NHL commissioner Gary Bettman indicated during his pre-Stanley Cup Finals state of the union address that the executive committee will make an expansion recommendation to the board of governors at least a week before it meets June 22.
“I am not going to handicap what’s going to happen,” Bettman said, “but when the board meets in Las Vegas on June 22, I am fairly certain that we will know more than we do today.”
Bettman also said that the recommendation will take the form of one of three scenarios—no expansion, expansion to one of the two cities or expansion deferred to a later time.
Two potential ownership groups submitted applications for prospective teams in Las Vegas and Quebec City.
Quebec has been home to two NHL teams during the league’s history, with the Quebec Nordiques most recently departing the city to become the Colorado Avalanche in 1995.
The last time the NHL added any expansion teams was in 2000, when the league added the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild.
Without talking about vegas and quebec, nhl should add Houston, San Francisco and Salt Lake City to the expansion list…
I am all for Houston getting a team. A very large market basically untouched. The Houston Aeros left because of lease issues but they always did very well in ticket sales for a minor league team. Lots of people here from up north and the oil and gas business always brings are friends from Canada. There is also an established youth system here that could grow even larger.