Confirmed with Link: NHL to Go Through Expansion Process

[Son of Steinbrenner]

Expansion happening is not a surprise, the expansion fee will be $500M per franchise so that's a $1B coming in for adding two teams.

Vegas seems like a odds on favorite, the league is looking at the CLB model there, with no other major sports team.

Seattle has a great fanbase and a tremendous amount of purchasing power within their population, they'll get another team imo.

Phoenix should finally be buried. The league has a chance to use this latest set of moves by Glendale as a reason as to why it had to move. Fact of the matter is that this team probably has lost hundreds of millions in 18-19 years. Time to swallow your pride and make the move Gary.

I think it will be the most interesting play, does PHX move to Portland? Would that cause issues with a potential Seattle team? The Winterhawks aren't selling out every game but they do garner a lot of loyal fans.

Do they come to the east coast and still have an uneven balance of teams?

What about FLA? That's a team that has a lot of up and coming players, but their young players mask an awful situation down there. Does FLA relocate to QUE?

I think its safe to say the league won't do a Kansas City or a traditional Baseball and Football market where college tickets are much much cheaper and the fan bases there prefer that experience.

I also think its safe to say that they won't got to a place like Carolina where Hockey has to create new fans.... so no Houston, no Tulsa, no Atlanta, no PHX.

The league has a long enough sample size to realize that hockey doesn't translate well based on metropolitan size alone. PHX is a very large metropolitan area... didn't work... Atlanta.. same thing.

Las Vegas is a the wildcard here, but I think the league can do very well in Seattle and by relocating 2 teams.

The NHL should relocate the Panthers and Coyotes to Canadian markets AND expand to Las Vegas and Seattle. They get extra revenue from the fanbase in Canada AND the $500M expansion fees from the new American teams.

I would hate to see the Panthers move but it's embarrassing looking at the attendance numbers. Plus, that arena is in a terrible area in South Florida. With no traffic it's just under an hour from Miami to Sunrise. It's really not the best situation and it's not going to get better.

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

The Panthers were 33-34-17 in their first season and only missed the playoffs by a single point.

They were definitelly an outlier, and they fizzled to say the least after "the year of the rat."

The emergence of Richter also helped the Panthers.

 

[Nanaki]

I still think the NHL should put a team in Wisconsin.

 

[haveandare]

I'm not crazy about expansion, but if it lets NYR move some bad contracts, I'd be okay with it.

Is there any solid word on whether NMC players must be protected or not? That makes or breaks the idea for me personally.

Also, I think Vegas is an idiotic location. Just so incredibly stupid for so many reasons.

 

[Miamipuck]

I'm not crazy about expansion, but if it lets NYR move some bad contracts, I'd be okay with it.

Is there any solid word on whether NMC players must be protected or not? That makes or breaks the idea for me personally.

Also, I think Vegas is an idiotic location. Just so incredibly stupid for so many reasons.

Yeah that part is great, other than that, I don't want hockey any more watered down than it is now. Lol Vegas, I agree.

 

[haveandare]

Yeah that part is great, other than that, I don't want hockey any more watered down than it is now. Lol Vegas, I agree.

I kind of agreed about the watered down aspect earlier but this season sort of changed my mind. I think the league is pretty deep right now actually - too many teams play boring hockey, which I thought was a result of not having enough talent, but I think is really more a result of lazy/safe coaching.

Whether this is a good idea or something that makes me rage will totally depend on the expansion draft rules.

 

[wolfgaze]

I hope the names of the teams arent cheesey-sounding....

How does an expansion draft work?

 

[Ail]

I hope the names of the teams arent cheesey-sounding....

How does an expansion draft work?

The new team's owners have caged ladder matches over players until they have a full team or someone dies.

 

[Roo Returns]

Teams are allowed to protect usually 2/3ds the roster. Sometimes a max per position until one player gets claimed, then others can be protected.

There was an expansion draft in 1993 for the Panthers and Sens and teams were only allowed to protect one goalie, so Neil Smith had to choose. He chose Richter and traded Beezer to Vancouver for Doug Lidster before the draft as Beezer was claimed. I forgot why Vancouver traded Lidster even though they knew Beezer or (Kirk McLean) would be claimed.

The 1991-92 Expansion draft was a little different. The Minnesota North Stars pretty much gave half their team up to San Jose and got to select with the Sharks as well.

 

[Tawnos]

Teams are allowed to protect usually 2/3ds the roster. Sometimes a max per position until one player gets claimed, then others can be protected.

There was an expansion draft in 1993 for the Panthers and Sens and teams were only allowed to protect one goalie, so Neil Smith had to choose. He chose Richter and traded Beezer to Vancouver for Doug Lidster before the draft as Beezer was claimed. I forgot why Vancouver traded Lidster even though they knew Beezer or (Kirk McLean) would be claimed.

The 1991-92 Expansion draft was a little different. The Minnesota North Stars pretty much gave half their team up to San Jose and got to select with the Sharks as well.

I think the Canucks dealt Lidster to protect the rest of their roster. You could lose a max number of players, or something like that.

 

[Son of Steinbrenner]

I think the Canucks dealt Lidster to protect the rest of their roster. You could lose a max number of players, or something like that.

I seem to remember the Rangers could've protected Richter & VBK but instead choose to protect Richter and Hirsch. Maybe Hirsch wasn't available to be selected.

Beezer and the Rangers had a strange relationship. It went back to the Bob Froese trade. VBK won the vezina award and Froese finished 2nd. The Rangers had no need for Froese and Espo made the trade anyway. At the time it seemed like the Rangers were going to deal VBK or Froese to Washington for Bobby Carpenter. The Rangers did eventually trade for Carpenter, and of course it didn't' involve a goalie but Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller. Easily one of the worst trades in Ranger history.

Anyway, VBK was jerked around for years with the Rangers including a season where the Rangers alternated goalies every game. It's forgotten but when the Rangers traded for Lindros at the same time as Quebec, VBK and the Rangers were headed to arbitration to decide if he was a restricted free agent or unrestricted free agent. It was ruled he was a restricted free agent. If VBK was a UFA, James Patrick would've been the replacement player. The delay in figuring out VBK status and Neil Smith's hesitation (Along with waiting for garden management to come up with the extra money from Quebec) held up the Lindros trade before the 1992 draft. If it was all decided in the week beforehand Lindros would've been a Ranger. (It worked out for the Rangers considering the Rangers won a cup and Philly didn't.)

Anyway, in 1992-1993 it was pretty much a forgone conclusion that VBK was going to get traded during the season. The problem was Richter played like crap most of the year and the Rangers, being close to a playoff spot , refused to trade VBK. Which is why the VBK-Lidster trade took until literally the day before the 1993 expansion draft. A trade that was killed because as fair value goes Doug Lidster was not worth Beezer.

Espo trades

Richter v Beezer

Neil Smith hiring when it seemed like Scotty Bowman was going to be the guy.

Kevin Miller trade

VBK for Lidster trade

Weight for Tikkanen (Which was a 92-93 deadline deal)

All topics I wish this board was around for.....

 

[Ail]

All topics I wish this board was around for.....

Haha, could you imagine? If only.

 

[Mikos87]

The NHL should relocate the Panthers and Coyotes to Canadian markets AND expand to Las Vegas and Seattle. They get extra revenue from the fanbase in Canada AND the $500M expansion fees from the new American teams.

I would hate to see the Panthers move but it's embarrassing looking at the attendance numbers. Plus, that arena is in a terrible area in South Florida. With no traffic it's just under an hour from Miami to Sunrise. It's really not the best situation and it's not going to get better.

Oh I agree wholeheartedly.

2 years ago I had dinner with a minority owner with an East Coast NHL team, and a very wealthy Canadian gentlemen that has a stake in a major junior team.

We had this same exact conversation... 2 expansion teams... two relocations... FLA and PHX.

The cities we were betting on were FLA to QUE... PHX to Wisconsin.. Expansion to Seattle and Portland. None of us imagined Las Vegas.

The question we had was about Wisconsin because none of us thought there is enough people in Wisconsin in dense areas to support a 3 pro team set up.

The league is very careful when it comes to competing with other teams when they are dealing with teams that are in lower end of the per GDP capita.

All of their mistake teams fell to that problem except for ATL where the locals just never embraced hockey.

 

[Joey Bones]

I hope the names of the teams arent cheesey-sounding....

How does an expansion draft work?

Every team is elected to protect their players in one of two ways; protect 1 goalie, 5 defenders and 9 forwards or 2 goalies, 3 defenders and 7 forwards.

Think that there is a rule that First and second year players were exempt from the draft, and each club had to include at least one forward and one defenseman who had appeared in at least 40 games.

 

[Tawnos]

I hope the names of the teams arent cheesey-sounding....

Quebec Nordiques
Seattle Thunderbirds
Las Vegas Black Knights (I personally prefer removing the word Black from there)
Houston Aeros
Hamilton Tigers...

 

[Edge]

Does Vegas have enough of a dedicated residential community or are they trying to make the team a tourist attraction?

Clark County has roughly 2 million residents. The three largest cities are Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. These three cities compose what is commonly considered the Vegas Valley.

I think they're going to try and make it a residential activity.

With that said, there's no way they don't also make it an attraction for those visiting Vegas.

 

[wolfgaze]

Every team is elected to protect their players in one of two ways; protect 1 goalie, 5 defenders and 9 forwards or 2 goalies, 3 defenders and 7 forwards.

Think that there is a rule that First and second year players were exempt from the draft, and each club had to include at least one forward and one defenseman who had appeared in at least 40 games.

Thanks for the response...

So what happens with the unprotected players?

 

[Roo Returns]

Once a player is claimed from a team then I believe that team can protect two more players.

As for VBK; he was a very hot and cold goalie. He'd be equally brilliant or just not good. Funny that his two best seasons (85-86 and 95-96) came ten years apart.

 

[BBKers]

Quebec Nordiques
Seattle Thunderbirds
Las Vegas Jackpot
Houston Barons
Hamilton Unicorns

 

[Son of Steinbrenner]

I think when the league expands we are going to see expanded playoffs.

10th seed Vs 7th seed
9th seed Vs 8th seed

One game playoffs with playoff OT rules. Screw 3 on 3 and the shootout.

I would also like to see the Presidents Trophy mean something. Now this is out of left field but I would give the Presidents Trophy winner 5 home games in the 1st round of the playoffs.

Games 1 & 2 at home, game 3 on the road, games 4 & 5 at home, game 6 on the road, game 7 at home.

 

[Edge]

Once a player is claimed from a team then I believe that team can protect two more players.

As for VBK; he was a very hot and cold goalie. He'd be equally brilliant or just not good. Funny that his two best seasons (85-86 and 95-96) came ten years apart.

Beezer was a good goalie whose career was given a MAJOR boost by playing for defensive-oriented, trap playing teams in the 90s.

Always one of my favorites, but I also feel he was a guy who greatly benefited from the style his team played in the 90s. Almost the complete opposite of Richter.

 

[Nonvolition]

Expansion is only exciting when it's happening. Who here is excited to play against Nashville or Columbus anymore?

 

[mike14]

Expansion is only exciting when it's happening. Who here is excited to play against Nashville or Columbus anymore?

I think the point of expansion is to make people in places like Nashville or Columbus excited, not people in in NY.

 

[ltsthinaz]

Clark County has roughly 2 million residents. The three largest cities are Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. These three cities compose what is commonly considered the Vegas Valley.

I think they're going to try and make it a residential activity.

With that said, there's no way they don't also make it an attraction for those visiting Vegas.

Apart from population and casinos buying luxury boxes for their high-rollers, there are already 11,000 people on the list to buy season-tickets, including myself.

Much better situation for hockey than Phoenix - there are many NY-transplants in this area.

It isn't talked about, but why not move Coyotes to Vegas?

 

[Edge]

Apart from population and casinos buying luxury boxes for their high-rollers, there are already 11,000 people on the list to buy season-tickets, including myself.

Much better situation for hockey than Phoenix - there are many NY-transplants in this area.

It isn't talked about, but why not move Coyotes to Vegas?

A lot of transplants in Vegas, including the east coast and upper mid-west.

I also agree it's a better potential market than Phoenix.

I think the challenge with Phoenix is that they may have to move before the arena in Vegas is completed (though I am not sure about the exact timetables for both).