DALLAS — With 32 franchises, expansion is not at the top of the priority list for the NHL, but it should be a louder point of discussion. For all of its faults and flaws, no league has figured out how to add teams better than the NHL. And, with the exception of Las Vegas, no team entered a new market better than the Stars when they relocated from Minnesota to Texas in 1993. The Stars’ success ...

A view of the skyline in downtown Houston on April 8, 2025.

Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

DALLAS — With 32 franchises, expansion is not at the top of the priority list for the NHL, but it should be a louder point of discussion. For all of its faults and flaws, no league has figured out how to add teams better than the NHL.

And, with the exception of Las Vegas, no team entered a new market better than the Stars when they relocated from Minnesota to Texas in 1993. The Stars’ success in Texas gave the NHL the necessary confidence to go to other nontraditional hockey markets all over the United States.

In doing so, however, the Stars remain on an island unlike any other team but one in North American sports. The nearest opponent for the Dallas Stars is 635 miles away, in St. Louis.

“It’s not ideal you have to fly more; it’s a disadvantage, but I don’t think it’s a big disadvantage,” Stars forward Mikko Rantanen said Tuesday. “It depends more if you have a good team or not. But from a recovery standpoint, it makes a difference with your sleep. Sometimes in the East, they may have a 40-minute flight after a game and they’re getting to bed at 1 a.m., whereas with us, it may be 3:30 a.m. It makes a difference.”

The only team among the four major sports that must travel farther for its closest road game is the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, who must fly 831 miles to play the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif.

With the Stars season underway, it would be nice to think their future will include a natural in-state rivalry. Given the population growth in Texas, and this region’s zombie-like commitment to supporting sports, Houston should be the NHL’s next destination.

Not Atlanta. Not Atlanta ever again, no matter how much the commissioner wants it. Not Phoenix. Not Indianapolis. Not Austin.

“If there is an applicant that can show us strong ownership and wherewithal, suitable market, suitable arena and can make a case that it would make the league stronger, then we’ll take a look at it, but we’re not in an expansion process,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told a handful of reporters on Oct. 8, before the start of the regular season in Toronto.

He added that some potential owners have expressed interest since the league last expanded in 2021 when it added the Seattle Kraken, but that, “nobody has come in to check all four boxes.”

Box No. 1: ‘Strong ownership and wherewithal’

Tilman Fertitta, owner of the NBA’s Rockets, has expressed interest in landing an NHL team for Houston. Another potential Houstonian who has reportedly shown a desire to have an NHL team in Houston is Daniel Friedkin, a car magnate who last year purchased Everton of the English Premier League.

Both have experience owning a major sports franchise, and neither lacks for a few hundred million.

Box No. 2: ‘Suitable market’

Houston is the No. 6 media market in the United States, one spot ahead of Atlanta, a city that has twice flopped as home to an NHL team, although there is an Atlanta ownership group that has shown interest in putting a team there in a new arena close to the new stadium of the Atlanta Braves in the suburbs, 12 miles north of downtown.

Houston is the biggest market in the U.S. that does not have an NHL presence.

The city has NFL, NBA and MLB franchises, as well as MLS and the National Women’s Soccer League. The PGA Tour is back in Houston with an annual event, and the city has hosted NCAA Final Fours, a college football national title game, Super Bowls and just about everything outside of the Winter Olympics.

Houston’s population of 2.3 million is the fourth-largest in the U.S.

Box 3: ‘Suitable arena’

This is where this gets tricky. The Rockets play in downtown Houston in the Toyota Center, which opened in 2003. It should have 10 more years, and could easily suit an NHL franchise. With an approximate seating capacity of 18,000 for hockey, the size isn’t an issue.

According to league officials, Fertitta would want a new building for a hockey team, and these days that cost will be close to $2 billion. It’s impossible to envision a new owner absorbing all of the costs to build a new arena, meaning a city will have to be a part of this process.

That price does not include the NHL’s expansion fee, or the costs necessary to build a practice facility and team headquarters.

Box 4: ‘Would make the league stronger’

Just vague enough.

“People tend to forget that expansion is not really the money-making opportunity that it’s perceived to be,” Bettman said. “Because when you admit a new partner you’re diluting or dividing the national revenues by an extra portion. That has an economic consequence to it. You may get cash up front, but over time, it’s not the boon that it’s portrayed to be.”

The NHL expanded to 22 teams in 1991. It’s sitting at 32 teams now. You do the math. Someone is making money.

When Seattle’s bid was approved in 2018, the NHL’s expansion fee was $650 million. Expect the next expansion fee to be closer to $1 billion.

Expansion is not at the forefront of the NHL’s agenda, but when it happens, the next team should be in Houston.