- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: Some Gary Bettman quotes on expansion.
“We had a few hours to kill, we were in the neighborhood, so I figured I’d go to Seattle to find out what the building story was,” Bettman said. “We weren’t there campaigning, we weren’t asking for anything, and that’s been misreported. Based on the level of interest we’re getting from lots of people in Seattle and a fair amount of uncertainty and confusion about the building, we decided ‘Let’s go find out for ourselves what the story is with the building.’ And there’s no prospect of a building right now.”
Chris Hensen has the rights to build an arena in Seattle, but he doesn’t want to start the process until he can secure a NBA team.
“He doesn’t seem prepared to build it until he gets some certainty on an NBA team,” Bettman said. “The sense I get is he doesn’t want to build a building just to have a tenant. And since he seems to have things tied up with the city for the next three years, give or take, there’s no certainty about a building.”
Quebec City is building a rink and Las Vegas has plans to build one.
“And there are people interested there,” Bettman said of Vegas. “Things are popping up, but we’re not in an expansion process. Could we get to one at some point? Maybe. But right now we’re not focused on going through an expansion process.”
- Darren Dreger: The Penguins are going over their list of interviewed candidates and will start the second round of interviews next week. Could expand their list if necessary.
- L.A. Lariviere: Marc Crawford said he’s talked to some NHL teams about head coaching positions. He hasn’t had a formal interview yet. Crawford has an opt-out clause in his deal with the Zurich Lions.
- Jason Botchford: SportsNet showing Barry Trotz, John Stevens and Willie Desjardin as head coaching candidates for the Canucks.
