A prominent player agent says NHL expansion is coming to either Houston or Atlanta.

Never afraid to speak his mind, agent Allan Walsh replied to an article from The Sporting News on X that dove into both potential expansion markets, media-market data, and how imminent expansion could be for the league.

“Per sources, media-market data and information is to be heavily considered as the NHL looks to either Houston or Austin, Texas, for their possible 33rd franchise,” wrote Jennifer Streeter on Thursday.

In late June, commissioner Gary Bettman said the league will conduct a six-month investigation into either Houston or Austin, Texas, and then put the decision to a vote. There is exceptional interest from The Friedkin Group, who aren’t balking at the idea of $3.5 billion in expansion and new arena construction fees.

But Walsh’s quick social media comment is the first definite statement from someone who works in the league’s scope to say expansion is happening.

We’ve had our suspicions. Now, it seems like only a matter of time before the NHL becomes the first “big four” pro league in North America to go to 33 franchises.

Houston has never had NHL hockey, but was one of the stronger WHA teams in the 1970s, and had an AHL as recently as 2013.

Atlanta has been tried twice in the NHL: the Flames operated from 1972 to 1980, the Thrashers from 1999 to 2011. Both teams relocated to Canada afterward. Perhaps putting a franchise in Atlanta is the surest way to get an eighth NHL team in Canada…

It’s been a few weeks since the Detroit Red Wings stripped a franchise great in Steve Yzerman from his post as general manager, and there’s been little noise out of Hockeytown since.

Reports this week, however, indicate the Winged Wheel are ramping up their awkwardly timed GM search. Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports that the team has hired an outside firm to get the ball moving.

All of this is happening in the shadow of captain Dylan Larkin’s trade request, assuredly No. 1 on the to-do list for whoever wins the job. Former Oiler Shawn Horcoff is running day-to-day operations, but does not have the authority to make trades, according to St. James.

Insider Elliotte Friedman said on NHL Network this week that Yzerman will not have any impact on hockey decisions, which wasn’t initially clear when the initial news broke.

“The Red Wings are very serious about letting candidates know that they will have autonomy,” said Friedman.

“They’re open-minded about whether it’s one person or two, what the person’s background is, it might not necessarily be a ‘hockey person’ as we’ve come to define them, and I’ve heard they’ve made it pretty clear they want those who are interviewed to come in with a plan.

“A specific concrete plan on how to get the Red Wings moving forward, how to make sure that Detroit and Michigan is a destination.”

Friedman floated the name of Jeff Greenberg as a name who will be part of the search. He is currently the assistant general manager of the Detroit Tigers, which the Ilitch family also owns.

Amid the Carolina Hurricanes’ summer of celebration is the lingering question of what to do with Alexander Nikishin, who is reportedly looking for big bucks after seeing the money young players are signing for this summer.

It’s left the player and organization in a negotiation stalemate. Nikishin is a restricted free agent and the Hurricanes have almost $10 million in cap space, but a trade seems like a more likely solution.

“That’s one that continues,” said Friedman. “It gets a little bit hotter in terms of conversations, then it calms down. I don’t think anything is close. I don’t get the sense that anything is imminent. But I do think that that is something, whether it’s camp, that’s one we’re going to see some action on … when I was asking around today, people told me that’s one to keep an eye on.”

Nikishin scored 11 goals and 33 points in his first full regular-season in the NHL. The big Russian defender will turn 25 in October.

No need to wait in the eyes of the Los Angeles Kings, who will cement the legacy of perhaps their franchise’s best player this upcoming season.

They will retire Anze Kopitar’s No. 11 to the rafters and unveil a bronze statue of the long-time centre, who is just beginning his retirement after a 20-year career. The ceremony honouring the Slovenian legend is set for Feb. 24, 2027, against the Montreal Canadiens.

Next stop? The Hockey Hall of Fame as early as 2029.

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