Hard to say about nhl and Portland. The city is also a consideration for MLB expansion.
Logically would make more sense for Portland to have nba and mlb who would then give the city big 4 pro sports for the entire calendar year vs overlapping nba and nhl and leave a void for 4 months in the late spring to early fall.
Won’t know til the team is sold. Be the same situation as Houston and Atlanta. All dependent on the nba ownership group’s desires.
Any future nhl expansion will probably be down behind the scenes with the groups that control the arena or ones that can come to an agreement with the arena. It was a bit embarrassing for the nhl that only LV and QC applied for the open bids in 2015. Think they nhl was hoping for more but each of Sea, Hou, Atl had valid reasons for not submitting a bid. Sea no arena, Hou the prior owner was looking to sell the rockets not add a team. Atl their deal was getting finalized at the time.
I agree with that logic, but the LEAGUES absolutely do not work like that. It's "facility deals" driven. Whomever gets stadium/arena deals done is going to get a team; and Portland HAS an arena really close to NHL ready (And if the owner is looking for a NEW stadium, adding an NHL team is a great way to convince a city to build you one).
Portland IS a candidate for MLB, but Montreal is a huge market compared to Portland, which is why MLB went there
in 1969 as one of the first 24 teams in baseball. And Nashville is the most prepared, most serious bid of the three.
Montreal and Nashville also give them an absolute stellar array of alignment options (which I'm terrified they screw up). You'd have EIGHT teams in the West (Oakland or Las Vegas A's). 15 in the Eastern Time Zone. And nine in the central time zone, with Nashville being the fourth-most "Southeastern team." It works in all scenarios:
- Radical Realignment by geography (there terrible idea I think they'll try).
- Four divisions per league in AL/NL.
COL to AL West.
AL Midwest: could be CLE, DET, NASH, TB/TOR. Or AL South with TB, NASH, BAL, TEX.
NL Central adds HOU, NL East adds Montreal, with new NL South is CIN, PIT, ATL, MIA.
- A Four LEAGUES concept that perfectly solves all their problems:
Pacific League: SEA, SF, OAK/LV, LAD, LAA, SD, ARZ, COL
Southern League: HOU, TEX, KC, NASH, MIA, TB, ATL, (WAS/BAL)
Montreal joins the NL.
I have no faith in MLB to do that, but it's borderline perfect because the West gets a ton more good TV times they crave, the Central gets more Eastern TV times they crave, and the schedule looks fantastic. All four-game series (huge reduction in travel). 16 vs league (112), 1 series vs half the remaining teams (48).
You'd have Eastern teams playing at Western teams EIGHT GAMES total all season.
And Pacific teams at Eastern/Central teams 24 games instead of 35 to 53.
As for future NHL expansion, you know my take because I've been saying it for almost a decade now:
Quebec is team #34. Houston and Southern Ontario are welcome anytime they have things sorted out (owner willing plus arena/MLSE deal). They won't add Quebec without a 17th Western team. So they used all the rumors from the 2012-13 lockout and Coyotes lease vote to try and make a city pounce. They got Seattle and Vegas, they need one more.
I'm waiting on rumors of "NHL in San Diego?" to start.