NHL Commish Downplays Expansion Talk; Expansion Fees Would Likely Top $2 Billion

The NHL held a board of governors meeting on Wednesday in Los Angeles ahead of the NHL Draft, which gets underway on Friday, and one of the big topics of conversation had to do with another round of expansion.

Would the NHL grow to 33 or 34 teams? Perhaps, maybe give it the old college try (for a third time) in Atlanta, a suburb of which recently approved plans for a new NHL-ready arena?

Well, according to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, there are no plans to expand on the league's to-do list at the moment.

"We have no pending applications, and we’re not seeking to initiate a formal process at this point," Bettman told reporters, per Sportico. 

He did, however, note that there had been general discussions about the price of an expansion team, though the commissioner was mum on specifics, saying that "but nothing we need to get into [with reporters]."

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman downplayed expansion talks, but said prices had been discussed.  (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)

However, Sportico — citing anonymous league sources — claims that the expansion fees for new NHL teams could be in the neighborhood of $2 billion.

That would seem to make sense given how fees have risen over the last decade. When the Vegas Golden Knights entered the league in 2017, their expansion fee was $500 million, while the Seattle Kraken — who began play just a few years later, paid $650 million.

Still, that's a big jump and, obviously, a lot of money.

The NHL seems to be in a good place these days with the revenue increasing and making the salary cap going up, plus, the league and the NHL Players Association are expected to unveil a framework for the new collective bargaining agreement (which gets rid of the EBUG rule that we all like, sorry) on Friday, which would kick in ahead of the 2026-27 season.

Getting that done and dusted for a league that has a history of work stoppages is a very good thing.