Seattle expansion group hires Dave Tippett as senior advisor

The Tod Leiweke-led group that's bidding to bring an NHL expansion team to Seattle has hired Dave Tippett as a senior advisor, according to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times.

Tippett, who last served as the head coach and VP of hockey operations with the Arizona Coyotes, is expected to help oversee the expansion process and give feedback on items such as the construction of a training facility and acquiring an AHL affiliate.

"There are a lot of times where you need somebody with some hockey experience, whether it be infrastructure like the dressing rooms, the training facilities, or putting together the groundwork of what a skeleton hockey staff would look like," Tippett told Baker.

"First and foremost, operationally, you have to set the culture of the organization,’" he added. "There are a lot of key things, like where the infrastructure of the team is going to be and figuring out the market. But the ability to define the culture of a team that can really grow and prosper, that's first and foremost.

"It comes before you start hiring people. Before you start getting players and doing drafts and stuff like that."

Some have also speculated that Tippett could become the team's first head coach, but no decision will be made on that front until the franchise is awarded, which won't happen until at least September.

"We'll see, I'm not ruling it out," Tippett said of returning to coaching. "It would have to be the right situation.

"But also, I'm intrigued about getting into another part of the game with this."

The NHL Board of Governors will meet this week, but commissioner Gary Bettman has already noted that Seattle expansion won't be on the agenda, leaving the meetings in September and December as the earliest the Seattle group can be awarded a franchise.