HENDERSON, NV -- The NHL is in talks with a third group seeking to bring an expansion team to Atlanta, deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN on Wednesday.
Two groups that want to bring the NHL back to the city have been publicly identified and have been in a race to firm up their respective arena plans. The Alpharetta City Council approved zoning changes for a massive redevelopment of North Point Mall that would include a 20,000-seat NHL-ready arena. About seven miles away from that site, Krause Sports & Entertainment has been moving forward with plans to build an arena at The Gathering in South Forsyth. Both projects are contingent on the NHL granting an expansion team to either location.
Daly said the NHL is in talks with a third group headed by former NHL player and current TNT hockey analyst Anson Carter, who had previously been involved with the Alpharetta bid.
"Anson still has an interest in having a franchise in Atlanta. He's kind of broken with the Alpharetta group, which he was championing before. He has indicated he has adequate financing, which he showed some evidence of, but he hasn't chosen a location," said Daly, speaking at the NHL/NHLPA Player Media Tour in Las Vegas.
Daly said Carter's group is looking at locations that are north of Atlanta. "He's committed it's going to be a better location than either Alpharetta or The Gathering," he said.
The expansion process isn't without its hiccups. The development team in South Forsyth was recently admonished by the NHL when it released information that it had submitted a final packet for approval by the league. Vernon Krause of Kause Sports and Entertainment said in a statement: "Unfortunately, information shared during a recent community update - and subsequently distributed by email - was premature and incomplete, leading to inaccurate statements on social media."
Daly said he reached out to the group personally. "They claimed that people associated with their efforts and initiative got over their skis a little bit. They received an angry call from me when it was all coming down and I didn't know anything about it," he said.
This would be the third time the NHL has put a team in Atlanta. The Flames relocated to Calgary in 1980. The Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg in 2011. Daly said the potential is there for the third time to be the charm.
"I think a full market analysis in the Atlanta region is going to be important. Certainly, it would be important for our ownership to understand why it would be different this time than it has been in the past," said Daly. "I would argue that Atlanta has changed dramatically and significantly over time. I think building location is going to be very, very important."
While the Atlanta bids are down the line, potential NHL expansion to Houston or Austin is closer to becoming a reality, as the league seeks a second team in Texas to go along with the Dallas Stars.
In June, the NHL entered into an agreement with the Friedkin family, giving them six months to explore expansion to one of those two markets. The agreed investment for the Friedkin family is $3.5 billion, which includes an expansion fee as well as building costs for an NHL arena. The Texas group reportedly hopes to have a team ready for the 2029-30 NHL season.
Daly said there will be an update on the Texas expansion process at the next NHL Board of Governors meeting in New York on Sept. 22. "We talked about a tentative timeline of being ready to do agreements by the end of the calendar year. I'm not sure whether we're on target for that or not," he said.
Houston is the sixth largest television market in the U.S. but has several professional teams. Austin appeals to the NHL demographically, as a hub for tech companies and as a city where the league would be first in the market, much like it was in Las Vegas.
Daly said the NHL is considering both markets, but that expansion to either of them isn't guaranteed even with the term sheet.
"I think both have strengths. I think both have weaknesses. Ultimately, that's a decision for our board: One, whether they want to expand at all, but two, if they want to expand where their primary location, would be," he said.
Daly said the NHL is also considering a return to the Phoenix market after the assets of the Arizona Coyotes were sold to Ryan Smith in 2024, who used them to create an expansion team in Utah. Daly said there are "at least two groups" in Phoenix that have had discussions with the NHL about an expansion franchise.
"I don't think we ever soured on Phoenix as a market. I think our issue in Phoenix was the location of the building. It's always the location of the building," he said. "I think with the right location, we collectively believe that Phoenix would be a great market."
Despite these discussions, Daly cautioned that further NHL expansion isn't a foregone conclusion.
"I don't want to get ahead of the board," Daly said. "I don't want to treat it like a done deal because it's not. It's not a done deal on the Friedkin side, and it's not a done deal on our side. And that's why it's kind of a nonbinding term sheet. We're both going to work hard to achieve that goal. But, at the end of the day, it might not happen." Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.