NHL Commissioner Bettman signs deal through ’22

“We’re not ready to make a decision”.

The board of governors meeting Saturday morning was a bit thin on substance and included an expansion update that “lasted less than two minutes”, according to one governor.

Whenever Gary Bettman holds a press conference, and this has been the case for more than 20 years, it’s often a battle between what he wants to talk about and the things he’d rather not discuss at all.

Bettman is the head of the circuit since 1993, when it had only 24 teams. But expansion for the 2017-18 season is still a possibility.

I think the low Canadian dollar plus the fact there’s already an East-West conference imbalance will sideline Quebec City in the end, although I still think a team will end up in Quebec City whether from eventual expansion or via relocation. “Could that be a factor?”

Commissioner Bettman said the League will examine the All-Star fan voting system it has in place during its internal debrief following this weekend.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman answers a question during a news conference before the NHL All-Star hockey game skills competition, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn.

“It is what it is”. “As things stand right now, there’s no prospect of an arena in greater Seattle. We’re focused on Quebec City and Las Vegas, so that’s not even on our radar screen”, he said. “If someone wanted to give us an application for expansion, we wouldn’t accept it”.

“The executive committee, which is the group of owners charged with making the study and going through the process and ultimately making a recommendation to the Board of Governors, met two weeks ago”, Commissioner Bettman said. And they want to make sure if a new team or teams come on board that they’re competitive which is very important to the league.

“Nobody has made any decisions”, he said. “He wanted to come here, and he wanted to be here”.

He indicated it’s premature to consider the impact the Canadian dollar could have on the cap figure, but he doesn’t think it will be major. “When you’re dealing with a cap over 70 million [dollars], whether or not you’re a million dollars more or less, or a couple million dollars more or less, I don’t think is all material”.

With fighting down yet again this season, Bettman said it’s something that organically leaving the game because the game has changed.

He also said there is still a lot of time before the National Hockey League decides on whether to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Perhaps that’s why he is willing to stick around as National Hockey League commissioner into the next decade.