LAS VEGAS, NV – FEBRUARY 10: (L-R) Senior Vice President of Arenas for MGM Resorts International Mark Prows, President and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority Rossi Ralenkotter, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Fidelity National Financial Inc. Chairman and President of Hockey Vision Las Vegas Bill Foley, Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak and Schneider Electronics CMO Chris Hummel attend a news conference at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino announcing the launch of a season ticket drive to try to gauge if there is enough interest in Las Vegas to support an NHL team on February 10, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. A Las Vegas franchise would play in a USD 375 million, 20,000-seat arena being built on the Strip by MGM Resorts International and AEG that is scheduled to open in the spring of 2016. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Report: Expansion draft rules agreed upon by the NHLPA

It has been reported by TSN’s Gary Lawless that some of the parameters around the expansion draft have started to come to fruition. This kind of talk means that expansion now is more of a formality then anything else. While Quebec City remains in the dark, it looks like Las Vegas will be getting a team sooner rather then later.

These kind of meetings don’t happen unless something is imminent or up for a vote. So the decision is big for the league who has been very aggressive in its attempts to expand the number of teams the past couple of years.

A fair amount of teams were hoping that they were going to be able to leave some players exposed. Players like David Clarkson will need to be protected by this rule. That is absolutely brutal for a team like the Columbus Blue Jackets. It remains to be seen if they can ask these players if they mind their inclusion on the list. This could be seen as a bit of a compromise as some teams were pushing hard for all players to have eligibility in the expansion draft.

Once expansion happens and at this point it is merely a forgone conclusion, everything will start moving quickly. A lot of salary will be shed as well a lot of useless players. The way they want it to work though will make the expansion team competitive from the start. A good sign for prospective Las Vegas fans.

About Sam Blazer

Sam is a self proclaimed chess prodigy. He once placed seventh in the state of Ohio in Chess when he was in kindergarten. He will rarely if ever mention though that only eight people were entered in this tournament. Contact him at sblaze17@gmail.com

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