The NHL is bringing more than an expansion team to Seattle.
League commissioner Gary Bettman on Wednesday took the occasion of visiting Seattle and sitting inside the Space Needle, next to what will become the new hockey arena in Seattle Center, to publicly promise the city will host a league mid-season All-Star game plus the draft in the coming years.
The puck drop for Seattle’s still-to-be-named new NHL team will be in the fall of 2021.
“We’ve promised an all-star game to Seattle within seven years of playing. Doesn’t mean we’re going to wait seven years,” Bettman said, sitting next to NHL Seattle chief executive officer Tod Leiweke