TORONTO -- Would Toronto fans care about a second NHL team in their city if the Maple Leafs actually won the Stanley Cup?

Commissioner Gary Bettman has considered the possibility, even as he reiterated that the NHL isn’t in an “expansion process” with analysis of potential new markets.

“If we decided that we were putting a second team in [Toronto], and the year the team was supposed to start, the Leafs won the Cup?” he asked as Canadian Club of Toronto event on Monday.

“If the Leafs won the Cup, it would be like the second team didn’t exist.”

Bettman said this is all hypothetical, of course. We assume he means expansion and not the Leafs actually winning the Cup …

The commissioner said he’s concerned about another multi-team NHL city, because ultimately there’s going to be one franchise with more gravitas than the other. It’s something he’s witnessed as a native New Yorker, with the Yankees and Mets, as well as more recently with the Knicks and Brooklyn Nets.

“There have been Leafs families that go generation to generation to generation,” he said. “When a market gets divided there’s not as much attention on the second team, no matter how well it performs. Even if the first team isn’t having tremendous success, the second team won’t get premiere coverage.”

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Bettman continued to claim that while the NHL is receiving interest from several markets, the League isn’t actively seeking to add or move teams. “We’re not looking to expand right now. No teams will be relocating,” he said.

"I know people think I have this list [of expansion teams] tucked away in a vault. I don't."

But the chatter continues about expansion, as the NHL is experiencing unprecedented success and the League’s two conferences are currently unbalanced, with 16 teams in the East and 14 in the West – not that this is a valid reason to expand for Bettman, mind you.

"You don't expand just to fulfill someone's notion of symmetry,” he said.