Though the city of Seattle failed to place a bid for an expansion NHL franchise before Monday's deadline, the league seems interested in the Pacific Northwest.
The NHL has invited the group headed by Ray Bartoszek to a meeting at the league offices in New York, an NHL source said, according to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times.
The news comes after Baker reported on Monday that despite Bartoszek failing to place a bid – citing the $500-million price tag as the group's biggest obstacle – that he was still actively pursuing an arena deal in the Seattle area.
It will be interesting to see how far these talks go or what comes out of them, especially after the NHL stated Tuesday that it plans to focus exclusively on the bids placed in Las Vegas and Quebec, the only two bids the league received.
-With h/t to ProHockeyTalk