A fancy rendering of the proposed arena. (National Post) More NHL: | | | | | If player added a few embers to the growing expansion fire, former NHLPA head Paul Kelly and the city of Markham, Ontario, have added a few gallons of gasoline on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.The city has been in the planning phase of building a new NHL-ready arena in the suburb of Toronto. The city council held a Genard Avery Jersey meeting Tuesday to decide if the plans should move forward. Council members voted at almost 3 a.m., and the vote was , which would include the city borrowing $325 million to build an arena. It doesn't mean the arena will definitely happen now; it just means the proce s isn't done and the dream lives on.It's a pretty big gamble for the city to make, committing so much money for a new arena that has no guarantee of a permanent tenant. It would still have concerts and Baker Mayfield Jersey other such events coming in, but the intended prize is an NHL franchise. That's where Kelly came in. Speaking in front of the council, he made a case for why they should feel secure in building an arena, because the NHL is about to get bigger.From .It's usually the case that where Chris Hubbard Jersey there's smoke there's fire, and there has been a lot of smoke on this i sue for months. There are a few markets that seem like po sible NHL destinations (Seattle being another), and with the NHL's proposed realignment plan leaving uneven conferences, the pieces of the puzzle seem to fit.Just don't get ahead of yourselves. NHL Deputy Commi sioner Bill Daly again the NHL's stance that expansion is not absolutely coming to the NHL again.Things aren't adding up here. Either Greg Joseph Jersey they don't speak the same languages, or somebody is lying. It's probably more the former than the latter -- and two people not being on the same page. However, it does make a lot of sense to expand to two more teams in markets that you know would be succe sful and add to the overall revenue streams of the league in a positive way.Kelly's statements were strong and as close to definitive as we've seen, mostly because of the setting: a meeting of a city council weighing the proposal's risks with a city's financial future potentially on the line. Obviously an a surance that "if you build it, they will come" will help them go through with the arena because if they do get an NHL team, it will be a big moneymaker (even after compensating Toronto for moving JC Tretter Jersey in on their territory).Because the vote to end the planning failed, the dream of an arena in Markham lives on, and with it, so does the dream of expansion.