Forget the speculation that the NHL could announce an expansion team for Las Vegas when the league’s awards ceremony, in conjunction with a board of governors meeting, is held there in late June.
Not going to happen, according to Nick Cotsonika of Yahoo Sports:
To be clear: The NHL will NOT announce the awarding of a franchise to Las Vegas in June. It COULD announce start of expansion process.
— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) April 20, 2015
That tidbit follows an earlier report by ESPN.com that, should Vegas get a team, it wouldn’t start playing until the 2017-18 season, at the earliest.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was asked about the Vegas situation last night in Winnipeg.
“What I’m hearing is that the season-ticket drive has gone and is going extraordinarily well,” Bettman said, per the Canadian Press. “When we get to the [board of governors] meeting in June I will report to the board as to where things stand based on the expressions of interest and we’ll figure out then what, if anything, we want to do.”
