While there were a number of ownership groups that expressed interest in the NHL's expansion plan, by the Monday 5 p.m. ET deadline, only two submitted an official application, with prospective ownership groups in Las Vegas and Quebec confirming that they've submitted bids, as reported by CBSSports.

As part of the application, the ownership groups were required to pay $10 million, $2 million of which is non-refundable. As noted by the report, the fee exists to help separate the serious bidders from pretenders during the application process.

The Las Vegas ownership group, Las Vegas Hockey Vision, is lead by Bill Foley and includes the Maloof family (former owners of the NBA's Sacramento Kings), according to Scott Burnside of ESPN.com. The application was filed under "Black Knight Sports and Entertainment LLC," as noted by Burnside.

The other group that applied is Quebecor, a Canadian telecommunications company that has under its umbrella TVA Sports"”the NHL rights holder for French-language TV, among others. The group hopes to bring a hockey team back to Quebec after it lost the Nordiques ahead of the 1995-96 season, a team now known as the Colorado Avalanche.

CBSSports.com points out that the two cities have always been the most likely sites for expansion as both already have in place NHL-ready facilities. A potential Las Vegas team would play in a new arena being built by AEG and MGM Resorts, a facility that holds about 18,000 spectators for hockey, according to the report.

Quebec City, for its part, has the recently completed Videotron Centre, which holds 18,000+ spectators for hockey. The facility is already set to be the home of QMJHL's Quebec Remparts, but was originally built with the intention bringing an NHL team back to the city, as noted by the report.

The CBSSports.com report points out that the league believes it can charge new ownership groups expansion fees that could reach $500 million, which it would spread out to other member clubs.