The NHL is ready to roll the dice on Las Vegas.

A person with direct knowledge of the NHL’s decision says the league has settled on Las Vegas as the home for its next expansion franchise, provided organizers can come up with a $500 million fee.

The person spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because details of the plans have not been released by the league ahead of its Board of Governors meeting on June 22 in Las Vegas. Quebec City was also strongly considered for expansion.

A second person who had been briefed on the decision said Las Vegas was a “done deal” following the recommendation of the NHL’s executive committee.

The Vegas franchise is expected to begin play in the 2017-18 season, which is the earliest the league could expand, according to a third person who has been briefed on the decision.

The franchise would be the NHL’s 31st team and the first major professional sports franchise in Las Vegas.

DUCKS: Anaheim re-hired Randy Carlyle, welcoming back the franchise’s only Stanley Cup-winning coach 41/2 years after firing him.

Carlyle replaces Bruce Boudreau, who replaced Carlyle on Nov. 30, 2011, early in Carlyle’s seventh season in charge of the Ducks.

Carlyle, 60, led the Ducks to the 2007 Stanley Cup title during parts of seven seasons in charge, going 273-182-61 and becoming the winningest coach in franchise history.

Boudreau went 208-104-40 in Anaheim while winning the last four Pacific Division titles and falling one game short of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. He was still fired by GM Bob Murray on April 29 after Nashville eliminated the Ducks, who lost a Game 7 on home ice for the fourth consecutive season.

Carlyle spent parts of four seasons in charge of the Maple Leafs after his ouster in Anaheim, and he moved back to Southern California after his firing in January 2015. He attended many games at Honda Center, usually sitting in the press box and taking notes while waiting for another NHL job.

• Center Nate Thompson will be sidelined for several months after tearing his Achilles tendon during an offseason workout.

Gordie Howe’s casket was guided down a hallway, flanked by some of the biggest names in sports: Wayne Gretzky, Scotty Bowman and Al Kaline.

The pallbearers moved Mr. Hockey’s brown, rose-adorned casket down a long strip of red carpet through the middle of a darkened Joe Louis Arena – with a “9” illuminated on both sides – and toward the opposite end of the iceless rink.

“It was one of the great honors of my life,” Gretzky said. “He was everything to me.”

Thousands of people, famous and those relatively anonymous, stood in line and waited to their pay respects to Howe, a Hockey Hall of Famer and one of the most revered athletes in NHL history who died Friday at the age of 88. The home of the Detroit Red Wings, Howe’s team for more than two decades and four Stanley Cup championships, was opened from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. – for No. 9, of course – and the public turned out in droves.

Howe’s retired No. 9 jersey was lowered to just above his casket and the Stanley Cup banners he helped the Red Wings win in the early 1950s were lowered off to each side. Video monitors below the banners showed a streaming gallery of pictures, including some from the early part of his career in the 1940s, toward the end of it when he played professional hockey with his sons, and after he hung up his skates.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is expected to attend Howe’s funeral, which is also expected to be open to the public, on Thursday morning in Detroit.