Major announcement confirms expansion teams are incoming to two NHL cities who already have teams

On Thursday, it was confirmed by a NHL team's play-by-play announcer and several other sources that a 'major sports announcement' is incoming in a city which already holds a National Hockey League franchise, in a press conference that is set to take place next Wednesday.

Many took that message with a grain of salt until Sportsnet themselves echoed the news in their own report just hours later.

The city of Vancouver will be receiving their second-highlest level hockey franchise in the PWHL (Professional Women's Hockey League) expansion, which will be deeming the Pacific Coliseum their arena.

This past season the PWHL held a Takeover Tour in which they played games across several cities, posting up historic numbers and blowing NHL team's game attendance count out of the water.

One of those Takeover Tour games was played at Rogers Arena in January between the Toronto Sceptres and the Montreal Victoire, which drew 19,038 fans, which marked the greatest attendance out of any Canucks game this season.

The city of Vancouver had a pro women's team two decades ago, and it lasted just a couple seasons before they folded the franchise, making this decision to deliver a PWHL team to Vancouver quite controversial.

In Sportsnet's report, it was also revealed that Seattle will be receiving their second hockey franchise as well, per announcement in 'short order' which includes a new PWHL team in the city.

PWHL teams are owned/managed by Mark Walter, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who's the league's only investor.

The league currently has six teams: Montreal, Ottawa, Minnesota, Toronto, Boston and New York.