NHL reportedly meets with two groups from potential expansion cities

According to Kevin Weekes of ESPN, the National Hockey League met with potential ownership groups from Atlanta, Georgia and Houston, Texas, who are wanting to have an expansion franchise in their city at some point in the future.

The report of the National Hockey League meeting with Atlanta and Houston's groups follows the news from earlier on Monday that Ryan Smith, who is looking to bring a franchise to Utah, was surveying fans on what team name they'd like to see.

Expansion is inevitable at this point, it's just a matter of how many teams and when the NHL will officially begin the process. Whenever expansion is brought up, there's always a group of fans who mention that adding more teams dilutes the product on the ice, but in this day and age, there is more talent than ever in the NHL and for potential franchises to choose from in an expansion draft.

On the business side of things, expansion is something that the ownership groups of other National Hockey League teams will want, given that they all get a portion of the fee, which is expected to be $2 billion USD or higher.

It'll be interesting to see how the NHL approaches expansion in the coming years and which cities end up with a franchise. Atlanta, Houston and Salt Lake City seem like the front runners as of now.