Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta speaks out on rumors of purchasing NHL expansion team in Houston 

Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has been in the headlines in recent weeks amid talk of a potential NHL expansion in the near future.

While nothing has been finalized yet, the league is meeting with owners to discuss a potential expansion. Responding to the talk of him possibly bringing an NHL team to Houston, Fertitta responded to the reports this week.

While speaking to media members at the opening of the new Rockets training facility on Tuesday, he spoke about the possibility of an NHL expansion team in Houston.

From the sounds of things, while Fertitta is interested in bringing a team to Houston, there are a number of other parties interested too. That said, he remains optimistic:

"The NHL would be great in Houston, and they're looking to expand. We're hoping that no team right now meets the price that they want (for) the expansion team. We're hoping somehow we can get the team by being one the best cities in America and paying the right price."

In addition to a potential team in Houston, Atlanta has been the other frontrunner when it comes to cities that could land an NHL franchise. While the city hasn't been able to cement its place as a hockey town in the past, Vernon Krause aims to change that.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman weighs in on NHL expansion rumors

There has been plenty of talk regarding an expansion by the NHL. Reports indicated earlier this month that league owners would be meeting to vote on opening up the league to an expansion. Comissioner Gary Bettman, though, pumped the brakes on speculation.

In an interview with The Star this week, Bettman said that the league has no plans to discuss an expansion beyond updating the list of interested cities on Oct. 1.

“Everything that’s been written in the last week is categorically wrong. 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."

Given that the NHL has added two expansion teams in the past 10 years, after taking nearly two decades off from expansions, Bettman's comments won't come as a shock.

On the other hand, given that before the 2017 NHL expansion, the league expanded to add four teams in three years, Bettman may simply be playing his cards close to the vest.