Superstar hockey reporter and our all time favorite person named Pierre, Pierre LeBrun has uncovered some incredibly interesting nuggets about what’s actually being discussed in the Board of Governors meetings about expansion.

One GM said to me he saw the proposed rules and he goes, ‘You could lose one of your best young players under what’s being proposed right now.’ -Pierre LeBrun

“Under the proposed rules.” Which means, there are proposed rules. They are indeed discussing topics well beyond “do we actually want to expand.”

What the executive committee has been shown as the original ideas from the league for an expansion draft has them being exposed and losing some pretty good players.

We speculated this might be the case based on the ridiculous $500 million cost of the franchise. The assumption was if the league was going to charge so much, they would have to give the new team(s) a real chance. This quote further confirms the league is indeed proposing rules which would leave some excellent players unprotected.

The unnamed GM did go on to say however the decision on whether or not to expand has not been set in stone yet.

So that’s part of the debate as well, is the yin and yang of, ‘Do we want new teams,’ and ‘How much are we going to enjoy losing a really good player or two in the expansion draft?’

Here’s the problem with the statement. If the rules are “too loose” for the liking of the owners, it absolutely should not be the reason Vegas is denied get a team. Of course The Creator, his organization, and us fans all want the team to get the best talent possible, but I’m sure we would all agree we’d rather have a bad team than no team.

This does mark the first time we’ve had a great source confirming the owners are hung up on expansion rules. We appear to have fully clearly the, “is Vegas good enough” stage, which means just one thing. It’s only a matter of time til our dreams become a reality.