NHL Expands to Las Vegas, Patrick Kane Rakes in Awards in Busy Week

The hockey season is over but the National Hockey League is in the midst of a very busy week, which will culminate with the NHL draft over the June 24th-25th weekend.

The league made its long awaited decision on expansion, and awarded a franchise to Las Vegas, the first major sport to place a team in the Nevada city. The team will begin play in the 2017-18 season and will join the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, and Phoenix Coyotes in the Pacific Division. The team will play at 17,500 seat T-Mobile Arena, and there has deposits for 14,000 season tickets so there will be plenty of initial support. The addition of Las Vegas means the NHL will go into the ’17-’18 season with 31 teams, so somebody will be off every night.

We see the Kings, Ducks, and Coyotes developing some natural rivalries. We also wonder just how much it costs to maintain an ice sheet to NHL standards in places like Las Vegas, Phoenix, or Florida. In the past, there have been concerns about the sports betting industry that have kept major pro sports leagues out of Las Vegas, but just like British opting out of the EU, it’s a new day. The NFLs Oakland Raiders could be the next addition to the desert city.

Speaking of Vegas, the NHL held its annual post season awards ceremony there this week, and the Chicago Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane was the big winner. The Hawks’ forward scored a trifecta, winning the Art Ross Trophy as the leading scorer in the NHL (he had 106 points); the Ted Lindsay Award, which is the Most Valuable Player as selected by the NHL players themselves, and the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s Most Valuable Player as selected by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. Kane is only the second U.S. born player to win the Hart, and the first since Billy Burch of the now defunct Hamilton Tigers won it in the 1924-25 season.