Gary Bettman drops some bombshells at major press conference Monday.

The National Hockey League's commissioner held a major press conference on Monday and despite the fact that it's not yet over, he's already delivered some huge pieces of news.

Here are the three biggest stories to emerge from the press conference so far.

Number one and by far the biggest, Bettman all but confirmed that unless something major changes, the National Hockey League and their players will not be participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics, which would mean that one of the Olympics main attractions, the hockey tournament, would be severely diminished. Bettman stated that the IIHF and the Olympic Committee need to cover the cost or the NHL will not return.

The second and probably the most shocking news of the day came on the expansion front. With everyone expecting the NHL to announce an expansion team in Las Vegas for the 2017-2018 season we instead received the news that expansion could be delayed until the 2018-2019 season. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed that bit of news to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston, but did not rule out the possibility of 2017-2018.

The third piece of news is also very interesting, albeit likely to a smaller number of hockey fans. It was announced by Bettman that both owners Mario Lemiuex and Ron Burkle are no longer "aggressively" trying to sell the Penguins.

This statement raises a few more question, first how much did their success in the playoffs impact their decision making process? And second are they still trying to sell the team albeit less aggressively? 

It's a lot to digest and there may be more to come.

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