Let's Go Blues

KC make since, but Seattle? They couldnt support a NBA team. I also see Canada getting another team...Need to move Arizona though.

philco_3 wrote:Seattle? They couldnt support a NBA team.

That's not entirely true. They supported their team really well for a number of years up until that very last season when it was announced they were going to move. What it boiled down to, as they all do, was they couldn't secure a new arena. The team was sold to a businessman in Oklahoma City who swore he would try to secure a new stadium. Instead, he let them play one more year in Seattle before uprooting them to OKC.

That said, I'm not sure how they'd do with a hockey team. The NBA almost came back there this year, but the Kings stayed in Sacramento. I would think if the hockey team was the only winter team in town, they'd draw a crowd. But if the Sonics ever came back, I think the hockey team would be left in the dust. Pure speculation on my part, obviously, but Seattle did support the Sonics, and they have some of the best fans in the NFL (Seahawks) and the MLS (Sounders). They know how to support a team.

I feel bad that KC built that great arena and yet they can't draw an NBA or an NHL team. I do believe they would support a hockey team well. They've been starved to get a 3rd major sport in there for awhile, it seems.

Both teams should somehow manage to fit, geographically, in the west. If a team were to move to Quebec, that would create the need to re-align again, unless said team moving to Quebec was already in the east... Carolina.

cardsfan04 wrote:Quebec crossed my mind. Aren't they in the running for a new team? KC would also make sense.

The only reason I would say no to Quebec is its pretty far East. They obviously want another West team.
I don't see them putting Columbus or Detoilet back in the West in the near future.

So far:

Winnipeg got moved to Phoenix. Team goes bankrupt, is reclaimed by the NHL and tons of money and even tons more teeth pulled to continue to try to make hockey work...in a desert.

Winnipeg GETS A TEAM BACK and renames them the JETS, the previous team that was there.

Atlanta gets another team after failing far more miserably than Oakland and not even a decade later, gets their team taken from them and moved....to Winnipeg.

Quebec is moved to Colorado due to lack of interest or fan participation or some nonsense, yet ONE YEAR LATER, they win the Cup.

So um, Gary Bettman my man, umm...STOP THINKING!

(Either that or Winnipeg is the center of Hockey Doom)

Now, let me go the opposite way.

Seattle? WHY?! You go abit north across the bridge and you're in Vancouver. Why the hell would you want a franchise there when minor league teams can't cut it up there?

Places I'd put another franchise: NEVADA, for one. Why not Nevada? It's better than Phoenix or hell, LA.

Can the NHL even support 32 teams?

I doubt it. With the U.S. franchises they're dominated by bandwagon fans that only appear if the team is winning. I know it happens in every sport but I think with hockey it hurts to a disproportionate degree since there's no innate interest in the sport as there is for say, baseball or football in the states.

If they want to put a team in Canada and keep it western conference, they could always go to Saskatoon.