The NHL is quickly moving towards adding a 33rd team.
According to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, the league could be ready to announce its 33rd franchise before the end of the year and have it playing games by the 2029-30 campaign.
Houston and Austin are the frontrunners competing to become the NHL’s newest market, and Daly provided an update on the process while speaking with The Athletic’s Chris Johnston during the NHL’s European Media Tour.
“We’re moving forward in Texas,” Daly told Johnston.
Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin is the primary driver of the move, and talks between him and the NHL are expected to resume in September. Friedkin’s Pursuit Sports has already agreed to pay a reported $2 billion expansion fee for a franchise, but the group still needs to decide which Texan city the team will play in and receive final approval from the NHL’s Board of Governors.
Once those pieces are in place, Daly believes the rest of the process will move quickly, with expansion becoming official during the 2026-27 regular season.
“If we finalize that and the board approves it, then (at the) end of this calendar year we’ll have an announcement that we’re expanding to either Houston or Austin,” Daly said. “They’re projecting the ability to start play in 2029-30.”
Houston, the fourth-largest metropolitan market in the United States, has long been viewed as the frontrunner for the NHL’s return to Texas and was the initial target when the league began working with Friedkin’s group. The city also offers a massive corporate base, but Austin’s potential as a booming, more unique location is still not being entirely dismissed.
Austin holds just one other professional sports team, Austin FC of the MLS, while Houston is headlined by the NFL’s Texans, MLB’s Astros, NBA’s Rockets, MLS’s Dynamo FC, and the NWSL’s Dash. Houston will also already be getting a hockey team for the 2026-27 season, with the NAHL announcing the move and renaming of the North Iowa Bulls to the Houston Bulls in March.
Daly added that discussions for a 34th team are also ongoing, with Phoenix and Atlanta leading the way, but those talks are much further away than those in Texas. While some have raised concerns that the league may be diluting its talent pool with too many teams, Daly immediately brushed off the idea.
“The dilution of talent as an argument against expansion, I don’t think, holds any water today,” Daly said.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has previously stated that past failures will not deter future expansion to Atlanta, and the city has been making moves to prepare itself for a franchise in the past year, including a redevelopment proposal in Alpharetta and an approved plan in Forsyth County for potential NHL-ready arenas — one of the biggest prerequisites for the league.
When the NHL inevitably adds a 33rd and likely 34th team, it will be the first major sporting league in North America to go past 32 franchises. The NFL first hit the 32-team mark in 2000, when the Houston Texans were officially founded and began playing games in 2002.
