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Expansion

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Taken from another board.

This is the first time we've seen so many rumored pieces to expansion all in one article that is being claimed as "Confirmed", and the news outlet that is reporting it is pretty legitimate (RDS), so here we go folks... expansion.


RDS Saying that Las Vegas bid, and only the Las Vegas bid, has now been approved by the NHL behind the scenes, and will be ratified tomorrow.

http://www.rds.ca/hockey/lnh/las-vegas-dans-la-division-pacifique-des-2017-1.3399848 <--- psst, this is a link

Highlights of the article:
- Vegas will start play in 2017/18
- Play in the Pacific division
- Leading candidate for team name is "Black Knights", though not yet confirmed.
- Expansion draft will be next off-season, BEFORE the Entry Draft (June 20th)
- Apparently have already completed negotiations with the NHLPA regarding expansion rules. That's done. Both sides have agreed.
- Expansion draft protection list follows previously rumored format: 7F/3D/1G or "Any 8".
- Teams will be forced to protect players with No-Move Clauses. Not forced to protect players with No-Trade Clauses.
- The NHL has dropped the "Teams must leave 25% of their payroll unprotected" criteria that had been previously discussed.
- Players with 2 or less Pro Seasons will be exempt from the draft.
- Players who have retired due to injury but still have active contracts (Pronger, Horton, etc...) will be exempt from the draft.
- All teams are required to leave at least 2 F and 1D who are under contract for the 2017/18 season unprotected, who played at least 40 games last year (or 70 games over the last 2 years).
- Las Vegas will draft 30 players, at least 20 of whom MUST be under contract for the 2017-18 season (to reduce the likelihood of shenanigans)
- Las Vegas will NOT be allowed to buy out any players in it's first season (to reduce the likelihood of shenanigans).

REGARDING QUEBEC CITY:
- Will be excluded from this round of expansion
- Economics of hockey in Quebec not favorable fr a team at the moment, but Quebecor made a very good impression on the NHL.
- Possibility that this isn't a hard "no", but a "let's wait and see".
- Quebec possibly the leading candidate in case a team needs to be moved.


And yes, I know this is a lot of stuff we've been talking about for months now, it sounds familiar, but this is really the first time we've seen it all in one place, with someone saying "CONFIRMED" (though obviously until the league puts out the press release, skeptics will skept). It's big to see it presented like this.

Makes sense to have a dedicated thread for this, IMO.
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Well they said they wanted to make the announcement before the draft this year with regards to expansion.

Happy we don't need to protect Horton in all of this but not sure who we will have signed into 17-18 and will have played the 40/70 to leave unprotected? maybe we have to get lupul into 35 games this year, keep Bozak or expose Komarov. On D do we extend Marincin for 2 years to make sure we hit that threshold?
 
trujaysfan said:
Well they said they wanted to make the announcement before the draft this year with regards to expansion.

Happy we don't need to protect Horton in all of this but not sure who we will have signed into 17-18 and will have played the 40/70 to leave unprotected? maybe we have to get lupul into 35 games this year, keep Bozak or expose Komarov. On D do we extend Marincin for 2 years to make sure we hit that threshold?
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That's not a certainty at this point. The good news as far as Horton's concerned is that his NMC turns into a limited NTC after the coming season. The bad news is that the expansion draft will be taking place before the official end of next season, and as per Larry Brooks, the league will force teams to protect players with NMC's, even if those NMC's and/or their contracts are slated to expire by July 1st, 2017. And then the good news is, Brooks is a Strachan-esque hack, so he may be completely talking out of his ass there.

But we'll have to wait and see. The league has been promising to give these new owners playoff-contending teams in exchange for the huge $500M expansion fee they're charging, so I wouldn't put it past the league to pull out all the stops to kneecap the existing teams' attempts to protect their quality players as much as possible.

I guess the other bit of good news is, even if we're forced to protect Horton, we're going to have a bunch of forwards that should be exempt from the draft due to their age/professional experience. On the current roster, Kadri, JVR, Bozak & Komarov are really the only eligible players worth protecting. Nylander should be exempt, and Matthews and Marner will be for sure as well.
 
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LeafGm said:
That's not a certainty at this point. The good news as far as Horton's concerned is that his NMC turns into a limited NTC after the coming season. The bad news is that the expansion draft will be taking place before the official end of next season, and as per Larry Brooks, the league will force teams to protect players with NMC's, even if those NMC's and/or their contracts are slated to expire by July 1st, 2017. And then the good news is, Brooks is a Strachan-esque hack, so he may be completely talking out of his ass there.

But we'll have to wait and see. The league has been promising to give these new owners playoff-contending teams in exchange for the huge $500M expansion fee they're charging, so I wouldn't put it past the league to pull out all the stops to kneecap the existing teams' attempts to protect their quality players as much as possible.

I guess the other bit of good news is, even if we're forced to protect Horton, we're going to have a bunch of forwards that should be exempt from the draft due to their age/professional experience. On the current roster, Kadri, JVR, Bozak & Komarov are really the only eligible players worth protecting. Nylander should be exempt, and Matthews and Marner will be for sure as well.
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Was basing the comment on the quoted parts of the RDS article where it said:"Players who have retired due to injury but still have active contracts (Pronger, Horton, etc...) will be exempt from the draft."
 
"- Players who have retired due to injury but still have active contracts (Pronger, Horton, etc...) will be exempt from the draft. "

Nice. Was worried about wasting a spot on him.
 
trujaysfan said:
Was basing the comment on the quoted parts of the RDS article where it said:"Players who have retired due to injury but still have active contracts (Pronger, Horton, etc...) will be exempt from the draft."
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Okay, I missed that part. But the thing is, Horton and Pronger haven't actually retired. So I wouldn't completely rely on RDS's interpretation there.

The other big variable here is what counts as "pro experience". Do Nylander's years in the SHL & AHL count? Does Matthews' year in Switzerland count? Does Zaitsev's years in the KHL count? Or is it just NHL experience that counts? If it is only NHL experience that counts, then why give the non-specific description of "pro experience"?
 
LeafGm said:
Okay, I missed that part. But the thing is, Horton and Pronger haven't actually retired. So I wouldn't completely rely on RDS's interpretation there.

The other big variable here is what counts as "pro experience". Do Nylander's years in the SHL & AHL count? Does Matthews' year in Switzerland count? Does Zaitsev's years in the KHL count? Or is it just NHL experience that counts? If it is only NHL experience that counts, then why give the non-specific description of "pro experience"?
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Thats a big question, from the last time details came out i believe that they were saying AHL/NHL was pro experience. They may define it as North American pro experience or something and include the ECHL. If the goal is to make them competitive right from the start i would imagine that AHL would count because if not we may see a few teams hide a player in the minors this season.

Also how many games make up a "season" I'm going to guess Nylanders 37+5 14-15 season will count and we will need to protect him.
 
Was it really a $500mil expansion fee?

Just finished Espo's memoir where he talked about raising $50mil for the Lightning expansion fee.

Shit, the Jets paid $170 for the Thrashers + 60mil relocation fee.

Quebec is WAAAY better off waiting for relocation.
 
BG said:
Was it really a $500mil expansion fee?

Just finished Espo's memoir where he talked about raising $50mil for the Lightning expansion fee.

Shit, the Jets paid $170 for the Thrashers + 60mil relocation fee.

Quebec is WAAAY better off waiting for relocation.
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and even if you are re-locating the worst team in the league you are still going to be better on the ice than with an expansion team IMO
 
Hard to see the owners turn down that kind of money for a new team vs a relocated team (unless that team is REALLY losing tons of money and expects to do so for the forseeable future).
 
What teams really are relocation targets at this point though? Phoenix seems pretty squared-away at the moment, as does Florida.

There is Carolina---but they've been stuck in a decade of futility that almost exactly mirrors the Leafs over the last ten years, so it shouldn't be surprising that they've been struggling off the ice too. And although Karmanos's majority stake has been up for sale for two years now without a buyer, that's not the least bit surprising. Karmanos has been trying to get someone to buy a majority stake in the team off him, with the insane stipulation that Karmanos still be left in complete control of the team.
 
Yeah, that's the name of West Point's team for the U.S. Army down south as well. Some interesting logo and colour scheme potential there. It should be intriguing to see what the designers come up with.
 
HolyGrail014.jpg
 
If they don't play "tis but a flesh wound" after every goal scored against, it's a huge missed opportunity.
 
I got my second favourite team. Like all the cool kids.
 
Mirtle reported some more expansion rules yesterday:

  • Teams cannot reacquire players they trade after Jan. 1, 2017 prior to Jan. 1, 2018. This is to prevent teams from entering arrangements to “hide” players from the expansion draft. There will likely be a lot more guidelines as part of this rule.


    [*]Teams have to expose at least two forwards and one defenceman who have played either 40 games in the previous season (2016-17) or 70 games in the previous two seasons (2015-17). Teams can only lose a max of one player.

  • The expansion team must select players that have a total value of between 60 and 100 per cent of the 2016-17 salary cap.

  • The expansion team can’t buy out anyone it picks in the expansion draft until the following off-season (2018).

  • The expansion team will be given the same draft lottery odds as the team that finishes third last in the league and cannot pick later than sixth in the 2017 NHL entry draft. It’s possible the expansion team could end up with the first overall pick, if it wins the lottery.

    [*]Teams must protect players that have no-movement clauses active in the 2017-18 season. No-movement clauses active in 2016-17 will have no impact. There will likely be exceptions made for players with no-movement clauses who are out with career-ending injuries (i.e. Ryane Clowe and Nathan Horton). Teams are not expected to be forced to protect those contracts.
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So it looks like a pretty sure thing at this point that we're not going to be forced to protect Nathan Horton. Even if they didn't have a special provision for injured players, Horton's NMC turns into a limited NTC in the 2017-18 season.
 
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