After being briefed on the bids Tuesday by the executive committee, the NHL’s board of governors are expected to mull over the pros and cons of expansion and make a decision on whether to move forward with expansion at the board’s meetings in California on Dec. 7-8. If the executive committee does recommend the league expands, a three-quarters vote of the 30 governors is required to pass.

But NHL commissioner Gary Bettman reiterated Tuesday that there is no firm deadline the league will follow in deciding on expansion and the final decision may in fact be not to expand at all.

"There’s much work to be done," Bettman told reporters in New York late Tuesday after the governors’ meeting ended.

He warned that there would be at least one more meeting of the board before a decision was made and left the door open to more. He also repeated that there is no "pre-determined outcome" for the expansion process.

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