Having covered the annual NHL Board of Governors meeting for many years, the one thing that’s always difficult to predict is when news will come out of nowhere despite what seemingly was shaping up to be a quiet agenda.
Like when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman came out one year on Day 1 of the Board of Governors and surprised our small media contingent on hand by saying the league had green-lighted a ticket drive in Las Vegas to gauge interest for potential expansion. That was wild. There had been zero build-up to that announcement.
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So with that in mind, while it would appear the agenda for this week’s meeting of ownership groups in Seattle is of the non-sexy variety, one never knows if bigger news could emerge.
This meeting is normally held in Boca Raton, Florida, and sometimes Pebble Beach, California, but for the first and likely only time, it’s in Seattle this week. The league had promised a Board of Governors meeting to the expansion Kraken a few years ago, but the pandemic delayed that until now. The owners will want this back in a sunny locale, but I’m sure they can gut it out in Seattle this week.
Here’s my understanding of what’s in store Monday and Tuesday at the Board of Governors meeting:
• There is no formal agenda item dealing with potential expansion, but there is leeway for Bettman to be asked about it from inquisitive governors as far as the latest on that front. If that’s the case, the expectation is that Bettman would reiterate what he’s told the media in recent months, that the NHL continues to get expressions of interest from places like Salt Lake City, Houston, Atlanta and Quebec City but doesn’t currently have a pinpoint plan to expand again. Most people around the league do expect that to happen at some point in the next few years. There’s just too much money at play not to expand again.
• There will be a full international update on the Board agenda involving the Olympics (February 2026) and some kind of World Cup of Hockey (February 2025). Not that either event has been finalized yet. Talks continue with the NHL Players’ Association on the next World Cup-type event (it won’t be a normal World Cup but a scaled-down international event), and talks continue with the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation face-to-face regarding the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
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• As usual, there is the annual meeting where governors get an update on projected hockey-related revenue for the season and hence a sneak peak at next season’s salary cap. Nothing surprising is expected here, although as always there are revisions in those revenue projections now that the season is a few months old. The league is downplaying the regional Bally’s sports network fiasco as having any kind of serious impact on overall HRR and the cap. With the players having repaid their escrow debt from the pandemic, as per the CBA, the cap is automatically in for a five percent increase.
• NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly had a gambling protocols/rules update at the GMs meeting in Toronto last month, and my understanding is that he will do the same with the governors. The league kept things pretty vague on purpose with the Shane Pinto suspension, and there’s still not much detail the league can share on it with owners, but the intention here will be to once again reinforce/explain the league’s gambling protocols so no one is confused. Daly will probably spell out some examples of what are clear violations of the current policy.
• There will be a report on the 2-year-old Respect Hockey initiative (which was started with input from Sheldon Kennedy from the Respect Group in Calgary) plus other updates and/or reports such as the 10-year-old Industry Growth fund. There will be a presentation from Fanatics, which takes over as the NHL’s uniform supplier next year, and other general business reports.
• The full Board of Governors meeting doesn’t start until 2 p.m. local time (5 p.m. ET) Monday, but there’s an executive committee meeting ahead of that in the morning. This is the smaller, more powerful group that consists of chairman Jeremy Jacobs (Boston), along with owners Murray Edwards (Calgary), Mark Chipman (Winnipeg), Craig Leipold (Minnesota), Ted Leonsis (Washington), Geoff Molson (Montreal), Henry Samueli (Anaheim), Larry Tanenbaum (Toronto), Jeff Vinik (Tampa Bay) and David Blitzer (New Jersey).
I’m told there’s nothing too newsy on the executive committee meeting agenda, but obviously it will get a preview of the actual full board agenda. There are also a couple of minority ownership transactions to share with the smaller group, such as someone who investing 9 percent into the New York Islanders and two minority investors joining the Vegas Golden Knights ownership group.
The NHL is still progressing toward a 2024 draft at the Sphere in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)• The 2024 NHL Draft for June, tentatively set for Vegas, will also be updated both at the executive committee level and the full Board of Governors, as well. I can’t remember the last time the league has gone this long into the season without having the June draft details finalized and officially announced. The tentative plan that we keep hearing about is having it at the Sphere, but it’s a costly proposition that has led to a grind of a negotiation, it appears. I think it will get done.
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• There is no formal update planned on the main agenda regarding the ongoing 2018 Hockey Canada world junior investigation. And I don’t believe the delay in the league finally being in a position to announce anything on it has anything to do with waiting on the legal process in London, Ontario, to play out. While no one at the league or NHLPA will confirm this, my suspicion is that the delay has to do with the NHL and NHLPA being in active discussions with the agents for certain players involved, as far as negotiating what discipline would look like. This is similar to how the Pinto gambling suspension played out, with all sides signing off. I’m just not convinced that all sides in this case will be on the same page.
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(Top photo of Bill Daly and Gary Bettman: Maxim Thore/ Bildbyran / Sipa USA / Sipa via AP Images)
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