Expansion draft major topic of this week’s NHL general managers meeting

Las Vegas still hasn’t received official word on if an expansion NHL team is coming to town.

But when the general managers meet this week in Boca Raton, Fla., expansion draft rules are expected to be a topic of discussion, per the Toronto Sun.

Both Las Vegas and Quebec City have submitted bids to join the NHL for the 2017-18 season.

Billionaire businessman Bill Foley has led the efforts to bring a team to T-Mobile Arena, and if the bid is accepted, Foley and his partners would have to post a minimum $500 million expansion fee.

For that price, the NHL wants to make sure new teams are competitive.

“I don’t think there are any GMS who, aside from their personal interests for their own teams, feel that you don’t deserve a half-decent product for half a billion,” St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong told the Toronto Sun.

The NHL hasn’t expanded since 2000 when it added the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild.

In that draft, teams were generally given the option to protect either two goalies, three defensemen and seven forwards or nine forwards, five defensemen and one goalie with some caveats depending on playing time. The Wild and the Blue Jackets drafted a combined 52 players.

But despite that, both franchises were mired in mediocrity in their infancy.

The Wild posted their first above-.500 record in their third season and the Blue Jackets didn’t reach the playoffs until their eighth season in the NHL.

This time around, the NHL seems intent on not letting that happen.

“I think the expansion rules are going to be loosened to an extent so that these guys can be more competitive,” Armstrong told the Toronto Sun. “I think what the league doesn’t want — and I say this as an employee of the league — is a situation like Atlanta where you give them an expansion franchise, they put a (expletive) product on the ice for a decade, then say it’s not a hockey market.”

The Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, after 11 years in Atlanta.

Armstrong told the Sun that a place like Quebec City, with deeper hockey roots, would be better able to handle a growing product than Las Vegas.

“If you go to a non-traditional market, they don’t know the game as well. In those places, winning is as important as knowing the game,” Armstrong told the Sun. “You’ve got to be better and quicker in south Florida, you’ve got to be better and quicker in Atlanta, rather than you’d have to be in Quebec City.”