They also will play 20 games against teams in the Central Division and 32 against the Eastern Conference.
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Las Vegas will start playing as the league’s 31st team in the NHL’s 2017-18 season.
As expected, teams can protect one goalie and 10 skaters (seven forwards, three defensemen) or one goalie and eight skaters.
It has been a sad year for Canadian hockey, from not having a playoff team to being turned down in favor of a city known for $1.99 lobster and the mafia.
“We have more teams in the East than in the West”.
Players with potentially career-ending injuries or who missed more than 60 consecutive games for their clubs can not be used by teams to satisfy the quota of exposed players. They have to be under contract in 2017-18 or will be a restricted free agent at the expiration of his current contract immediately prior to 2017-18.
Besides, Quebec City cannot grow the game beyond Canada like Vegas can. The team’s selections will be announced on June 21, 2017.
The NHL is rolling the dice on an expansion team in Las Vegas.
In each subsequent round, Vegas will be awarded the third pick. We want it to be a win-win as well.
Bettman said the National Hockey League board of governors unanimously accepted an expansion bid from Sin City on Wednesday, with the new team set to begin play in the 2017-18 season.
“The fact is, this is going to be a deeper expansion draft than we’ve ever had before”, Bettman said. It’s been a long process.
We think this is a tremendously exciting opportunity, not just for Las Vegas, but for the league as well, Bettman said, calling Las Vegas a vibrant, growing, global destination city..
Bill Foley has his hockey team. This could begin an entire new era for Vegas, which has always been ignored by the major pro sports due to gambling, and Joe Pesci being murdered with baseball bats and buried in the desert.
“I think the National Football League would be great here”, Foley said. “We have several alternatives and several different ideas. I don’t think it will affect us”.
“I definitely feel very fortunate”, Kane said.
Foley hasn’t said what he will call his new team, but the bid is run by a company named Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, the same name as his financial services company. We’ve got labour peace, the salary cap’s working well.
Las Vegas will play its home games on the Vegas strip at T-Mobile Arena, an arena with a hockey capacity of 17,500.
Las Vegas has said it has received more than 14,000 deposits for season tickets. “As you all know, we love the game”, Quebecor Inc chief executive Pierre Dion told a news conference in Las Vegas.
The expansion is the first for the NHL since 2000, when the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild entered the league.
Reactions from public officials and reactions on social media to announcement about hockey team in Las Vegas.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, right, and Bill Foley pose for photographers during a news conference Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Las Vegas. It immediately jumped to mind for me when I thought of how many fans of the Rangers from NY will hop a flight to Las Vegas to see their team play there and then spend a weekend at a resort hotel. Well leave no stone unturned in our dedication, in our pursuit of hockey for Las Vegas, not only for our team, but for the community..
While Quebec City has been an NHL market in the past and is rich with hockey fans, Las Vegas represents yet another chance to grow the sport in a non-traditional and untapped hockey market.
Bettman announced that Quebec City’s expansion application has been deferred.
The NHL will lose out on a deep pocketed Quebec City prospective ownership group which would have shelled out the $500 million expansion fee, where the fee for relocation is much smaller.
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Bettman said there were a number of factors that led them to deferring the expansion to Las Vegas, including the fluctuation of the Canadian dollar.
