I think whats going to decide this is who can make the transition the easiest, where as Houston has the facilities in place, I would wonder how they could justify a team in Houston being in the Atlantic division, not that Pittsburg made much more sense. Perhaps realignment?
As for the canadian team, until they relax their taxes on pro-franchises you're going to see more teams leaving Canada then going there.
BTW The Blackhawks won, so atleast they aren't losing to the likes of St. Louis