NHL coming to Las Vegas; new team to start play in 2017

Las Vegas is no longer just a gambling and tourism destination after the National Hockey League (NHL) voted unanimously to approve a franchise in Sin City and give the market its first professional sports team in city history.

With the announcement of expansion to Las Vegas which will happen for the 2017-18 season, all that’s left to figure out is how the NHL Expansion Draft will work.

The owner of the NHL’s newest expansion team has eight employees.

In relation to next year s expansion draft, the Sharks and the 29 other existing teams will each lose one player from their roster.

Las Vegas will select one player from each presently existing club for a total of 30 players.

Foley said he realizes his team might not be alone in Vegas for long.

“This is a great day for the people of Las Vegas and it is extremely exciting to deliver the city’s first major league sports team”, said Foley. The future team has aalready garnered 14,000 season ticket deposits. Teams will also have to ensure their exposed players meet other minimum requirements, such as number of games played and contract status.

He’s subletting office space on Sunset Road in Las Vegas, with plans to move in mid-August into a new office with space for 35 employees.

“Well Las Vegas, we did it. It wasn’t easy, was it?”

“The decision to defer was based on elements over which the Quebec City group had no control over whatsoever, significantly the fluctuation of the Canadian dollar, including its decline to a low of 68 (U.S.) cents earlier this year”.

“With all of the hype and buzz and electricity towards us getting a team, we wanted to pounce right away”, said Chuck Esposito, sports book director at Sunset Station.

As for the local population, Las Vegas is a depressed area. On behalf of all Southern Nevadans, I want to thank the NHL Board of Governors and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman for their confidence in our community. Along with a top-six pick in next years draft, the Vegas franchise will be stocked by a June 2017 expansion draft that will be more favorable than previous drafts, theoretically allowing Foleys team to become competitive more quickly. “We lost the Nordiques once, we don’t want to lose them twice”. “I’m an Army guy, but maybe that’s not the right name for the team at this time”.

Quebec City is expected to be the next city to earn an expansion team or be a relocation city for a current National Hockey League team.

Another factor Bettman said “undermined” Quebec City’s bid is the “geographic imbalance” it would pose, with 16 teams already in the league’s Eastern Conference versus 14 (now 15) in the Western Conference. “As you all know, we love the game”, Quebecor Inc chief executive Pierre Dion told a news conference in Las Vegas.

Foley and company have to sell the city on Las Vegas Hockey – whatever form that takes.

“In considering both applications for expansion it was a priority for the board to create conditions that would place an incoming club, or clubs, in the best position to exceed on an expedited basis”, said Bettman, emphasizing the bid was not rejected but deferred.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.