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The NHL Just Decided To Put A New Team In This City

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David Hookstead Sports And Entertainment Editor
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Seattle is officially getting an NHL team after a vote Tuesday from the Board of Governors.

CBS Sports reported the following:

The NHL voted unanimously in favor of expansion at the league’s Board of Governors meeting in Georgia on Tuesday, officially green-lighting a 32nd franchise in Seattle. 

The nine-member executive committee heard Seattle’s presentation in October before voting unanimously to move the matter to the full board, then unanimously approving the expansion on Tuesday. Three-quarters of the league’s current 31 owners needed to vote positively for the vote to officially pass.

Seattle’s franchise will join the league starting with the 2021-22 season.

You can watch a video of commissioner Gary Bettman’s press conference Tuesday announcing the news below.

This has been in the works for awhile now, and it shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody who follows hockey. Believe it or not, I actually think an NHL team in Seattle is going to be a smashing success. Fans in Washington are a passionate group of people. There’s no doubt about that at all. Just look at how they treat the Seahawks or how pissed they were when the Supersonics left. (RELATED: Seattle Is Close To Getting An NHL Team)

We also all know hockey fans are by far and away the most passionate fans in all of sports. We’re like a pack of rabid animals.

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It’ll be interesting to see if Seattle’s expansion has the same early success the Vegas Golden Knights did in their inaugural year. They made the Stanley Cup final. That’s not something I think anybody expected.

An expansion team doing that again is highly unlikely, but at least Seattle now has another pro franchise to go crazy over. I have no doubt the fans will be very excited.