According to a report in The Globe and Mail, the NHL is hoping to expand to Europe by the year 2018.
"As time goes on, you'll see us making increasing movement into Europe," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told the newspaper. "Certainly it's a possibility that within 10 years time we will be playing games there."
Daly said that he hoped to see expansion within 10 years but there were no guarantees.
Although not opposed to European expansion, Carolina Hurricanes president and general manager questions whether European cities can support NHL teams financially and would like to to see the league put teams back in Canada first.
"[European] cities do a good job for international hockey tournaments, but can those cities afford NHL prices for 42 regular-season games plus playoffs?" Rutherford told the Globe. "I don't know the answer, but if they can, then at some point there will be expansion in Europe.
"But first we have to expand a couple more teams back into Canada, get back into Winnipeg and put another team in Ontario before we see expansion to Europe."
