What's next for the NHL and the Metaverse?

Los Angeles Kings president Luc Robitaille had just seen the future.

It was a Stanley Cup Playoff game in May, and the Kings were putting some dizzying imagery on their arena video screens, with 3D images of players.

"It was really cool, actually," the Hockey Hall of Famer said. "The guys were going off the ice, changing. And we had our mascot dancing on top of them while that was going on."

"You had to kind of do a double-take. It's something different that no one's ever seen before. But as an organization, we feel it's important to try new things."

In this case, the new thing was the Metaverse, a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social interaction. Or, more specifically, bringing the…