Montreal Canadiens: Don’t Expect Return of Quebec Nordiques Rivalry Anytime Soon

Montreal Canadiens fans of a certain age can remember fondly when their greatest rival resided in the same province.

The Quebec Nordiques had a relatively short stint in the National Hockey League, first arriving in 1979 when the WHA dissolved and then moving to Denver in 1995. But those 16 seasons where there was an NHL team in Quebec City left a lasting memory for hockey fans in La Belle Province.

The rivalry between the two franchises really began before the Nordiques joined the NHL. When they arrived as a professional hockey team in the WHA, the Nords stole J.C. Tremblay as well as later convincing Rejean Houle and Marc Tardif among others to leave the hallowed Habs and join the WHA.

The rivalry really ignited when the Nordiques surprised the Canadiens by winning a playoff series in 1982. Things certainly hit a fever pitch when the benches emptied in 1984 in a playoff game that would quickly become known as the Good Friday Massacre. The Canadiens would come out victorious in three of the five postseason series played between the two teams, including coming back from a 2-0 series deficit in 1993 that launched their most recent Stanley Cup triumph.

It wasn’t the longest lasting rivalry in sports history, but it will go down as the most memorable to many hockey fans in the province of Quebec.

When news broke earlier this week that the city of Glendale and the Arizona Coyotes were at odds over their lease agreement, visions of Dale Hunter brawling with Chris Nolan danced in our heads. Could the rivalry return?

The Coyotes agreement with Glendale ends in one year and the city is terminating its lease with the NHL team. Simply put, the Coyotes don’t have an arena to play in for the 2022-23 season. At least not yet.

While many of us were quick to suggest the Coyotes just move out of Arizona and head north to Canada, like the struggling Atlanta Thrashers franchise did when it moved to Winnipeg, it’s just not going to happen.

First of all, just because the city of Glendale says they are terminating its lease with the Coyotes after the upcoming season doesn’t mean they can’t eventually come to a new agreement. It also does not rule out the possibility of the Coyotes finding a new arena that is actually closer to the city of Phoenix that they called home for so many years even when they played in the suburbs.

We could hear of an agreement between the Coyotes and the Footprint Center which is downtown Phoenix and home of the Phoenix Suns of the NBA.

Also, most importantly, in Gary Bettman’s time as Commissioner of the NHL, we have seen him bend over backwards to save struggling franchises in non traditional hockey markets. HIs biggest mandate since taking over in 1993 has been to grow the game all over North America and put more teams in cities that aren’t necessarily hockey hotbeds at the moment.

Thirty years ago, the only American team further south or west of the St. Louis Blues was the Los Angeles Kings. Just before Bettman took over, franchises were announced in San Jose, Anaheim, Florida and Tampa Bay. After taking the reins, Bettman quickly moved the Nordiques to Denver, Colorado. The Minnesota Wild headed south to Dallas. The Hartford Whalers packed their bags for Carolina. The Nashville Predators joined the league. Atlanta was given another opportunity.

Most recently, we saw two more expansion teams and though Kansas City and Quebec would have made a lot of sense, Bettman went with Vegas and Seattle. There is no arguing Vegas has been a tremendous success, but it could not be called a hockey city before the Golden Knights arrived.

Quebec City is certainly a hockey city. They have an enormous Videotron Center that the QMJHL Quebec Remparts call home and regularly sell over 10,000 tickets for a Junior team. In 2018-19, the last full QMJHL season, the Remparts average attendance was double that of every other team except for the Halifax Mooseheads and Moncton Wildcats.

That’s a hockey city, and a return of the NHL to Quebec City seemed inevitable at times. However, Bettman has prioritized inserting NHL teams to places like Arizona, Vegas, Seattle and Carolina and trying to build the game in these markets instead of catering to a proven hockey town.

For that reason, don’t expect a sudden change of heart from Bettman. He did just sell the NHL’s TV rights in the United States for close to $2.5 billion over the next ten years. Having hockey cities spread out all over America certainly helped with those negotiations, so don’t hold your breath waiting for one of those teams to move to Quebec.

Even if the Coyotes move out of the Arizona area, expect them to end up somewhere like Houston or maybe even Portland, Oregon. Just look at a map of the United States with all of the NHL teams cities highlighted and pick an area where there is a big city and no NHL team.

That kind of seems to be how Bettman picks expansion cities, so don’t expect anyone to relocate to Quebec and reignite one of the greatest rivalries in NHL history anytime soon.