

In 2006 a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins was agreed in principle and the intention was to relocate the team to Hamilton.

The expansion bid had attempted to negotiate the $50 million expansion fee and considering that Seattle Kraken had paid $650 million in 2021, it was a bad move. As favourites for expansion in 1990, they somehow lost out to Ottawa and Tampa. Hamilton has had multiple attempts to join the NHL and keeps spectacularly failing. Quebec City is home to the state-of-the-art Videotron Centre, an 18,000-seater stadium built in 2015 and would welcome an NHL team in a heartbeat. Fans in the city are dedicated and comparisons have been made that it would be comparable to Buffalo or Washington because of this. Quebec City is a Francophone market of less than 1 million people and would only be bigger than the Winnipeg market. The lack of market size impacted the teams revenue with rocketing salaries the main issue and that still remains a roadblock to this day. A relocation to Denver would follow for the Nordiques and they would become known as the Colorado Avalanche. The Quebec City Nordiques became the second NHL team in the city playing in the city between 19. The Quebec Bulldogs were a founding member of the NHL in 1917 before moving to Hamilton, Ontario. Another team in Texas would also create an intriguing rivalry with the Dallas Stars. Toyota Center could easily host a team with it’s 17,800-seater arena. The city was agonisingly just hours away from relocating the Edmonton Oilers to the city in 1998, only for the offer to be matched by a local ownership group.
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It’s also the largest city without a full set of major league teams. An NHL team in the city is lucrative considering the market size of Houston, the largest market in the U.S or Canada without an NHL team. The Houston Aeros of the AHL and IHL played in the city between 1994-2013 before relocating to Iowa. The Houston Skippers began playing minor league ice hockey in the city in 1946.

It’s also hosted the NCAA Frozen Four and would serve as a great home to a potential franchise. The Fiserv Forum opened in 2018 and is home to the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, complete with the larges symmetric scoreboard in the league. Milwaukee currently hosts American Hockey League team the Admirals, who are also an affiliate team to the NHL’s Nashville Predators. The now demolished Bradley Center, built in 1988, was originally constructed with the high hopes that it would attract an NHL franchise to the city. Milwaukee is a big-league city and is already a traditional ice hockey hub, regularly producing NHL players such as Joe Palevski, Phil Kessel and Gary Suter to name a few. The Milwaukee Brewers have already created one of the greatest MLB rivalries in their relatively short history. Milwaukee, WisconsinĪn NHL team in Milwaukee would help create some huge rivalries with Minnesota Wild, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. A road block for expansion into the city is the expansion fees, with suggestions from a sports investor in the city that the expansion fees a ridiculous.
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In 2007 Kansas City did offer to host the Pittsburgh Penguins with free rent to play in the newly built Sprint Center (now known as T-Mobile Center) back if they relocated to the city which never came to fruition. The issue for those in Kansas City is that rooting for an eastern Missouri team could be seen as a betrayal by some, so the city would love a team of their own. The city’s already home to the NHL-ready T-Mobile Center Arena where the St.

The Scouts then relocated to Denver for six years before moving on to become the New Jersey Devils. The Kansas City Scouts suffered from low crowds, poor on ice performance and growing debt. Kansas City have already tasted the NHL having had a team in the league briefly from 1974-76.
