Gary Bettman directly addresses NHL expansion rumours: his comments are surprising

The NHL introduced their new 32nd team this past off-season, with the Arizona Coyotes officially relocating to Salt Lake City to be the Utah Hockey Club (name hopefully changing soon), and following that, we've seen reports that have revealed new teams could be coming soon. The cities that have been linked to becoming teams No. 33 and 34 have been Atlanta, Houston, Toronto, Quebec City and Kansas City among others, with so many fans around the league almost expected expansion in the near future.

However, that may not be the case after all, as Gary Bettman has officially addressed the rumours, completely dispelling the reports and suggesting that we may not see expansion anytime soon.

Given how many outlets have reported the rumours of expansion and the potential money involved, it's quite shocking to see that Bettman has shut down any suggestion of new teams, and while most fans want the league to stick with 32 teams, it didn't appear to be the league's plan for a while according to Bettman.

This of course could be the NHL's Commissioner shutting down the reports, as they didn't officially entertain the idea to the public of relocating the Coyotes until very late in the process, so take this with a grain of salt, but if the reports about how much money a new team could make are real and the interest from Atlanta and Houston specifically, expect this topic to continue coming up in the near future.