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Bettman: Get the Isles to Brooklyn ASAP

Gary Bettman

National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman speaks during a press conference, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012 in New York, announcing that the Islanders hockey club will move from Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., and play at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center starting in 2015. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

AP

You may recall earlier this month when it was reported that the New York Islanders may depart for Brooklyn after the 2013-14 season, one year earlier than their move from Nassau Coliseum to the Barclays Center was originally planned.

Well, that would be just fine with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

“I’d like to see them in the newer building as soon as possible,” said Bettman, speaking at the Associated Press Sports Editors commissioners meeting, per Newsday.

For now, the Isles’ lease at Nassau Coliseum expires at the end of the 2014-15 season. And according to Bettman, the Islanders are “prepared to fulfill their obligations under their burdensome lease.”

But, “If Nassau County was inclined to let them go earlier, I know they would go.”

The Islanders -- who are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2007 -- believe that the move to Brooklyn will, among other things, help them attract free agents that may not have wanted to play at the team’s current rink (which is, in fact, anything but current).

Meanwhile...