PHILADELPHIA — One of the chief topics of conversation at any N.H.L. Winter Classic is where the next Winter Classic will be held.

The New York area is a candidate for the 2013 outdoor game, according to John Collins, the N.H.L.’s chief operating officer and the architect behind the league’s wildly successful outdoor game.

The N.H.L. has looked at Citi Field, MetLife Stadium, the Yale Bowl and West Point as possible sites, Collins said before the Flyers-Rangers alumni game at Citizens Bank Park Saturday afternoon.

“There are a lot of really great venues in the New York area,” Collins said. “Yankee Stadium is obviously a special place, but we can’t get in there for the next couple of years” because of college bowl game commitments. The Yankees have held the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 30 the past two years. The Winter Classic is usually played on Jan. 1, although this time it will be played a day later to avoid television contract conflicts with the N.F.L.

Collins suggested that a game on the West Coast was unlikely. “We have a window at 1 o’clock on New Year’s Day, so that limits your ability to go west,” he said. “We like that window, and we like the family environment at these games. I think part of that is playing at 1 o’clock.”

But Collins said that a game in Minnesota, with a noon Eastern faceoff, is a possibility.

Collins also said that any game involving the Detroit Red Wings could potentially be staged at the Tigers home, Comerica Park, in downtown Detroit. Most speculation surrounding a Detroit game has until now centered exclusively on the college football stadium in Ann Arbor. The Ilitch family, the owners of the Red Wings, also owns Comerica Park and are also seeking a new downtown rink for the Red Wings to replace Joe Louis Arena, which is also downtown. Collins said the league continually received bids to host the game, and that this week Miami — a considerable long shot given its climate — put in a bid for the outdoor game.

“But we haven’t gone to straight-out bids because we’re pretty precise about the market, the matchup.”

The Winter Classic, which grew out of the outdoor Heritage Classic in Edmonton in 2003, has so far only been held in the United States, although Collins said a Winter Classic in Canada is no longer out of the question. So long as the right matchup could be figured out.

“There were strong feelings about driving the ratings in the beginning, but the event is beginning to grow now,” said Collins, who added that NBC is “buying into something we’re building together, which is a celebration of hockey.”