Something that I don't think has been mentioned are the TV deals north and south of the border. Calgary is a team that generates TV ratings much greater than ratings for most U.S. teams--you can move a team to Houston, and while you might be able to sell a lot of tickets for the game, in most American cities TV ratings for hockey are well below baseball, football(NFL and college), basketball and even motor sports.
And while relocation fees might be attractive, owners really want expansion fees. Now that any potential investors from Houston or elsewhere have seen what Vegas has created from the very favourable expansion draft rules, why would they want to pay half a billion for a team and add over 150 million for transfer fees when they can get a better team for the cost of the expansion, and the owners all get to split the whole amount.
Calgary is simply too good a hockey market--not just for tickets, but for merchandise and TV--to give up when there are lame ducks like Arizona still not being moved.
An article on the TV deals is here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christi.../#56a32bd574e8