We don't need more teams in the NHL. We need less. What we need is to get rid of all the sun belt teams that are nothing but dead weight to the league, return teams to QC, Winnipeg and maybe put one in Hamilton.
A stupid generalization. Modern hockey teams have failed in the North and the South. Winnipeg, Hartford, Quebec, Minnesota, Colorado, Kansas City, Oakland, Cleveland and Atlanta have moved in the past. There are only two warm weather cities in the bunch.
There are only four teams in the league that could be deemed "failing" right now, the Islanders, Thrashers, Coyotes and Panthers. Nashville, Carolina, and Tampa Bay have all improved attendance dramatically since the lockout. The Stars and Sharks have been wildly successful, and both LA teams usually have solid attendance despite the fickle nature of the LA sports fan and lots of competition. Remember that the Kings are 44 years old.
My top relocation/expansion prospects
1. Kansas City: There is a brand new arena waiting for a tenant in a city without major winter sports, college or pro. No, Kansas City is not the Sun Belt. Its cold there. Yes, the Scouts failed, but so did the Rockies and Seals. The NHL went back and succeeded in these cases, and would here too.
2. Milwaukee: The Wisconsin Badgers 70 miles away sell 13,000 tickets a game. Milwaukee has always supported the Admirals well, and they have and NHL ready building tomorrow. I think a hockey team could move in and usurp the very stagnant NBA Bucks very quickly, except the arena is owned by the owner of the basketball team, so that probably won't happen until that situation changes.
3. Seattle: I wish the NHL could find a way to make this work. The NBA stupidly vacated a huge, sports crazy city. There is no major winter sports other than UW basketball. If they could just get a building that worked. The Tacoma Dome is a horrendous venue, but it does have an ice plant; perhaps the seating could be reconfigured to work better for a hockey team.
4. Houston: Huge City, NHL Capable arena, decades of hockey history with the Aeros, and would make a nice rivalry with Dallas
5. Quebec: NHL could play at Coliseum for a while, with a new rink on the drawing boards. Quebec and Winnipeg are similar sized cities, but Quebec has a larger outlying population to draw from and a better attendance history.
6. Winnipeg: Has an arena that is a little too small and can't really be expanded. The city would be nuts over the team for a while, but there is little surrounding the city besides wheat fields, so it would be difficult to draw fans from very far away. It will all lie on the city of Winnipeg if the Coyotes move there.