LATEST | Insider strongly believes an American City is getting an expansion team: Pending an Arena Deal

After two failed franchises, mainly because of issues with ownership groups, the National Hockey League could be returning to Atlanta, Georgia.

While on The Jeff Marek Show on Monday, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman revealed that he's hearing that there is a lot of momentum for the NHL to return to Atlanta. He added that if the arena plan in the suburb of Alpharetta gets the green light, then it's a very real possibility.

A Georgia developer is looking to build an 18,000 seat arena along with shops, restaurants, a hotel and residential units on a 100 acres of land near the city of Alpharetta, which is about 45 minutes north of Atlanta.

If the National Hockey League does return to the state of Georgia, it seems more likely that it'll be via expansion, rather than relocation. The success of the Vegas Golden Knight and Seattle Kraken thus far has been big for the NHL and future expansion. The Kraken paid $650 million as their expansion fee and there's no doubt that dollar amount will be significantly higher if the NHL expands in the coming years.


The main issue with the previous two NHL franchises in Atlanta, Flames and Thrasher, was that their respective ownership groups essentially gave up and allowed them to be relocated. The Flames moved to Calgary, while the Thrasher also headed north, landing in Winnipeg. To be fair though, the product on the ice wasn't always the greatest. The Flames made the Stanley Cup Playoffs six times, but never won a series, while the Thrashers got swept by the New York Rangers in their only appearance in the postseason in 2007.

If the NHL does return to Atlanta, would you want them to be named the Thrashers again? Let us know your thoughts in the poll below!