Houston's main roadblock is Tillman Fertitta, owner of the Rockets, Landry's family of restaurants, Golden Nugget, etc. Tillman controls the Toyota Center. Any team playing professional hockey in the Toyota Center will be his, or it won't come. He wants a team at his price too. He recently got outbid by Utah for the now relocated Arizona Coyotes. He obviously didn't want the team too bad. Houston is a huge city with multiple venues, but nothing that would make the NHL happy (outside of the Toyota Center). So either Tillman buys a team (he doesn't want an expansion team) for the TC or a new team comes here and finds a new arena somehow. Montgomery County or Fort Bend counties (neighboring Harris/Houston) have the density to support a team, but getting an arena would be the trick.