Potential National Hockey League expansion

The National Hockey League (NHL) has undergone several rounds of expansion and other organizational changes during its 100-year history to reach its current thirty teams: twenty-three in the United States, and seven in Canada. The last time the NHL added expansion teams was in 2016, when the league approved the Vegas Golden Knights for play in the 2017–18 season. The league's most recent relocation was in 2011, when the former Atlanta Thrashers relocated to become the modern Winnipeg Jets.

To gauge interest and help determine whether the NHL should entertain further expansion, the NHL Board of Governors accepted applications for new franchises during the 2015 offseason. Two potential ownership groups submitted applications for prospective teams in Las Vegas and Quebec City. The geographic distribution of teams between the NHL's two conferences was not a primary consideration for expansion, and the earliest time when a new franchise could start play was the 2017–18 season. On June 22, 2016 the NHL approved expansion to Las Vegas starting in the 2017–18 season with the Vegas Golden Knights. The Quebec City submission was deferred to a later date.

The potential of adding additional franchises in Canada had been an ongoing source of controversy for the NHL in recent years as numerous groups proposed expanding the league into a new Canadian city, or purchasing a struggling American franchise and relocating it north; to a certain extent, these issues continue even after the Atlanta Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg, becoming the country's seventh active team. Quebec City and the Golden Horseshoe area of Southern Ontario are most frequently proposed as locations for new Canadian teams, as was Winnipeg prior to the announced relocation of the Thrashers.

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