Expansion expected to be primary talking point at NHL meetings

The NHL Board of Governors will be meeting in Boca Raton over the next two days and expansion is a topic that will draw plenty of attention.

With rumors floating about the NHL growing in size, the league has all but said that expansion is merely a matter of when and no longer a question of if. With that in mind, the governors will be discussing the topic at length, led by commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daley.

The NHL will not be announcing a plan for expansion at the end of these meetings. Multiple accounts have documented this and ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun received confirmation from a source that the NHL will be discussing expansion, but will not be approving expansion.

Commissioner Bettman and deputy commissioner Daley have been doing exploratory research into potential expansion markets and plan to update the owners on the information they have gathered. In addition, they might receive input from the owners on how they would like to go about the process.

LeBrun also stated that several teams are interested in collecting the expansion fees that would come along with new membership clubs. Estimations have indicated that the league’s expansion fee could be anywhere from $400 million to $500 million, which would go directly to the owners and would not be split with the players.

It’s believed that Las Vegas, Seattle, Quebec and a second Toronto team (Markham) are all potential locations for expansion. Las Vegas has received the most attention after reports emerged last month indicating the NHL has already identified an ownership group for the city.

The NHL will present the owners with the first salary cap estimate for next season.

Stephen Whyno of The Canadian Press reports that the cap -- which currently sits at $69 million -- is not expected to rise much higher than $70 million, while LeBrun cites a source who believes the estimate will be in the range of $72-74 million.

This figure will not be a concrete number, but it will provide general managers with a better idea of how to budget their salaries heading into the future. The status of the Canadian dollar -- which is currently worth 87 cents in the United States -- will play a factor in the estimate. The NHL converts all salaries to U.S. dollars to help maintain consistency.

The NHL is expected to inform the board of governors on how planning is going for the return of the World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in Toronto in 2016.

The rest of the teams would be the top six hockey nations including Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.

The board is expected to approve Andrew Barroway’s bid to buy the majority claim in the Coyotes, which would amount to 51 percent of the team.

Some controversy arose this weekend after the New York Post reported that Barroway was potentially backing out of the agreement unless the team shed payroll. The Coyotes currently have one of the lowest payrolls in the league at $58 million.

Sources within the Coyotes organization denied that IceArizona, the team’s ownership group, has asked general manager Don Maloney to shed salary, according to Craig Morgan of Fox Sports Arizona. Morgan also reported that the sale is expected to go through this week at the Board of Governors meeting.

* Update (Dec. 8, 12:31 p.m.)

Well, this is in conflict with everything I have read to at this point. Coyotes owner Anthony LeBlanc told Craig Custance of ESPN that the sale is still on track and that the Board of Governors will be updated on the sale at the meetings. LeBlanc also denied the reports that the sale was in trouble.