George and Gordon Gund, owners of the...

George and Gordon Gund, owners of the Minnesota North Stars, are expected to ask the NHL Board of Governors today to approve the purchase of their hockey team by Howard Baldwin, the Hartford Whalers’ former chairman, and Morris Belzberg, a retired rental car agency executive, for about $31.5 million.

As part of the deal, the Gunds would get an expansion franchise in the San Francisco area for the 1991-92 season--a year earlier than the NHL had planned to expand. The expansion team would play in the Cow Palace, near San Francisco, for a year before moving into a new facility in San Jose.