Bettman punts Texas expansion to December with no decision made

The NHL's Board of Governors spent part of Tuesday in New York talking about a 33rd team in Texas, and then Gary Bettman walked out and said nothing was decided. No city, no vote, no deadline. The next real checkpoint is the December board meeting.

That's the whole update, and it's still worth reading, because the tone shifted. A month ago Daly was saying the league was moving forward in Texas, with talk of a team being awarded by year-end. Tuesday was a lot more careful.

What was actually said

Per the AP's Stephen Whyno, deputy commissioner Bill Daly briefed the owners on where Dan Friedkin's Pursuit Sports group stands in its look at Houston and Austin. The all-in number is still about $3.5 billion, roughly $2 billion for the expansion fee and $1.5 billion for a new arena.

Bettman's framing, per the AP: "Expansion is a multibillion-dollar transaction," and three-quarters of the governors have to be comfortable that it makes sense. He said the league expects to know which market Friedkin prefers by the end of the year, but both sides still have a lot of work to do.

On the Houston side, Daly told reporters the group has narrowed to a handful of arena sites, per Colorado Avalanche On SI. Chris Johnston reported that Daly also said there's no fixed deadline and a December vote isn't a given, per House of Hockey.

Atlanta and the Phoenix area are still in the picture as future markets, per the AP, but the league says those are well behind Texas. And Bettman isn't hunting for a 34th team just to keep the math even.

The room isn't unanimous

The most honest line of the day came when Bettman admitted the owners don't all want this. Per the AP: "There are probably some owners who think expansion is the greatest thing ever... some people who say, 'Why do we need to expand?'"

That tracks with what Elliotte Friedman reported ahead of the meeting about owners splitting on the location and on whether 33 teams is a good idea at all. Now the commissioner is saying it out loud.

Ferda take

Read the deadline language. In August, Daly was talking about a team being awarded by the end of the year. On Tuesday, Bettman was talking about knowing which city Friedkin likes by the end of the year. Those aren't the same sentence. One is a franchise, the other is a preference.

That's not a bad thing. A $2 billion fee split 32 ways is real money, and the owners who'd rather skip it are the ones whose divisions get reshuffled. Dallas gets a Texas rival either way. If the Central is the landing spot, as Colorado Avalanche On SI expects, everyone there gets a ninth team and a worse travel calendar.

For the Panthers, this is background noise until an expansion draft shows up on the calendar. Florida just built a roster with two Tkachuks and a deep blue line. Protecting it in 2029 is a problem for a future Bill Zito. He'll probably enjoy it.

What's next

December's board meeting is the next date that matters. If Friedkin picks Houston or Austin by then, the vote question gets real. If he doesn't, the league has already told you it can wait.