- Agent Allan Walsh says NHL expansion is coming to Houston and Atlanta
- The league’s own six-month review covers Houston and Austin, with Atlanta nowhere on it
- Read below for the arena work in Georgia and what John Shannon expects
Allan Walsh isn’t waiting on the league to make it official.
One of hockey’s busiest player agents answered a Sporting News report on the NHL’s expansion research Thursday night with four words and two cities. “NHL expansion is coming,” Walsh wrote. “Houston and Atlanta.”
Here’s the post:
The second name is the surprise. Gary Bettman told the Board of Governors in late June that the league was opening a six-month study of Houston and Austin, with the Friedkin Group lined up as prospective owners on a bid that runs past $3.5 billion. Atlanta was not part of that conversation.
Walsh was replying to Jennifer Streeter, whose piece laid out how media-market data is steering the Houston-versus-Austin call:
John Shannon keeps landing in the same spot. The longtime insider was asked on the 100% Hockey podcast how big the league eventually gets, and he put the ceiling at 36 teams.
“Two teams are coming soon. I mean, and I’ve said this before. I think we’re going to end up at [36 teams]. I really do.”
Atlanta has had two swings at this already. The Flames arrived in 1972 and left for Calgary in 1980, and the Thrashers showed up in 1999 before becoming the Winnipeg Jets in 2011.
Bettman has said those exits won’t disqualify the market, and the metro area has been busy. A redevelopment proposal in Alpharetta and an approved plan in Forsyth County both include arenas built to NHL specs, which is the first gate any candidate city has to clear.
Houston still brings the bigger crowd. Its metro area ranks fourth in the United States at roughly 6.97 million people, with Atlanta seventh at about 6.35 million.
Texas isn’t short on hockey history either. Gordie Howe played for the WHA’s Houston Aeros in the 1970s alongside sons Mark and Marty, and an AHL version of the Aeros lasted until 2013.
None of this is settled. The league has a review to finish and a vote to hold, and the media-market numbers already had Houston pulling clear of Austin. What Walsh did was put a city on the board that nobody at the league office has said out loud yet.
