Good Morning Toronto Maple Leafs fans!

Last night Seattle city council voted 7-1 in favour of a Memorandum of Understanding between the city and the Los Angeles-based Oak View Group, who is run by former MLSE boss Tim Lieiweke.

Oak View Group has said they would invest $600 million into the Key Arena, former home of the NBA Seattle Supersonics.

Is an NHL announcement coming soon? Seattle was always one of the cities brought up when expansion was talked about, and the Western Conference is still one team short of the Eastern Conference. The renovations aren’t expected to be complete until 2020, so we have a couple years to figure this out.

The Houston Rockets owner has also been sniffing around the league, so if they want expansion before then, Seattle could always be used as a landing spot for relocation.

One thing that could get in the way? The next lockout. The current CBA expires just before the 2019-20 season. There’s nothing that will build hype for a new team like the owners locking out the players yet again.

Come on, you know they want to do it, it’s tradition!

Here’s the rest of the news.

Centre of Leafs Nation has a look at Drew Doughty

Puck Daddy reviews the Leafs annual Sick Kids trip.

Brendan Gallagher is good, and HEOTP looks into why.

Speaking of arena talk, here come the Islanders! (Lighthouse Hockey)

Conor Timmins is pretty good at hockey (Mile High Hockey)

Enjoy your day!

From The Branches