Vegas expected to be one of the NHL’s hub cities for Stanley Cup Playoffs

Las Vegas is expected to be announced as one of the two hub cities for the NHL season restart.

Three years ago, Las Vegas had no sports teams and significant doubts surrounding the NHL‘s expansion to the city. Now, not only has hockey been a home run in Vegas, it might be one of the reasons the NHL can finish the 2019-20 season.

According to both the Las Vegas Review Journal and Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, Las Vegas will indeed be announced as one of the two hub cities that the NHL will use to host the expanded 24-team Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The official announcement of the NHL’s postseason hub cities should be come no later than June 22 according to Gary Bettman’s three-week timeline that he set on May 26 when he announced the league’s plan to restart. However, Johnston reported to “expect the announcement before then.”

NHL hockey will be back in Las Vegas as a hub.

There was hardly ever any doubt that Vegas was going to be a hub city for the NHL due to its abundance of hotels that could easily house all players and staff for 12 NHL teams. While Vegas’ high summer temperatures could be an issue for the ice quality, it checks just about every box the NHL is looking for in a hub city.

The league has discussed the possibility of not allowing teams to play in their home arenas to avoid an unfair advantage, so it could be possible that Vegas will be the hub for the 12 Eastern Conference teams while the Vegas Golden Knights are sent to the other hub.

There’s still one more hub city needed in order move ahead with the plan to restart the season. Johnston reported that the NHL would would like to have a Canadian city as hub alongside Vegas, with Toronto being the preferred destination. However, it would have to depend on how the Canadian government chooses to enforce the 14-day quarantine for those entering the country. The other two Canadian cities under consideration besides Toronto are Edmonton and Vancouver.

Training camps are reportedly set to open for the 24 remaining teams on July 10, but there is obviously still plenty more to be worked out and made official before the season can be allowed to restart.