Elliotte Friedman points to a development worth watching in NHL expansion

The Friedkin family's push to bring a 33rd franchise to Texas has been rolling along since June, when Gary Bettman told the Board of Governors that the league was opening a formal process to study Houston and Austin as landing spots for an expansion team.

The $3.5 billion agreement with the Friedkins, who already own AS Roma and Everton overseas, was framed from the start as a nonbinding term sheet rather than a done deal.

Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has been careful to say publicly that the plan still needs full buy-in from the board before anything becomes official.

That buy-in has never looked completely guaranteed.

There have been whispers for months that some owners are not thrilled about a second Texas team joining the Dallas Stars in what is already a competitive southern hockey market, especially with arena financing and long term feasibility still unresolved in both cities.

Friedman pointed to that exact dynamic on 32 Thoughts, noting reports of owner resistance surfaced almost as soon as the Houston-Austin idea became public back in June, and Tuesday's meeting in New York is where the league finds out if that resistance actually has teeth.

If it is only a handful of voices, expect the six month evaluation to keep rolling toward an eventual vote.

If it runs deeper than that, the timeline could stretch out, or the whole Texas plan could get more complicated than the league expected when this started.

Either way, this is the meeting where the temperature gets checked, and fans in both cities will be watching closely for any signal on which way it is trending.

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