Seattle expansion franchise to be voted on by NHL Board of Governors

SEA ISLAND, Ga. -- The NHL Board of Governors is scheduled to vote on Seattle's expansion franchise application Tuesday.

On Monday, the Board handled other business matters, including receiving a salary cap projection of $83 million, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said.
It would be a $3.5 million raise from the salary cap for the 2018-19 season.
"It could be a million more, it could be a million less, but if you're focused on a number and the number we told our clubs to focus on was the $83 million range," Commissioner Bettman said.
The salary cap is tied to projected revenues for the 2019-20 season. Revenues exceeded $4.5 billion last season, when the salary cap was $75 million.
The cap was instituted for the 2005-06 season, when it started at $39 million.
"[The salary cap] has propelled the health of the game, the growth of the game. It has given us the most extraordinary competitive balance not just in our history but in all of professional sports," Commissioner Bettman said. "And the players, which was our hope and expectation, would share in that growth. And so yes, the cap went up from $39 million in the first year to be over $80 million next year, and that's great."

Commissioner Bettman said he also gave the Board an update on the Ottawa Senators arena situation.
The Senators were initially part of a consortium with Trinity Development Group called RendezVous LeBreton Group that was granted the right to redevelop the LeBreton Flats area in downtown Ottawa complete with a state-of-the-art arena from the National Capital Commission.
The partnership between the Senators and Trinity recently collapsed, leading to a lawsuit filed by Senators owner Eugene Melnyk against the Trinity group.
"I would say I'm more disappointed with how this played out, but these are complicated matters," Commissioner Bettman said.
Another group, the Devcore Canderel DLS (DCDLS) Group, announced Sunday it was interested in taking over the LeBreton Flats project and that it would include a portion of the land for a downtown arena for the Senators.
Commissioner Bettman said the League would get involved in any potential downtown arena project if it is invited to do so. He cited the League's involvement in successfully helping the Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins secure arenas.
The Oilers are in their third season at Rogers Place; the Penguins are in their ninth season at PPG Paints Arena.
"I think [a downtown arena in Ottawa] would be for a whole host of reasons nice, but Mr. Melnyk has said if he has to make Canadian Tire Centre work, he can do that," Commissioner Bettman said. "But again, let's not draw any conclusions yet. This is a complicated situation, although in its original form for a lot of reasons, some of which you've read in the complaint that's been filed, the project that was originally envisioned unfortunately isn't viable."
Commissioner Bettman said there were no discussions about the current Collective Bargaining Agreement in the meeting Monday, but he said the League is still targeting January as a deadline to decide if a World Cup in 2020 will be a viable option.
The current CBA expires following the 2021-22 season, but the League and the NHL Players' Association each can trigger a reopening of CBA negotiations in September of 2019, which could lead to the expiry of the current CBA following the 2019-20 season.
The NHL and NHLPA would need to reach an agreement by the end of January to either waive their CBA reopener rights in September 2019 or push the deadline back to have enough time to plan and execute a World Cup in 2020.
The League will not plan for a 2020 World Cup without the certainty of labor peace beyond the 2019-20 season, Commissioner Bettman said.
"For the last year and a half to two years, we've been anxious to anchor plans for a World Cup. But for whatever reason, the Players' Association hasn't been prepared to do that," Commissioner Bettman said.
He added there have been no substantive discussions between the sides about the reopener.
"They know the timeframe," he said, "so the puck is in their end."
As part of the business end of the meeting Monday, the Board of Governors heard reports from representatives from NBC Sports, the League's U.S. national television partner, and BAMtech, the NHL's digital streaming rights partner. Representatives from Hockey Operations, the NHL Officials Association and the Department of Player Safety also presented reports to the Board.
The Board reconvenes Tuesday to vote on the Seattle expansion application. It's possible the League will be able to give a firm start date for the franchise if it is approved. The team could start as early as the 2020-21 season, but it's more likely it would begin in the 2021-22 season.
Tied to the expansion application vote is the division realignment that would be necessary to bring Seattle into the Pacific Division, which currently has eight teams. The Central Division has seven teams.
Realignment wouldn't go into effect until Seattle's first season.
"If we're going to do a realignment, it's only in the context of expansion," Commissioner Bettman said. "We're not envisioning anything broader than that."