from Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

The league's executive committee will not meet until the NHL's Board of Governors meetings, scheduled for Dec. 7 and 8 in Pebble Beach, Calif. The 10-man committee has been studying the issue of expansion and is supposed to make its recommendations at some point to the entire 30-member Board of Governors. Las Vegas and Quebec City are vying for expansion teams.

It's unlikely a vote on expansion would be on the agenda for that meeting, according to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly.

"Given where we are in the process, it is clear that expansion will not be voted on in December," Daly said Wednesday in an email to the Review-Journal.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman repeatedly has said there is no hard timetable for a decision on expansion, and that the executive committee would discuss the situation before any further action on the subject was taken.

The agenda for the Dec. 7 and 8 meeting will be set the week before. If the owners decide to wait, which appears to be the case, the next opportunity to meet and possibly vote on expansion would be in late January when the NHL has its All-Star Weekend in Nashville, Tenn.

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