Bettman Defends the Knights; Quebec Will Have to Wait; Radio Silence on Broadcast Rights

Marc-Olivier Cook
Bettman Defends the Knights; Quebec Will Have to Wait; Radio Silence on Broadcast Rights
Credit: Capture d'écran / X

Gary Bettman and Bill Daly have set the record straight regarding the Bruce Cassidy situation.

And obviously… this is likely to spark a reaction.

According to Bettman, the fact that the Vegas Golden Knights are refusing to grant Cassidy permission to speak with another team is “completely reasonable” when you look at the terms of his contract, which have been reviewed by the NHL.

Basically, the league believes that Vegas is within its rights to block any discussions for now and that there is no issue with how the Golden Knights have handled the situation, which has been the subject of much discussion in recent weeks.

What do you think?

But Bill Daly's comment is particularly interesting.

The deputy commissioner essentially suggested that we'll have to wait until after the season to “see how the situation develops.”

This will obviously fuel even more rumors surrounding the future of the former Golden Knights head coach, especially with several teams potentially looking for a big name behind the bench this summer. 

No expansion in sight: Quebec will have to wait

The commissioner also commented on the possibility of expansion.

Bettman confirmed—once again—that there are several groups and markets interested in securing a new National Hockey League franchise.

The interest is very real… but despite that, Bettman says the NHL is not currently considering expansion. Quebec City will have to wait a little longer!

It's a refrain we've heard often in recent years: the league enjoys receiving inquiries and meeting with potential investors… but it doesn't seem in a hurry to add new teams following the arrivals of the Seattle Kraken and the Vegas Golden Knights.

Of course, that doesn't mean it will never happen… but for now, it's pretty clear.

And it makes you wonder when we'll see the next team join the National Hockey League…

Still nothing on the next broadcast deal

Speaking of the next NHL broadcast deal, let's just say Gary Bettman hasn't said much that's particularly concrete.

But he did make a point of stating this:

I'm confident there will be robust distribution of our games on a French-language platform when the next season begins […] I think media markets everywhere are more unpredictable than before. – Gary Bettman

The commissioner mentioned that the league is still working on the issue and that we're still waiting to see what will officially happen with the next broadcast deal. But this issue is starting to drag on a bit…

We know that TVA Sports will remain an NHL broadcaster and that some games will also be shown on RDS.

But as for the rest… it's pretty thin, for now.

And I wonder why it's taking so long to get answers to our questions!


In a nutshell

– Stay tuned.

– Happy birthday!

– That would be quite a story.

– Yeah!

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