The NHL could easily quash the hopes of Canadians who want more franchises in their country if they did the smart thing.
All they have to do is move three of their most troubled franchises to Seattle, Portland, and Milwaukee and Canadian hopes for more NHL teams would be virtually dead except to get another team by the expansion route.
All three northern United States cities have rich hockey heritages and environments.
Hockey wise, the northwest United States of Washington and Oregon would be Canada's 11th province.
Seattle was the first American city to win the Stanley Cup in 1917, and both Seattle and Portland have close ties to Canadian hockey because both have been members of Canada's top junior league, the CHL, for decades.
While Milwaukee and Wisconsin have no close ties to Canadian hockey, the sport is very strong there, particularly at the university level. One of America's greatest coaches, Badger Bob Johnson came from there. Curiously, it was a Canadian franchise, Calgary, which gave him his chance to coach in the NHL.
If the NHL put franchises into these cities, they would probably all be ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Steve Thompson
If the NHL Did the Smart Thing, There Would Be No Canadian Expansion
March 30th, 2010 by Steve Thompson Leave a reply »
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