The NHL’s owners will be meeting on October 1st to vote on opening another NHL Expansion window, shares Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest. Strickland adds that the leading candidates for expansion are Houston, led by Tilman J. Fertitta, and Atlanta, led by Vernon Krause. NHL.com’s Kevin Weekes seconded the story, sharing that he wouldn’t be surprised to see the NHL grow to between 34 and 36 teams.
Adding the pair of southern cities to the NHL would maintain the balance between conferences, but it could throw off Divisional alignment. Every division currently holds eight teams, but additions in Houston and Atlanta could push the Central and Atlantic Divisions, respectively, up to nine. That could be an incentive for further expansion in the future, assuming the NHL keeps their structure the same.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Calgary Flames have hired longtime Flame Matt Stajan as a skills consultant. Stajan spent nine years with the Flames from 2009 to 2018 – the final years of his 15-year, 1,003-game career in the NHL. That career kicked off with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who drafted Stajan in the second round of 2002 and elevated him to the NHL two seasons later. He quickly became known for his reliable two-way play down the lineup, even briefly flirting with strong scoring with 55 and 57 points in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons. Those stood as career-highs, but Stajan’s responsible play carried into Calgary, earning him a consistent third-line role during an era of flux for the Flames. He’ll now bring that hockey IQ to the coaching stage, looking to support Calgary as they once again enter a new era.
- New Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube has shared that William Nylander will start training camp at center, with Max Domi on his wing, shares David Alter of The Hockey News. Nylander has flirted with a center role throughout his nine-year career, but hasn’t fully absorbed the role over John Tavares. Nylander was impressive at the faceoff dot when he did take draws, recording a 51.4 faceoff percentage in 2017-18, his only year taking more than 400 faceoffs in a season. On his career, Nylander has won 963 of a possible 1,909 faceoffs, good for a 50.4 percentage. Domi will offer helpful support in the event that Nylander struggles in the new role, boasting a 52.5 faceoff percentage over the last two seasons.
- Pavel Buchnevich will also move from the wing to center, shares Matthew DeFranks of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Buchnevich has been much less successful at the faceoff dot, winning just 37.4 of his 206 faceoffs last season. He’s one of St. Louis’ most prolific scorers, forming a strong trio with Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou. But center depth is a sudden concern for the Blues, with players like Brayden Schenn taking a recent step back and prospects like Nikita Alexandrov failing to emerge. The Blues will look to mitigate that lacking depth by spreading out their star talent to start the year.
With there being very little difference in the number of games a team plays within their division and the other division in their conference, I’m not sure why there’s still a need to have divisions. Just have two conferences and the top 8 get in.
I’m a no on further expansion, but if they’re going to do it, worrying about divisional balance seems like an unnecessary burden.
Why Atlanta? It failed the first time around.
The second time, too. The Flames and Thrashers both left Atlanta.
Atlanta has lost 2 franchises. Why would you want to put another one there? Makes zero sense. They should go back to Quebec or locate one based on fan support of the current AHL teams. Reward a AHL city that supports their team well with a franchise.
Houston and Quebec City. Make it happen. Houston for the money and Quebec for the love of the game.
Wonder why the NHL hasn’t reached agreement with any overseas contingents for expansion since so many players originate from Europa
Give it to Kansas City
34 teams would fit quite nicely into an 82 game schedule. 3 games * 16 intraconference opponents = 48, 2 games * 17 interconference opponents = 34.
Any more than that and you may have to consider expanding the schedule.
NO surprise To hear gary is going back to Atlanta. Once they can not have Mereulo as owner in Arizona. They will have a team. Quebec only gets team If only option is fold like winnipeg /Atlanta. Boise Idaho , Kalispell Montana get team before Quebec city or Hamilton.