Report: NHL, NHLPA agree to expansion draft concept

Another checkpoint has apparently been reached in the expansion process.

TSN's Gary Lawless reported Friday morning that the NHL and NHPLA have agreed in principal to an expansion draft model and mandate on existing no-movement clauses.

Lawless notes this doesn't mean that expansion is imminent, but that the agreement is a "major hurdle cleared" in the process because it couldn't be recommended by the NHL's executive committee without proper regulation in place.

The NHL's working concept is believed to have each team losing one player per expansion entity, with the option to protect either seven forwards, three defensemen, and a goaltender, or eight skaters and a goaltender.

Groups from Las Vegas and Quebec City are currently working through the NHL's exhaustive application process in hopes of obtaining a franchise for the 2017-18 season.

If one, or both, is granted a team, the NHL's expansion draft, with the rules apparently now agreed upon, figures to take place at some point just over a year from now.