The National Hockey League announced its 31st franchise on Wednesday, June 22 in Las Vegas prior to the 2016 NHL Awards. Las Vegas finally received their official announcement that they will join the League for play.

The new team will begin play for the 2017-18 season and will be joining the Pacific Division. The current playoff format will not be impacted by the addition of the team, but the expansion draft that will take place next summer will impact each team individually.

The Expansion Draft

The expansion draft will take place in June of 2017. As per the rules the NHL released for the expansion draft, the new franchise will have to select one player from each team for 30 total players. At least 20 of these players must be under contract for the 2017-18 season. The selections must come together as 14 forwards, nine defensemen, and three goaltenders.

Each team will have the opportunity to submit a protection list that follows one of two options given to them by the League. The first option allows a team to protect seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goaltender; the second option allows the team to protect eight skaters (forwards or defensemen) and one goaltender.

With these protections available, first or second-year players and unsigned draft picks will be exempt from selection and any player with a no movement clause, who decides not to waive this right, will count towards the team’s protected list.

At the minimum, teams must have at least one defensemen and two forwards, who are under contract for the 2017-18 season and have played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season (or 70 in the prior two seasons). Teams must also have at least one goalie available who is under contract for the 2017-18 season or will be a restricted free agent before this season.

All teams must submit their protection lists by June 17, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. EST. The new Las Vegas franchise will have to have selected all of their players by 5 p.m. EST on June 20th, but these players will not be announced until the following day, June 21st.

As for the 2017 NHL Draft, the Vegas franchise will have the same odds as a team finishing with the third-lowest point total in the 2016-17 season and will pick no later than sixth in the first round, and third in every round after that.

Welcome to the League

Now that Las Vegas is officially the newest NHL franchise, fans have been buzzing with excitement in anticipation of the team’s official arrival.

With a destination, an arena, and a game plan for the roster in place, most of the talk has been revolving around  what the team name and logo might be. Despite rumors swirling around with various name and logo ideas, nothing is official yet, but when it is it will cause just as much excitement as the announcement of the team itself.

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