"The first round of bidding is in the books," Bettmans said as the NHL general managers meetings concluded. "I'm not prepared to share who or what, but I think everybody involved in the process feels good about the level of interest, both in terms of the number of bidders and the magnitude of interest."
Bettman said the next phase of the process should take a matter of weeks.
"You begin the process of winnowing down the number of interested parties, and while you're reducing the number of parties, you're hopefully increasing the magnitude of their interest for those that are remaining," Bettman said. "No magic there. It's typical for what goes on in the sale of franchises in any sport, but I'm gratified to see the amount of interest."
Bettman said the sale was not tied to a new arena downtown. The Senators have played in the building now known as Canadian Tire Centre in the western suburb of Kanata, Ontario, since 1996.
"That'll be up to the new owner as to how they want to proceed," Bettman said. "But I do believe that there will be a good opportunity for somebody who's interested in possibly moving downtown to LeBreton Flats."
Bettman said the NHL is optimistic voters will pass a proposal that includes a new arena for the Arizona Coyotes in Tempe, Arizona, in a referendum May 16. This season, the Coyotes began playing temporarily at 5,000-seat Mullett Arena at Arizona State University.
"If the people of Tempe approve the project moving forward, then we're going to be moving forward, and I think it'll be a perfect solution for everything the Coyotes have had to deal with," Bettman said.
Bettman said the NHL is not exploring expansion after adding the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017-18 and the Seattle Kraken last season.
"There continues to be a number of people, entities and cities expressing interest in having an NHL franchise where they don't have one, places like Atlanta, like Houston, like Quebec City," Bettman said. "But we're not in an expansion mode right now, and it's not really something, at least right now, that's anywhere close to front burner for us."
The Atlanta Flames played downtown at Omni Coliseum from 1972-80 before moving to Calgary, and the Atlanta Thrashers played downtown at Philips Arena from 1999-2011 before moving to Winnipeg and changing their name to the Jets.
Asked if Atlanta could support a team again, Bettman said, "We haven't studied it, but to the extent that we're getting expressions of interest from the general Atlanta region, it's in locations for arenas that are different than where they've been."
