For months, the NHL has been linked to the new arena being constructed on the Las Vegas strip - a $375-million project financed privately by MGM Grand and AEG. Despite the league's repeated denials, details about a potential deal continue to surface.

This past week, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly admitted he met with potential owners and even toured the facility while in Las Vegas on *cough* unrelated business. It was then reported that the NHL has gone so far as to single out a potential ownership group: billionaire wine aficionado William Foley and Las Vegas veterans the Maloof brothers.

On Monday, at the PrimeTime Sports Management Conference and Trade Show in Toronto, On., Daly obliquely addressed the progress the league has made on bringing an NHL club to Las Vegas:

Daly on Vegas for #NHL expansion: it hasn't really been "teed up" for BoG to make any decisions on. #PrimeTimeSE — Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) November 17, 2014

"We, as a league, have never been more stable" Daly added, according to John Matisz of Sun Media. "We're not considering relocation at all."

Daly has consistently denied veteran New York Post columnist Larry Brooks' reports that the perpetually struggling Arizona Coyotes could relocate to Las Vegas, describing such information as "completely untrue" in an e-mail to the National Post last month.

It's worth noting that the MGM Grand arena is over 500 days away from opening in the spring of 2016, so the league has time to work out specifics.

As Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman pointed out over the weekend:

If the NHL goes into Las Vegas, will it be an expansion team? There’s no need to answer that question now. With a couple years to wait, the league can decide if it will be expansion or if anyone needs to be moved.

While the specter of relocation will continue to hang over struggling markets like Glendale, Ariz., and Broward County, Fla., the terms of the 2013 NHL/NHLPA collective bargaining agreement place potential expansion fees outside the purview of Hockey Related Revenue.

In simpler English: NHL owners will receive all revenue from any expansion fees paid to the league without having to share it with the players.

TSN's Rick Westhead reported in September that the league could command $1.2 billion in expansion fees for a second NHL franchise in the Greater Toronto Area. It goes without saying that expansion fees for a Las Vegas franchise would likely be far more pedestrian.