The Sin City appears to be finally getting its first major professional sports team, as it was reported this morning that the NHL is expected to approve an expansion franchise for the city of Las Vegas at the league’s Board of Governors meeting next week.
The approval would make Las Vegas the winner over Quebec City for expansion, the latter who has not seen an NHL team call the city home since the Quebec City Nordiques left for Denver in 1995 to become the Colorado Avalanche. Las Vegas has already constructed and opened a new state-of-the-art venue adjacent to the New York New York Casino, the T-Mobile Arena, in hopes of luring an expansion franchise.
If the city is indeed approved for expansion and elects to establish a team, hockey would not be played in Vegas until the 2017-18 season at earliest. The addition of another team in the western US could wreak more havoc on conference alignment, as the Western Conference already has two more teams than the Eastern Conference after the last realignment in 2013. A Las Vegas expansion would bring the league to a total of 31 teams.
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