The Colorado Avalanche donned the former Quebec Nordiques regalia on Saturday night for the second time against the Carolina Hurricanes this season. The Avalanche, like the Hurricanes, are not the original iteration of its franchise.
The Avalanche had their origins in Quebec City, Canada. The Hurricanes, meanwhile, had their start in Hartford, Connecticut, as the Whalers. Both franchises flopped, with investors gobbling up the teams and moving them to more profitable locales.
The Nordiques became the Hurricanes, winning the Stanley Cup shortly after relocation. That’s a sad reality for Quebec fans as the team they essentially had in La Belle Province went on to win a championship. That thought led to numerous thoughts of what-if for Quebec fans.
But if a Montreal businessowner and entrepreneur has his way, the Nordiques could return for real, not just for an exhibition.
In a January 3 piece in RG Media, veteran journalist James Murphy spoke with Montreal businessman Ashkan Karbasfrooshan about his plan to revive the NHL’s Quebec Nordiques and MLB’s Montreal Expos.
Sadly, younger sports fans never saw both teams in action. Alas, I am old enough to remember both clubs quite vividly. They were part of Canada’s most cherished sports memories. They were also black eyes on their respective leagues.
That’s something that doesn’t concern Karbasfrooshan, however. He believes that his model of private equity, local ownership, and angel investing could be enough to revive both defunct franchises.
Without getting too much into the weeds, Karbasfrooshan believes that he has the right idea to convince the NHL to bring back the Nordiques. If that’s the case, how would that affect the Avalanche? Most importantly, how would it affect the Avalanche’s historical legacy?
A good example of that would be the Winnipeg Jets. The original Jets, often referred to as the Jets 1979, moved to Arizona in the late 1990s. The Coyotes flopped, becoming the Utah Hockey Club, and, most recently, the Utah Mammoth.
However, the Jets’ original legacy remains there. There has now been a move to fuse the Jets' 1979 with the current iteration of the Jets, the erstwhile Atlanta Thrashers. That fusion would remove the original Jets’ franchise records and history from Utah and Arizona’s slate and transfer it to the current iteration of the Jets.
If such a thing ever happened, the Avalanche’s history would only date back to the 1995-96 season. All right, fair enough, but such a move would also rewrite the team’s entire record book.
For example, fusing the old Nordiques records with a new iteration would practically make Nathan MacKinnon the Avalanche’s all-time leader in just about every category overnight. The Avalanche’s all-time win-loss record would dump all those years of the Nordiques’ futility.
Functionally, reviving the Nordiques would do nothing to the Avalanche. It would add another opponent to crush on the ice. But culturally, the alternate identity the Avalanche have adopted would be taken away.
It’s worth pointing out that the NHL has publicly denied any interest in expanding anytime soon. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has hinted that expansion ideas would likely gain traction in the 2030s. Although he’s admitted the NHL is always listening, there’s nothing imminent.
The chatter has surrounded cities like Houston and Atlanta. Other markets like Kansas City and Cleveland have also gotten consideration. And yes, adding an eighth Canadian team would create some balance for the league north of the border.
So, it’s reasonable to assume that, if the NHL moved forward with a return to Quebec, it might be under a different identity. Perhaps the Avalanche just go with the flow and allow the real Nordiques to return.
Then again, that might be a bridge to cross once it actually emerges.