Jeremy Roenick wants the NHL in Las Vegas

By Cory Buck | Jan 13, 2015

Jan 26, 2014; New York City, NY, USA; NHL former player Jeremy Roenick skates with youngsters on a miniature rink before the Stadium Series hockey game between the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports /

Former NHL great and current analyst Jeremy Roenick said he believes an NHL team would work in Las Vegas.

While the NHL maintains a line of silence over possible expansion talks, rumors persist that the league is eyeing up Las Vegas among other locations for a new team. It appears the idea has at least one proponent. Former Chicago Blackhawks great Jeremy Roenick said he believes an NHL team would be a great addition in Las Vegas, where the league currently holds its awards show every year.

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“I do believe that a team will be going into Las Vegas,” Roenick said, per Sports Illustrated. “I think [commissioner] Gary Bettman’s been very, very careful about what he says. He tiptoes around the idea of expansion, but I know that the league wants to expand and they have the ability to expand because our game is getting that much better. I know there are people that want to own teams in Las Vegas.”

Bettman is probably tiptoeing around the idea because he doesn’t want his Canadian fans to revolt against him yet again. While teams like the Arizona Coyotes flounder in the desert, micro-markets like Winnipeg continue to make handsome profits for the league. Still, America is where it’s at when it comes to making money off sports and there are few cities in this country with more money than Vegas.

“I think it’ll happen, I think it can work,” Roenick said. “There’s a lot of money there, and I think a lot of people would love to go to Vegas to watch their favorite team play. It wouldn’t be bad to be the first pro sports team in Vegas. I think the NHL likes to be the pioneers in that aspect.”

But let’s consider why there aren’t pro sports teams in Vegas. The local population is largely a conglomeration of people who have moved there from other cities. So people who live in Vegas who would be interested in the NHL probably have other teams they’ve grown up with, or they’re just on vacation and popping in to check out the game or whatever. It would take nigh on 20 years for a Vegas team to build a loyal following of its own, much like its brethren to the south in Arizona.

Would there ever be loyalty to a team in Las Vegas the way there would somewhere like Quebec City or even Seattle? That’s a question the league should seriously ponder before making the leap.

Oh, who are we kidding? This is the NHL. Questions of fan loyalty long went out the window when the league locked its players out twice in the course of a decade only to see its fans come flocking back both times. If Gary Bettman wants to plant a second team in the deserts of Southwest America, then he’ll do just that regardless of more logical choices scattered around North America.

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