The talk of a second team in the GTA is back.
According to a report from Howard Bloom of Sports Business Journal, the NHL plans to expand by four teams in 2017(the NHL's centennial season) to Las Vegas, Seattle, Quebec City and Toronto.
The rumored expansion would generate $1.4 Billion in expansion fees for NHL owners, which is not hockey related revenue that would be shared with the players as part of the new collective bargaining agreement, but would create 92 new NHL jobs.
The fact that there will be expansion is not a long shot, since the league has 30 teams(16 in the Eastern Conference, 14 in the West) and interested markets like Quebec City and Las Vegas, who have broken ground on new arenas, but to expand to 34 teams when markets like Phoenix and Florida continue to have trouble getting people into the building would seem to be irresponsible on the part of the league.
It would not be surprising if the list of expansion is two and the other cities are on standby if the NHL needs to find a landing spot for the Coyotes and Panthers in a few years.
An expansion team for Toronto could be the solution for the dysfunctional ownership setup of MLSE between Rogers and Bell Media, as one corporation would take complete control of the expansion franchise and the other would have complete control of the Leafs.
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According to the Bergen Record's Tom Gulitti, the New Jersey Devils have extended tryout invitations to former Leaf defenseman Tomas Kaberle and former Devil center Scott Gomez. The 36-year-old Kaberle was bought out by Montreal at the end of the 2013 season and played for Kladno in the Czech league, as well as for the Czech Republic in the Sochi Olympics in February.
Kaberle had 83 goals and 437 assists in 876 games with the Leafs from 1998 to 2011.
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