NHL Rumors: Las Vegas expansion team may be called Desert Knights

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 22: New Las Vegas NHL franchise owner Bill Foley and commissioner Gary Bettman of the National Hockey League pose for a photo during the Board of Governors Press Conference prior to the 2016 NHL Awards at Encore Las Vegas on June 22, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The NHL's board of governors approved expanding to Las Vegas, making the franchise the 31st team in the league. The team will start play during the 2017-18 season and play at the newly built T-Mobile Arena. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

According to the latest NHL Rumors, Las Vegas may be ready to give their expansion NHL team a name thanks to several website names that have been registered.

Following the 2016-17 NHL season, the league will welcome their 31st team into the fold when Las Vegas plays its first games as a professional sports team city. Ironically, it’s the sport played on ice that will be the inaugural squad starting things off in the middle of the desert.

We know when they will play and where (the brand new T-Moblie Arena in the city), but we don’t know for certain what the men from Sin City will be calling themselves come the 2017-18 season. A report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal gives an indication as to what they might be called:

"Moniker Privacy Services — the same company that procured the NHL’s own website domain — has privately registered the rights to lasvegasdesertknights.com, vegasdesertknights.com and desertknightshockey.com. When asked about those registrations and the potential team name, team owner Bill Foley told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he had no comment on the matter."

Earlier this month, Foley had mentioned the possibility of naming the team “Hawks” or some variation of that. “Knights” has become a consideration since the owner is a graduate of the US Military Academy and has floated the possibility of naming them the Black Knights.

The name Knights alone was met with some pushback from a team in the Ontario Hockey League, so adding the word desert might just be the missing link to getting the team name one step closer to being a real thing.

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