TSN Hockey Insiders Bob McKenzie, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger gathered for the latest installment of Insider Trading and the topics discussed included bubble players for Team Canada, NHL expansion,Morgan Rielly's status for the World Juniors, Dion Phaneuf's contract talks and more.
Q: Team Canada announces their Olympic roster three weeks from today. Who is general manager Steve Yzerman watching?
LeBrun: Over the last 48 hours, he's taken in the home-and-home between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche with Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene being the obvious targets. They're both on the bubble to make that team. Another candidate to a certain degree is Tyler Seguin but I would suggest he's a longshot at this point. The depth at centre and right wing and the immaturity in Seguin's game probably hurt him from making Team Canada.
Q: What the latest on NHL expansion? Where and when?
McKenzie: The NHL party line hasn't changed. There are no formal plans for expansion but if they expand and everyone assumes at some point, they're going to, the common knowledge is that Seattle is the primary target in the Pacific Northwest. The strong sense I'm getting now is that Las Vegas is second on that list behind Seattle and the NHL wants to be the first major professional sports league to put a franchise in Las Vegas. People in Quebec City may be saying, 'Hey, what about us?' Well, keep in mind, there's not rule that says if they expand, that they only expand by two teams. The possibility of expanding by three teams, with Quebec City being one of them, is at least something that will be considered. There's lots of money in expansion; over $300 million per franchise, close to a $1 billion winfall that isn't shared with the players or anyone else, just the owners.
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