It's kind of along of the lines of what I was thinking.
The league has gauged expression of interest and they will be at a point where they know what's feasible short term and long term.
If the open a formal process, the question is how many teams they will add and over what period of time.
I always refer to college sports conferences since I've spent a lot of the last few years concentrating on the movement that's taken place there.
If it's anything like that, and it may not be since there's multiple parties involved versus a league/potential team dynamic in the expansion scenario, there wouldn't even be a mention of potential movement until the ducks are all in a row and the resolution is already worked out through back channels or unofficial meetings between the involved parties.
-A major college will not even make a public announcement that it's considering moving conferences until it knows it's moving conferences and that the new conference will accept their membership and that the move will be approved by their board.
-A major conference will not announce it is considering expansion until it knows who is joining, that the details have been worked out, and that the commissioner will have unanimous (or near unanimous) approval from the conference's current members for the new school.
In short, once an announcement it made, the deal is already done and everything that takes places after the announcements that a school is exploring conference options and that a conference is considering expansion is for legal/official purposes.
Short of watching hockey for most of my life, I know very little about the inner workings of the NHL short of what I've learned here throughout the past few months and through my own research. It's in everyone's nature to relate new information and scenarios to things they know or have experienced in the past. To me, this seems a whole lot like the college realignment moves that have played out a number of times over the past few years.
Taking that into consideration, and correct me if my thinking is off base, I really expect to see an announcement at the BoG meetings, or shortly thereafter, that Las Vegas and Quebec City will have expansion franchises for the 2016/17 season. Las Vegas and QC simply can't be on the agenda until the approval from the board to explore expansion has been granted. The last meeting was too far from the ticket drive to know what would happen and explore expansion, and the next meeting is too far away to have the teams start in 2016/17.
The Las Vegas locker rooms are being built, the lease in Vegas has been confirmed to be in place, the drive is successful, the ducks are in a row here. Videotron is done, QC is ready. It's just time to make it official, especially with the QC comments (17/15) from GB referenced in the Quebec thread. You don't hold on to a potential expansion and all the money involved just to hope Seattle gets their plan moving.
Disclosure: Besides what I've mentioned in this post, my opinion is also very much based on the initial Vancouver Province article from last October that stated a four team expansion was in the works involving LV, QC, Seattle, and GTA. Back then, Vegas was a joke and surprise to many, and look where we are now. I think this is a two phase process and Seattle is to join with GTA/Hamilton/Whatever. There's two cities ready (LV/QC) and two that need work.
