from the CP at NHL.com,

This week, Las Vegas hopes to shine bright as the centre of the hockey universe.

With expansion buzz impossible to ignore, Sin City welcomes the NHL this week for yet another awards show. But most importantly general managers and the board of governors meet to determine the league's short- and long-term future.

The hockey world will be in town to see Las Vegas at its sizzling finest.

"Big events and hospitality is what we do," Cara Clarke of the Las Vegas Metro chamber of commerce said. "That's Las Vegas."

For the first time, GMs will meet in Las Vegas and at an opportune time for trade talk leading up to this weekend's draft in Sunrise, Fla. Previously they met at the Stanley Cup final.

With the Chicago Blackhawks and other teams up against the salary cap, the landscape is primed for movement.

"Everybody sort of trying to get a real good solid view of the landscape ahead of each and every one of us heading into the draft," Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney said on a conference call last week. "I think everybody is sort of in the same boat and taking inventory."

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