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I feel like expansion rumors always flare up as a new NHL season is about to get started, and this year is no exception, however, this time around, Commissioner Gary Bettman wasted no time dousing the rumor flare-ups with water.

Recently, reports emerged claiming that the league was making moves towards welcoming Houston and Atlanta — both long-rumored expansion candidates — as the league’s 33rd and 34th teams.

“Everything that’s been written in the last week is categorically wrong,” Bettman told The Toronto Star. “We’re not going through an expansion process. And other than updating the board on Oct. 1 as to places that have expressed an interest, there’s nothing else that’s going to be done on expansion.

“Everything else was either speculation, or I don’t know what to call it, but it had no basis in fact.” 

Welp… I guess there you have it.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman shutdown recent rumors that the NHL was working on expanding into Houston and Atlanta. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)

However, I bet even despite the commish saying flat-out that there aren’t any plans to expand, the rumors will continue to come in. Especially when you consider the success the league has seen with its latest batch of expansion teams in the Vegas Golden Knights, Seattle Kraken, and Utah Hockey Club (they’re technically considered a new franchise despite being built out of the hockey assets of the late Arizona Coyotes).

While there may be no plans at the moment the two cities mentioned in those reports — Houston and Atlanta (yes, again) — should be toward the top of the league’s list if and when they choose to expand. 

Both are huge markets with some great hockey history, and I think a lot has been learned from the previous attempts to crack the Atlanta market with the Flames and Thrashers’ failures.

But it appears that for the foreseeable future, the league will stay a 32-league (which is fine by me; more than, that and it starts to feel bloated).