Québec seems unwavering in its possibility of submitting a bid and signaling to the NHL its interest in hosting a franchise. According to backstage whispers, Gary Bettman is about to launch a new expansion process for interested cities. The commissioner is also holding a press conference at 1 p.m. today in Toronto, but it may have no link to a potential expansion announcement. According to information reported by journalist Kevin Dubé of the Journal de Québec/Montréal, the Old Capital still has the Nordiques in mind. <q>It's been talked about internally for a year. He [Bettman] wants the initiative to come from the markets, we were told. (to the Journal de Québec) </q> Four cities have clearly expressed their interest in obtaining an NHL team: Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Houston, and Québec. <q>We listen to those who express their interest on a regular basis: Atlanta, Québec, Houston, Salt Lake City. But we do not plan to do the same thing as in the past, that is, if you are interested in an expansion team, here is the application form and the deadline to fill it out. </q> The NHL and Bettman would thus have a choice of next destinations. There are two candidacies in the West (Salt Lake City and Houston) and two in the East (Québec and Atlanta). <q>This could be Gary Bettman's last big move. </q> And according to what writer Andrew Zadarnowski mentioned, National League executives had discussions with a Québec group recently. <q> I heard a few months ago that the NHL had met with a potential investor for the return of the Nordiques. </q> There's no smoke without fire, as they say? Details and credit: <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/KDubeJDQ/status/1753390957674852386'> </a></blockquote></div>