NEW YORK (AP) — The NHL is exploring potential expansion to Texas with Houston and Austin among the possibilities, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The league's Board of Governors had their annual post-Stanley Cup Final and pre-draft meeting on Tuesday in New York. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the expansion consideration had not been announced. ESPN and Sportsnet were first to report the move.
While there is no guarantee the NHL adds a 33rd team, it is a first step toward becoming the largest professional sports league in North America, surpassing the NFL. Commissioner Gary Bettman in recent years has been careful to say officials were listening to expressions of interest from prospective owners in places like Houston and Atlanta but not yet engaged in a formal path toward expansion.
The league last expanded to 32 with the Seattle Kraken beginning play in 2021 after the Vegas Golden Knights started in the 2017-18 season. Before that, there had been 30 teams since 2000, when Columbus and Minnesota entered.
The recent success stories, combined with booming franchise values across sports, spurred talk of expansion in hockey circles, especially because expansion fees could exceed $1 billion. Seattle paid $650 million and Las Vegas $500 million.
From Florida to Texas to California and places in between, the NHL has enjoyed strong popularity across the Sun Belt and non-traditional hockey markets over the past four decades. Teams were added in South Florida and Tampa in Florida, San Jose and Anaheim in Calfironia, Nashville, Tennessee, and Las Vegas while relocations put teams in Dallas and Raleigh, North Carolina, Denver and elsewhere.
Teams in those places have won the Stanley Cup the past seven years in a row and 13 times dating to Colorado's championship run in 1995-96.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL
Carolina Hurricanes center Jordan Staal (11) lifts the Stanley Cup after a win over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final series, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Candice Ward)
Carolina Hurricanes fans react after a goal against the Vegas Golden Knights during the second period of Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final series in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A legal battle over where former Zambian President Edgar Lungu's remains will be buried is over, more than a year after he died, as South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday in favor of his family and rejected the Zambian government's claim of custody over his body.
The ruling overturned a lower South African court's decision that ordered the family to hand over Lungu's remains to the Zambian government for repatriation.
Lungu died in South Africa on June 5, 2025, at age 68. The Zambian government wanted his body to be buried at a cemetery set aside for the African nation's leaders, but his family preferred to bury him in South Africa.
The dispute saw Lungu’s bitter rivalry with political opponent and current Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema continue after his death. His body has been at a mortuary while the legal battle played out.
Lungu’s family said it was honoring his last wishes that Hichilema come nowhere near his body and not preside over a state funeral for him in Zambia.
The family's funeral service for Lungu in South Africa last June was interrupted when the Zambian government filed an urgent court case arguing the country's customs and protocols required he be buried at the national cemetery.
In a majority ruling by a panel of judges on Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Appeal said that “the common law and constitutional rights of family prevail” over the Zambian government's claim.
“The judgment provides clarity and finality on a matter that has caused immense pain and uncertainty for the family during a period of profound grief,” Lungu family spokesperson Makebi Zulu said in a statement.
The Zambian government said it would not appeal the ruling to South Africa's top Constitutional Court and it was "now a private matter for the Lungu family to proceed with their desired burial.”
It noted that all five other Zambian presidents since independence in 1964 who have died were buried at the cemetery for leaders and Lungu would be the first one not to be.
Lungu served as president of the southern African nation from 2015 to 2021, twice beating Hichilema in elections. During Lungu's presidency, then-opposition leader Hichilema was imprisoned for four months on treason charges that were ultimately dropped.
Lungu lost an election to Hichilema in 2021 and claimed years later that he had been effectively put under house arrest by authorities acting on Hichilema's instructions.
AP writer Jacob Zimba in Lusaka, Zambia contributed to this report.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
FILE - Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema speaks during the Lobito Corridor Trans-Africa Summit at the Carrinho food processing factory near Lobito, Angola, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
FILE - A Mass for former Zambian President Edgar Lungu is celebrated at the Cathedral of Christ the King, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
FILE - Zambian President Edgar Lungu attends the Southern African Development Community's leaders' conference in Pretoria, South Africa, Saturday, Aug. 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, file)
