Bill Daly Q&A: NHL Deputy Commissioner On Russian Participation, Expansion, And More

With a rising salary cap, expansion quickly coming to the forefront, and a new CBA kicking in, it's been a busy summer of pivotal changes around the NHL.

Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly addressed all of these topics and more when The Hockey News' David Alter sat down with him for an exclusive Q&A at the league's European Media Tour stop in Munich.

During this stop the league announced its multi-year partnership with German soccer club FC Bayern Munich, as well as its plans to head to Cologne and Munich for the 2027 Global Series.

Here is that conversation between Alter and Daly, lightly edited for clarity.

The Hockey News: Why was Germany a target place to expand the NHL's global footprint?

Bill Daly: We actually did commission an analysis of potential markets in Europe, in terms of prioritizing, and Germany came back by all measures to be a real prospect market to develop.

Obviously we already have a good strong player base from Germany. We think that's going to grow. I think the Deutsche Hockey League and the German Federation have done a great job developing players and continue to develop players and we're looking to assist in that process for sure.

It's a mature economy here that loves its sports. all that put together, it made sense for us to kind of put an emphasis on growing the game in Germany.

THN: What feedback were you able to take from Italy last year with the partnerships with AC Milan and Inter Milan?

Daly: I think we're certainly not threatening to football here. They don't view us as a threat and they do view us as an ally in expanding their reach in North America. The relationships we're entering into will be beneficial on both sides. Certainly that's the thought. Having access to the fan base these major football clubs have here in Europe is going to be really key and critical to our growth and our ability to grow here.

THN: Speaking of growing the game, the 2028 World Cup Of Hockey. There hasn't been a lot announced there yet. Will Russia be or not be in it? I know you guys have to defer to what the IIHF says, or maybe not, just because it is your tournament. Where are you on that?

Daly: We've done a lot more probably behind the scenes than certainly the public-facing announcements would suggest. Obviously, there is a question as to who are going to be, what countries are going to be represented. There are going to be eight country, states, or teams. We've made that clear.

To some extent, we are waiting a little bit to see what happens geopolitically with the Russian state. I don't think we're tied necessarily to where the IIHF is, or the IOC for that matter, but the IOC certainly has softened its stance with respect to Russian participation. That's become clear.

I think the sands are still shifting a little bit. Obviously at some point we're going to have to make announcements and decisions, so I'd say that continues to be a work in progress.

THN: Do you foresee any participation outside of the NHL, or do you feel like there's enough to field just NHL-affiliated players for this tournament?

Daly: No, a number of countries will have, you know, I think all countries will have NHL representation, but clearly there will be some countries with two-thirds European league participation and one-third NHL participation. It's been pretty natural. I think we'll have an all-time high in terms of the number of NHL players who are participating in the World Cup, but that doesn't cover everybody.

THN: Let's talk about the league for a bit. It's been one year since you guys have put in different rules in the salary cap. What's the feedback been like?

Daly: We certainly were able to avoid having any kind of controversy around the team, perhaps icing players with higher salaries than their salary cap would have allowed them to ice. I didn't think personally it was an abusive situation before, but I think the cleanup certainly helped, and certainly helps from a perception standpoint. So it was positive.

THN: I imagine also just the fact that the cap went up and it wasn't at the baseline made it less necessary to look at that, just because there's room.

Daly: I would think you're right. The cap went up significantly last year and it's going to go up significantly again this year. I think we get to $113.5 (million), being kind of the target cap starting in the '27-28 season and it's going to go up from there. That certainly lessens any pressure to kind of do cap avoidance type transactions.

Having said that, I think the clubs understand what the salary cap's about and why it's important. I think we're in good shape.

THN: Are you guys still on your projections from what Gary (Bettman) gave? I think it was around a year ago where he had the three-year projections?

Daly: Yeah, I mean, those were kind of plug numbers that we really negotiated. It was a product of the negotiation more than anything else, in terms of where we thought the business would progress. Is there any reason to revisit them? No, I don't think at this point in time.

Certainly we had a situation with COVID and with paying the players basically in full during COVID times when revenues weren't being generated, and then having to pay the clubs back for that. That's kind of what led to the flattening. But I think we're back on to the growth model.

THN: Speaking of growth, you guys announced that Houston is a potential market for expansion. Why just the one that you're looking at right now, and where do you kind of see that going, and what's the benchmark for expansion?

Daly: We're not hung up on the numbers in terms of one versus two. If you look back to what we did in Vegas and Seattle they were not a pair of expansion franchises we decided to add. We did that clearly one at a time and it worked fine so we think that same model certainly could prevail again.

We're just farther along in our discussions with the interest that developed in Texas. As we began those discussions, which was probably several years ago now, it was focused on Houston. As we progressed, the alternative to Austin was raised, and certainly I think our ownership group is willing to consider the benefits of expansion at Austin, although I still think the priority is probably Houston.

We hope to have definitive agreements in place that would commit the franchise as early as December this year. We expect that they'll be able to begin play as early as the '29-30 season, closing the transaction early 2029.

THN: How serious are expressions of interest in Canada? Do they come around anymore? Is it one of these things where, there's all this talk about growing it in the United States or U.S. markets, but there's Canadian fans?

I'm asking this because I'm Canadian. It's something that I always get asked about. Or considering the dynamics and economic changes, is it the case th that the expression of interest in serious advanced negotiations are mostly just in the U.S.?

Daly: I think the latter, probably. I'd say the interest in terms of owning and operating a franchise in Canada is less vibrant than it is for some markets in the United States. Obviously, we were impressed with the Quebec City bid for expansion around the time that we admitted the Vegas Golden Knights.

While the facility is first rate and great and we think the city can work because of the passion for hockey, we don't really have a potential ownership group that is willing to step forward or has said they want to buy a franchise and want to operate in Quebec City.

If and when that were to happen, that's something that obviously we would evaluate at the time, because we think there are a lot of positives about Quebec City and potentially adding a franchise there.

But right now, I'm not sure our vision is necessarily shared by anybody else, so we'll see. With respect to other expansion interests in Canada, kind of bona fide interest from real cities, is fairly low. I think we're in most of the big cities in Canada already.

THN: The CHL-NHL agreement that was in the CBA, have you guys finalized that yet?

Daly: We have. We did modify the approach, obviously with the input and approval of the Players Association. But the approach now is going to really be any player who is a 19-year-old player who was drafted in the first round of the draft is eligible for assignment for the AHL.

Each club won't be limited to one. If you happen to have two players or three players that fit that category, you have the ability or option or alternative to loan all three players to the AHL. I don't anticipate that's a lot of clubs or a lot of movement at this point, but we'll see how it plays out if you're interested.

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