The National Hockey League may not be in a formal expansion process at this time, but that doesn't mean they aren't at least taking a look at potential options for the future, as was the case recently.
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.
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.