NHL Awards staying in Las Vegas for next three years

LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas will host the NHL Awards for the next three years and could host more NHL events in the future.

The 2018 NHL Awards presented by Hulu will be at 8 p.m. ET on June 20 at The Joint, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino's state-of-the-art concert and entertainment venue. NBCSN and Sportsnet will broadcast the event live in the United States and Canada.
It will mark the 10th year of a partnership between the NHL and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which has been extended for three years, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Wednesday.

Bettman made the announcement at T-Mobile Arena before Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Los Angeles Kings. The Golden Knights made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in their inaugural NHL season.
"Obviously Las Vegas can hold and host major events, as evidenced by the fact that we're here and that the Awards are here for the 10th season," Commissioner Bettman said. "And my guess is, with all the things that are going on, at some point in the not-too-distant future, the club will start requesting being included in other events, whether it's an All-Star Game or whether it's an outdoor game."
Commissioner Bettman said he was not surprised by the success of the Golden Knights on and off the ice.
"This is a community of 2 million people, and while visitors tend to focus on the Strip, this is a city that has people who have interests in the same things that people in all other major cities have," Commissioner Bettman said. "And we were comfortable after we went through our thorough process that this was going to be a successful franchise for us. ...
"We had hoped that the team would certainly be playing meaningful games in March and April. Did we think that they would make the playoffs? I don't handicap how our clubs perform. But again, the expansion draft was deeper than any expansion draft we'd ever had. … If you look at our system, it's structured so that all of our teams can afford to be competitive, so if you're bringing in a 31st team, you want it to be competitive as well."

Las Vegas has hosted the NHL Awards at Palms Hotel (2009-11); Encore at Wynn Las Vegas (2012, 2014); MGM Grand (2015); The Joint, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (2016); and T-Mobile Arena (2017).
The 2017 NHL Awards was a joint event with the NHL Expansion Draft.
"It really was a special night," Golden Knights president Kerry Bubolz said. "It obviously translated into a terrific product on the ice this past season. So it's a special place in our heart, and we're looking forward to help host the entire hockey community this summer."