bouch walks us through an eye-opening story that wends its way through the defunct Quebec Nordiques (including the infamous “Good Friday Massacre” vs. the Montreal Canadiens in 1984), the original Winnipeg Jets, the scandalous downfall of a pro hockey Hall of Famer, and fighting for legendary player/coach Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion both on – and off – the ice.

(08-08-2026 09:08 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(06-29-2026 05:14 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Will NEVER understand Bettman’s obsession with the Sun Belt

(08-08-2026 06:53 PM)GeminiCoog Wrote:  I remember reading the Flames weren't working out in Atlanta, which is why they left for Calgary. I could be wrong on that, of course.

Not true. Flames once were 5th in overall attendance in the NHL.

Without a good owner, a team fails. MLB is in the "find out" phase of bad ownership right now. The NHL has gone through this with Atlanta (twice) and Phoenix.

(06-28-2026 02:51 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Going back to 6 Divisions:

Pacific: LAK, AHM, SJS, PHX*, LVK, UTA
Northwest: SEA, VAN, EDM, CAL, COL, WPG
Midwest: MIN, CHI, STL, DET, CBS, NAS
Southeast: DAL, HOU*, ATL*, FL, TB, CAR
Atlantic: PIT, PHI, WAS, NYR, NYI, NJ
Northeast: BOS, QBC*, MON, OTA, TOR, BUF

2 games against all non-division opponents (60 games)
24 games against your 5 division opponents (4-5 games each)

Alternatively, if the 36th team is Indianapolis or Kansas City, the Red Wings move to the Northeast and the expansion lands in the Midwest.

I could also see, in a more time zone focused alignment, Columbus falling in with NAS, CAR, ATL, MIA, & TB, and DAL & HOU falling in w/ CHI, MIN, STL, & KC*.

(08-10-2026 03:40 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(06-28-2026 02:51 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Going back to 6 Divisions:

Pacific: LAK, AHM, SJS, PHX*, LVK, UTA
Northwest: SEA, VAN, EDM, CAL, COL, WPG
Midwest: MIN, CHI, STL, DET, CBS, NAS
Southeast: DAL, HOU*, ATL*, FL, TB, CAR
Atlantic: PIT, PHI, WAS, NYR, NYI, NJ
Northeast: BOS, QBC*, MON, OTA, TOR, BUF

2 games against all non-division opponents (60 games)
24 games against your 5 division opponents (4-5 games each)

Alternatively, if the 36th team is Indianapolis or Kansas City, the Red Wings move to the Northeast and the expansion lands in the Midwest.

I could also see, in a more time zone focused alignment, Columbus falling in with NAS, CAR, ATL, MIA, & TB, and DAL & HOU falling in w/ CHI, MIN, STL, & KC*.

Pacific: LAK, AHM, SJS, PHX*, VGK, UTA
Northwest: SEA, VAN, EDM, CAL, COL, WPG
Central: MIN, CHI, STL, DAL, HOU*, NAS
Metro: NYI, NYR, NJD, PHI, WAS, CAR
Northeast: MTL, OTT, TOR, BUF, BOS, (Team 36)
Atlantic: FLA, TBL, ATL, CBJ, DET, PIT

If necessary move Pittsburgh to the Northeast and put the 36th team in the Atlantic.

NHL in talks with third group about interest in adding expansion team in Atlanta

Quote:The NHL is in talks with a third group seeking to bring an expansion team to Atlanta, according to deputy commissioner Bill Daly.

Two groups that want to bring the NHL back to the city have been publicly identified and have been in a race to firm up their respective arena plans. The Alpharetta City Council approved zoning changes for a massive redevelopment of North Point Mall that would include a 20,000-seat NHL-ready arena. About seven miles away from that site, Krause Sports & Entertainment has been moving forward with plans to build an arena at The Gathering in South Forsyth. Both projects are contingent on the NHL granting an expansion team to either location.

Daly said the NHL is in talks with a third group headed by former NHL player and current TNT hockey analyst Anson Carter, who had previously been involved with the Alpharetta bid.

"Anson still has an interest in having a franchise in Atlanta. He's kind of broken with the Alpharetta group, which he was championing before. He has indicated he has adequate financing, which he showed some evidence of, but he hasn't chosen a location," said Daly, speaking at the NHL/NHLPA Player Media Tour in Las Vegas.

Daly said Carter's group is looking at locations that are north of Atlanta. "He's committed it's going to be a better location than either Alpharetta or The Gathering," he said.

In June, the NHL entered into an agreement with the Friedkin family, giving them six months to explore expansion to one of those two markets. The agreed investment for the Friedkin family is $3.5 billion, which includes an expansion fee as well as building costs for an NHL arena. The Texas group reportedly hopes to have a team ready for the 2029-30 NHL season.

Daly said there will be an update on the Texas expansion process at the next NHL Board of Governors meeting in New York on Sept. 22. "We talked about a tentative timeline of being ready to do agreements by the end of the calendar year. I'm not sure whether we're on target for that or not," he said.

Houston is the sixth largest television market in the U.S. but has several professional teams. Austin appeals to the NHL demographically, as a hub for tech companies and as a city where the league would be first in the market, much like it was in Las Vegas.

Daly said the NHL is considering both markets, but that expansion to either of them isn't guaranteed even with the term sheet.

Daly said the NHL is also considering a return to the Phoenix market after the assets of the Arizona Coyotes were sold to Ryan Smith in 2024, who used them to create an expansion team in Utah. Daly said there are "at least two groups" in Phoenix that have had discussions with the NHL about an expansion franchise.

"I don't think we ever soured on Phoenix as a market. I think our issue in Phoenix was the location of the building. It's always the location of the building," he said. "I think with the right location, we collectively believe that Phoenix would be a great market."