Is Toronto getting a second NHL team by 2017?

A tweet by Howard Bloom of @SportsBizNews late Tuesday night suggested that the NHL will expand by four teams in three years, with new franchises in Seattle, Las Vegas, Quebec City and Toronto.

The league would get a total of $1.4 billion in expansion fees, according to the tweet.

The NHL shot down the report Wednesday morning.

“Not in our plans. Nothing new to report on expansion,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told TVA sports.

“No,” Daly told the Star when asked if the league would comment.

The four cities have been mentioned every time there’s talk of expansion in the NHL but it would be surprising that all four would get a team at once.

The NHL has 16 teams in the Eastern Conference and 14 in the West which has led to speculation that the league would be interested in adding two teams to balance the two conferences, making Seattle and Las Vegas attractive markets.

The Vancouver Province reported Tuesday that an expansion team in Las Vegas is a “done deal.”

In Seattle, billionaire Victor Coleman and Seattle-based Chris Hansen reportedly have an agreement in place regarding NHL expansion.

Local government, however, is more interested in bringing an NBA team back to Seattle first, a project also involving Hansen. Unlike other potential NHL destinations such as Quebec City and Las Vegas, Seattle does not have any current plans to build a new arena.

The NHL hasn’t expanded in almost 15 years, since Columbus and Minnesota were added in 2000.

Last season, while reportedly scouting Target Field and TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis as sites for future outdoor games, commissioner Gary Bettman told the Star Tribune: “There’s a lot of interest (in expansion). We’re hearing from multiple groups in Seattle . . . and in Vegas, in Kansas City and Quebec City. We haven’t decided to engage in formal expansion process, but as we always do, we listen to expressions of interest. There may be good reasons to expand, there may not be. It’s not something we’ve seriously considered yet.”

Any expansion from 30 teams would require approval from the board of governors.

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