On Tuesday afternoon the NHL officially welcomed a new franchise and the city of Seattle has a new hockey team. The team will begin play in 2012-22 and will receive a team name in due time. Along with the news of expansion comes a bit of other news in the fact that there will be a small division alignment. All of this news was announced yesterday by the league commissioner Gary Bettman. The league announced the date of league play to begin in 2021-22 due to building construction not yet completed.
The move does involve the Los Angeles Kings organization. The Arizona Coyotes will move from the Pacific division to the Central division to make room for the expansion team, and therefore the Seattle franchsie will be placed in the Pacific division. The Pacific division now includes L.A., Anaheim Ducks, Vegas Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks. This new alignment keeps the Kings rivalry with Anaheim and San Jose, while bringing a new foe to the forefront.
The pieces are starting to fall into place for this new franchise to be legit. Seattle is hoping for the same success that the last expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights, saw two years ago. The $650 million franchise will take part in an expansion draft, with that date to be announced at a later time. The news of Seattle getting an NHL team is exciting and comes with profit growth for the league and some new rivalries. This is good news for the NHL because it gives the league promise of maybe expanding elsewhere down the road. The only thing that could detour things is the potential for the league to have a strike, which could happen after next season. Are you excited about the league’s 32nd team?
Featured Image: usatoday.com
