The NHL's Expansion Committee has recommended the
addition of four new teams for its next round of expansion:
Nashville, which will begin play for the '98-99 season;
Atlanta, which will begin in '99-2000 and Columbus and
Minneapolis-St. Paul, which will begin in 2000-2001. The
Committee report will be voted on by the Board of Governors
on June 25. As part of the expansion plan, the NHL and
NHLPA have agreed to a four-year extension of the CBA, which
would see the basic terms of the existing agreement remain
in effect until 2004. That proposal needs ratification by
the NHL and the NHLPA. Also announced was a recommended
league-wide realignment, a new regular-season scheduling
format, new rules for the Entry and Expansion Drafts and a
revised seeding system for the Stanley Cup playoffs (NHL).
REAX: Houston and Oklahoma City were the two expansion
finalists not selected. In L.A., NHL writer Helene Elliott
says the "sweeping plan [will] change the face of the
league" (L.A. TIMES, 6/18). In Toronto, Damien Cox: "For
the NHL, this has been the Roaring '90s, an era that by its
end will have seen more than $500 million raked in by the
league in expansion fees" (TORONTO STAR, 6/18). In a
sidebar, Cox writes under the header, "Greed Shows In Risky
And Foolish Expansion." Cox: "Clearly, this is expansion
with worrisome risk. It verges on reckless. In a league
where the quality of play and over-all skill level were
noticeably mediocre last year, adding four more teams in the
next three years is shortsighted and foolish." But Cox adds
that "two welcome bits of news" by the league are the
proposed CBA extension and realignment (TORONTO STAR, 6/18).
Also in Toronto, Ken Fidlin writes of the league's major
announcements: "Remember that this is a league that a few
years ago didn't have a clear vision for what was happening
next week, let alone next century" (TORONTO SUN, 6/18). In
Atlanta, Tim Tucker writes that while the league's move "was
no surprise, it was handled in a manner shocking to those of
us familiar with the sloppy ways of, say, major league
baseball" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 6/18). In Houston, Neil
Hohlfeld: "While the NHL wanted to increase what it calls
the overall footprint of the league on North America, this
round of expansion did not focus totally on putting teams in
large markets" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 6/18). In Ft. Worth, Mike
Heika: "What might be most amazing about the proposed
expansion is how quickly it is blanketing the southern
United States. In 1991, the only warm-weather team in the
21-team NHL was in Los Angeles" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM,
6/19). In Washington, Rachel Alexander: "[D]ebate has raged
over whether there will be enough talented players to fill
the new arenas" (WASHINGTON POST, 6/18). In Winnipeg, Ed
Willes: "Cripes, what do these places have to do with
hockey. Why don't they just move into Boca bleeding Raton
and be done with it" (WINNIPEG SUN, 6/18).
