NHL Moving Closer to Expansion in Thriving Sun Belt Market

Even without a broad, formalized process in place, the prospect of NHL expansion is heating up across multiple markets. 

As the league approaches the start of its 2026–27 regular season, several developments are emerging to push the NHL closer to its 33rd team, and a possible 34th one eventually. Among the recent events:

• The NHL is aiming to debut a second Texas team for the 2029–30 season to join the existing Stars, who are moving to Plano. The league in June reached an agreement with billionaire Dan Friedkin to explore expansion to either Houston or Austin. Houston remains the more likely choice, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said last week during a European media tour: “We hope to have definitive agreements in place that would commit the franchise as early as December this year.” 
• The Alpharetta, Georgia, city council voted 4–3 Monday night to rezone the Atlanta suburb’s North Point Mall to allow a mixed-use development that would support a NHL franchise. The vote doesn’t guarantee the league will place a franchise in the market, but it was a necessary step to allow an arena project to occur there. Like many sports-oriented developments, the Alpharetta project is inspired in part by The Battery created by the neighboring MLB Braves. “I absolutely believe the NHL is coming to Atlanta,” said Alpharetta city councilman John Hipes, one of the “yes” votes. 
• The metro Phoenix area, a market left behind when the then-Coyotes franchise moved to Utah and ultimately became the Mammoth, is still part of ongoing deliberations by the league—though without the ownership-level or local political developments seen thus far in Texas or metro Atlanta. 

The Atlanta situation, however, is still somewhat muddled. Beyond the Alpharetta effort, there is a competing proposal in nearby Forsyth County that already has an approved local plan. 

These developments also continue to burnish the league’s already powerful presence across the U.S. Sun Belt. Teams from that region have claimed the past four Stanley Cup titles, and six of the past seven, including the Hurricanes this past season. 

It is not critical that the NHL bring in expansion clubs in even pairs. There was a four-year gap between the 2017 arrival of the Golden Knights, the league’s 31st team, and the Kraken’s 2021 beginning as the 32nd franchise.