New information surfaces on the upcoming Sens games in Quebec city
The issue of a possible return of the Nordiques to Quebec City has made headlines in the province on several occasions over the past ten years.
However, hockey fans in the Quebec City area have yet to see their NHL team return and the project has seemed to stall for the past few years.
At the end of 2021, Quebec Premier François Legault rekindled the flame by delegating his Minister of Finance, Éric Girard, to the file and Girard even met with NHL executives to demonstrate that Quebec City was still interested in hosting an NHL team.
Even if this meeting did not necessarily have the results desired by the people involved in the project, we learned a real bombshell today.
As reported by Marco Normandin of Habsolumentfan.com, La Presse reporter Denis Lessard mentions that the NHL is currently in serious talks with the Quebec government, Quebecor and Quebec City with the goal of presenting no less than five Ottawa Senators regular-season games at the Centre Vidéotron as early as next season.
However, there is no mention of a possible move of the Senators to Quebec City, nor of a possible shared custody, as Major League Baseball had considered with Montreal and the Tampa Bay Rays
Still according to the journalist, Bettman would not really see any obstacle to this project becoming a reality, even if it is still currently in the preliminary stage.
This is something to give hope to supporters of the return of the Nordiques to Quebec City who, it must be said, have been scalded in the past.
But could it not be a strategy of the NHL to use Quebec City to put pressure on the Senators organization?
At least that's what Alain Sanscartier thought when he spoke to 91.9 Sports in Montreal.
For now, it's hard to say if this is a pressure tactic or not, since this news comes just two days after the death of Senators owner Eugene Melnyk.
Whether the project works or not, every time the NHL is associated with Quebec City, it raises passions across the province.
On this subject, there's even Quebec's finance minister, Eric Girard, who has spoken out. Really interesting:
| POLL | ||
Do you think the NHL is still using Quebec City to put pressure other locations? | ||
| Yes | 132 | 72.1 % |
| No | 51 | 27.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
