NHL Rolls the Dice with Expansion to Las Vegas
The National Hockey League is officially moving to Sin City. On Wednesday afternoon NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced the city had been awarded a new NHL franchise.
As of now, the team’s name is still to be determined but there have been rumors of the name being the Black Knights. The team name along with jerseys and other aspects of the franchise will be announced as time passes.
Vegas’ team will be placed in the NHL’s Pacific Division with the likes of the Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, L.A. Kings, Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, and the Arizona Coyotes. The team’s first season will be 2017-2018. Also, the franchise’s home arena will be the new T-Mobile Arena which is just blocks away from the Las Vegas strip and houses over 17,000 hockey fans.
According to NHL.com, “This will be the NHL’s first expansion team since the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild came into the League in the 2000-01 season.” With that being said, the NHL will now contain 31 teams instead of 30. The NHL is the first league out of the “Big 4” to put a pro team in Las Vegas.
Lots of questions remain about LV’s new team and many of them will be answered soon enough. For now, check out NHL.com for more information on the new franchise, its draft rules, and team updates as well. Also, stick to BUnow for more NHL news as well.
