A unanimous vote at the Board of Governors meeting for the NHL has determined that the NHL will add another franchise to its list of 31 teams. While the speculation has existed for a while, a number of media outlets are now reporting the news on Tuesday that the NHL will officially bring in a team from Seattle for 2021-22 NHL season.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan just said she got a call from Sea Island, Georgia. Unanimous vote. The NHL is officially coming to Seattle.

After dealing with other matters on Monday, including the salary cap, the state of the Ottawa Senators franchise and bid for a new arena and more, the Board reconvened on Tuesday to vote on the Seattle expansion application. With a unanimous vote the team could start as early as the 2020-21 season, but it's more likely it would begin in the 2021-22 season.

As was noted in an NHL.com article, tied to the expansion application vote is the division realignment that would be necessary to bring Seattle into the Pacific Division. Speculation was that the Edmonton Oilers and/or Calgary Flames may move into the Central, something the Oilers are certainly not happy about.  Instead, Bettman confirmed the Arizona Coyotes will move to the Central Division with Seattle joining the Pacific Division. Such realignment wouldn't go into effect until Seattle's first season.

What This Means

Like they did when the Vegas Golden Knights entered the league, teams will need to start preparing for the addition of another team, which means getting ready for another NHL Expansion Draft. 30 other teams can only protect so many players and that means trades, buyouts, and other personnel moves prior to Seattle getting to select their roster.

Could the Seattle team be as successful as the Vegas Golden Knights were? Vegas set a sports record by being the team that went farther than any other expansion team in history when they made it to (but lost) in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

There is no news on what name the new team will take on, only that it won't be the "Metropolitans."

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