The thing though is that if the NHL really wants to add 4+ more teams, at a certain point they're going to run out of big markets. NHL is well-poised with Houston, Atlanta, and now Phoenix all untapped, and there are loads of good-sized markets out there as well, too, like Kansas City, Portland, and San Diego, to name a few. Prior to two years ago, all of them would've been hoisted up as more likely to get or keep a team over Utah.
But then one dude with deep pockets changed the equation altogether, and instead of being maybe a very long-term candidate (I think I mentioned my belief way back when that Utah would be an intriguing option once the 2050s rolled around) they became the obvious next landing spot for an NHL team. And they somehow seem poised to hit the ground running in a single offseason, something that I previously posited as a good reason to keep QC in the league's back pocket as an emergency relocation option like Winnipeg with the mistaken belief that an American market would need more wind-up time.
And let's not forget, Bettman with a straight face name dropped Omaha as a city that had expressed interest in an NHL team recently. If Omaha is worth even mentioning in passing, OKC isn't that far-fetched if Bennett gets interested.
And the thing about smaller markets is that they per capita seem to cling much more tightly to their team or teams than larger markets with more distraction options. In the NBA, Utah, OKC, and Portland have all been frequently name-dropped as having rabid fanbases, and from that fosters local governments more eager to play ball with teams. That wasn't the case for the Yotes, who absolutely had fans but in a huge market were easy to get lost in the overall background noise and were as a result in less of a strong bargaining position to get anything they wanted from local governments.
