Bettman lauds Vegas; Seattle decision in the fall

LAS VEGAS — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman trumpeted the success of the first-year Vegas Golden Knights at his state of the league news conference before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final.

He also avoided an uncomfortable question about concussions.

Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly met with reporters about two hours before the opening faceoff between the Knights and the Washington Capitals on Monday in the same arena where Vegas announced its expansion draft selections just 342 days earlier.

“You go through the checklist: great building, great ownership with Bill Foley, a market that we believed would support the team,” Bettman said. “And then there was a fourth factor: we thought being in Las Vegas would actually give hockey a greater presence, and make the league and the game stronger.”

While some argue a club making the final in its first season is bad for the game, the NHL, not surprisingly, disagrees.

“It’s a positive story for hockey, it’s a positive story for the National Hockey League,” Daly said. “It’s a variety of circumstances that you have to rely on to get this far.

“Sometimes the pucks go your way, sometimes they don’t.”

The league’s potential expansion to Seattle was also touched on, with Bettman saying the league’s board of governors will provide an update in June, and could have an announcement by next fall or early winter.

“There is no delay, we just haven’t got the train to the station on time,” Bettman said. “There is a process that we go through.”

Bettman and Daly both reiterated the expansion draft rules will be the same if and when the NHL adds a 32nd franchise.

“The goal of creating the expansion draft rules was to create an opportunity to be a competitive team earlier than some of our past expansion teams have,” Daly said. “Giving them a chance to have competitive success on the ice was important to the business success.”