Atlanta has lost two NHL teams. Former player Anson Carter leads one of two groups seeking a third
Associated PressATLANTA — After losing both the Flames and the Thrashers, Atlanta is making a third bid to land an NHL team. Former player Anson Carter announced Tuesday he’s heading a group that made a formal request to the league to begin the process of adding an expansion team in metro Atlanta. “The league appreciates Anson’s passion for bringing NHL hockey back to the Atlanta area, and he has certainly kept the subject on our radar screen for several years running,” Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said. “While, as we have made clear, we have no expansion-oriented process in place currently, it’s always good to know there is bona fide interest.” Carter, who played with eight NHL teams from 1996-2007 and has lived in Atlanta for 15 years, is leading the Alpharetta Sports & Entertainment Group, based in the prosperous suburb about 30 miles north of downtown Atlanta. “I have been in dialogue with Commissioner Bettman since 2019 about an expansion team returning to the Fulton County Metro Atlanta market, knowing that NHL franchise decisions are exclusively decided by the NHL Board of Governors.” Suddenly, a city that has been without a hockey team for more than a decade has two groups vying for a franchise in a league that is riding the wave of hugely successful expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle.
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