TSN: Pierre LeBrun on NHL extension talk involving Salt Lake City and Atlanta.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Aaron Korolnek: “Anson Carter the Alpharetta Sports and Entertainment Group revealing their interest in bringing a team back to Atlanta.
What can you tell us about that? And what is the timeline on NHL expansion Pierre?
LeBrun: “Yeah, no timeline yet. The league again this week, I reached out to them after the Anson Carter news release and the league said they’re still not, you know they still haven’t put the wheels in motion for expansion.
I think there’s a lot to unpack here. There’s, you know, the fact that even within Atlanta and possibility I was reminded this week there are three competing groups in Atlanta that have reached out to League. Three different groups who want to bring a team to Atlanta. And where Anson Carter’s group lies within that it’s hard to decipher.
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You know, I did have someone telling me that there’s another group in Atlanta that has deeper pockets right now, but obviously that can change over time. And also within those three groups, there’s a different acceleration rate of which of those three groups can actually take a team that you know, soon, as opposed to other teams that need more years. So there’s a lot to unpack just within the Atlanta situation itself where there’s three competing different groups. So that’s the first thing.
The second thing I would say is, and this is me, and it doesn’t come from the league, but the more that I look at it, and I’ve had a chance to interview Ryan Smith, the Utah Jazz owner a couple of times over the past several months, it just feels to me like Salt Lake has put itself ahead of anyone else to be the next market with a team. They just put in a little more legwork.
You know, not to mention they can put a team right away and their NBA arena which is not perfect, not ideal, but the LA Kings play exhibition games there every year, every September or early October. Before, course there are plans as Ryan Smith reiterated to me in our last interview that Salt Lake City has plans afoot to build arena new and of course Salt Lake City hoping to host another Winter Olympics.
So all these things are tied in to the point where and of course Ryan Smith has stressed repeatedly how badly he wants an NHL team and the league knows this. So it just feels like Salt Lake’s first on deck. You know, these things can change but that’s my feeling of reading the situation right now.
And the other thing that’s important to remember that, I don’t know about you guys, but I was always for some reason of the convinced, conviction that when the league finally got 32 after adding Seattle, and finally having sort of symmetry with 16 teams in each conference, that the next possible round and expansion will be by two. So that you keep it at, go from 32 to 34, for obvious reasons.
And I was told a few months go by a league source that no, that there’s absolutely no problem going to 33. They can go just to one other team if need be. And they’re not caught up with that, with the idea of having to go buy a pair of teams.
So that was another indicator to me, and again, this is my own read that I will put Salt Lake ahead of the other markets right now. In my mind anyway. I could be wrong, but I think, I think they are and from that perspective, I think they have the best chance of being the 33rd team.
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Now, they could also be the 32nd team if Arizona Coyotes don’t figure out their arenas. We don’t have time to get into that but, but I think you know, I’ve asked Ryan Smith that point blank, you know, you’re not careful. He’s been very careful how he answers that question. But at the last time I spoke to him, if I’m going to summarize the way he answered it carefully is that they’ll take an NHL team and anyway they come.”