Source: Rocky W. Widner/NHL / Getty
WOW! Rumors have it that the Houston Rockets’ new owner, Tilman Fertitta recently met with the NHL commissioner Gary Bettman about bringing a hockey team back to town.
Houston are we ready for another hockey team, an NHL team at that?
If you remember, Houston was part of the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1994-2013, when the Houston Aeros were our professional minor league ice hockey team, an affiliated team from the NHL’s Minnesota Wild.
The Aeros played at the Toyota Center for 19 years before leaving the city when the team and the Toyota Center couldn’t reach a lease agreement. Back in 2013, the team released a statement saying that they were happy that they contributed to Houston’s hockey’s history. “There is a great hockey history in Houston beginning with the Apollos in 1965…”
The NHL Commissioner has “refuted the notion that the NHL was actively looking for relocation options,” The Athletic’s Katie Strang reported. Strang also suggested that the meeting between the commissioner and Fertitta was mainly centered around the “preliminary discussions about the viability” of bringing NHL to Houston, Texas.
Commissioner Bettman has insisted over time and on several occasions that the NHL isn’t relocating a team or having an expansion team. Katy Strang did point out that there are few struggling franchises that might need a new home. They have the Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames, Arizona Coyotes and New York Islanders.
Via:cbssports
