NHL Rumors: An Outdoor Game, and NHL Expansion Talk

An outdoor game will be heading to Utah at some point

Cole Bagley: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said that Utah will get an outdoor game at some point and that the NHL has looked at Rice Eccles Stadium as a potential location.

“An outdoor game is in Utah’s future.”

“Utah is going to get an outdoor game and it’s going to be great because I know the reaction from the community is going to be as good as we’ve ever seen.”

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Should the NHL be looking at expansion or should they leave it alone?

Daily Faceoff: Frank Seravalli on NHL expansion and the temptation for more.

Tyler Yaremchuk: “So the idea that the NHL could be eyeballing some markets to go to 34 teams. Smoke, fire, or false alarm?”

Seravalli: “Smoke, for sure, but I’d say that there’s a false alarm in terms of any urgency to do it. Yes, you need to check a lot of the boxes to get their owner, arena, market.

I don’t believe we’re going to see any expansion until after this collective bargaining agreement is over. Marty Walsh has acknowledged to me on Frankly Speaking, that he wants to ask for expansion money from the players as part of the CBA. I think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that they get it. But nonetheless, until that issue is done and settled, I don’t see any reason why the NHL would want to start an expansion process until that’s finished.”

Yaremchuk: “If you could pick a spot, Frank, where would you want to see for Team 33 or 34?”

Seravalli: “I would say I wouldn’t expand at all. I get the temptation, but there’s a number of reasons. One is the symmetry. 32 teams, 16 in each conference, eight in each division. It just works.

And two, I think you have to be concerned about watering down the level of play. Which they don’t seem to want to acknowledge and don’t think that it’s a thing, but I do think that that is real.

And three, I would say, like of the markets that we’re talking about, not that there aren’t enough transient residents of Houston that aren’t from there. but we’re talking about a place that’s not a traditional hockey market. And Atlanta, we’ve already gone to twice.”

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NHL Watcher: Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast: “The NHL has indicated to the Player’s Association that expansion is coming, we just don’t know the timetable yet”

Rachel Doerrie: “Until teams don’t require revenue sharing to survive, expansion needs to be off the table. Secondly, players need to be getting a cut of those “fees” because “extra spots” is not enough. Thirdly, the league is watered down enough. This isn’t a good idea.”

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