NHL commish Gary Bettman all but shoots down Quebec City extension rumors

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman doesn't see an expansion team going to Quebec City. The league is at 32 teams, but there have been talks about it eventually expanding further.

If the NHL does expand, many fans believe it needs another team in Canada and Quebec City would be a logical landing spot. However, Bettman discussed the challenges that would prevent that from happening.

“That depends on a lot of factors that we don’t control, including someone — or an entity — that is engaged enough and committed enough financially to want to even be considered and it hasn’t happened yet," Bettman said via Montreal Gazette.

The Quebec Nordiques left the city in 1995 due to financial issues and Bettman added that it would be difficult for Quebec to have an NHL team again.

“Putting the genie back in the bottle is always a very tough thing to do."

However, Bettman said that the city is no doubt a hockey market but for now, it's unlikely the NHL will return there.

Gary Bettman wanted hockey to work in Arizona

One team that the NHL tried to work on for years was Arizona.

The Coyotes played in a college arena as their owner tried to get a new one built. After years of trying, Bettman finally decided to move the team to Utah.

"We tried the best we could in Arizona for a long period of time. And over the course of the Coyotes history, there were issues and some issues we were able to solve and then other issues popped up."

"The fact was we finally reached the point where there was no major league facility for them to play in and the prospect was so far from certain for a new facility. And even if there was a prospect of a new arena, we were looking at probably at least five years and that just became untenable."

During Utah's home opener, Bettman was in attendance and was blown away by the fans' support. However, he isn't ruling out a team going back to Arizona in the future.