On Tuesday, the commissioner of the National Hockey League, Gary Bettman, announced that the league will be adding a 32nd franchise. The NHL’s newest organization will be based in Seattle, Washington, and its inaugural season will be the 2021-2022 campaign.
This news of the NHL’s expansion to Seattle doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone; however, many projected that the Seattle squad would be ready to compete for the 2020-2021 season. That scenario would have caused the expansion draft to occur in 2020, but the reality is that the expansion draft will take place in June of 2021, prior to the NHL Entry Draft.