While hope for hockey in Houston reignites thanks to Leslie Alexander's plans to sell the Houston Rockets and potentially open up Toyota Center, an advisory board for potential renovations to Seattle's KeyArena has gotten added representation from advocates for the NHL to land in Washington's largest city.

This is according to The Seattle Times' Geoff Baker, who reported this week that "founding members of websites devoted to bringing professional basketball and hockey to Seattle," including the NHL to Seattle site, have been invited by the city to join advisers that "will help evaluate plans to convert the arena into an NBA and NHL facility."

It's an unsurprising revelation considering Seattle, as Baker noted, had already been working on a Memorandum of Understanding after receiving a proposal for a $564 million makeover of KeyArena, home to Seattle University's men's basketball team and the WNBA's Seattle Storm.

But it also solidifies the fact that Seattle is open and willing to welcome the NHL's presence. That much has been clear, of course, since before the league even added its latest expansion franchise, the Vegas Golden Knights, and Seattle mayor Ed Murray publicly countered NHL comments by suggesting the league "is ready to move quicker than not" when discussing a potential Pacific Northwest-based expansion team in June.