NHL Reportedly Chooses Las Vegas for Expansion Over Quebec City

A new opponent, obviously, but also considerations who to protect in an expansion draft.

The NHL’s new expansion team will be based in Las Vegas.

The NHL told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that it has no comment on the report.

The earliest the new Vegas team can join is for the 2017-18 season, and the team is expected to begin play then. This is their first professional sports team, and they will soon be a relevant city in the sports world.

Bill Foley has been pushing for the Las Vegas expansion. The Los Angeles Kings have already scheduled to play two preseason games in October at the arena.

“It was one of the great honors of my life”, Gretzky said. More than 14,000 deposits have been put down on season tickets since Foley launched a sales drive in February 2015. The Maloofs have developed and operated two Las Vegas casinos. We’re a major league city.

“The NHL’s decision is the latest signal that professional sports leagues are increasingly comfortable with legal, regulated sports betting. I can’t wait to see that first championship parade down the Las Vegas Strip!”

But as Sportsnet and Yahoo state, despite the fact that there are still hurdles left to clear, odds are high that the Las Vegas Black Knights will take the ice next year.

This is big news for the National Hockey League, the NHL’s pocketbook, and bookies everywhere. The T-Mobile center opened in April and was funded entirely by private money. Seattle and the Toronto area have both popped up in expansion rumors in the past, too.

The league last expanded around the turn of the millennium.

The NHL has previously said it received numerous expressions of interest about joining the NHL over the past several years from potential markets and ownership groups.

Hockey is headed to the desert. Foley graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.