Relocation Series: NHL
By Shawn Stewart
Welcome to the final chapter! In part 4, we will look at some of the NHL franchises that have changed locations or names. The history of the NHL (National Hockey League) began after the end of its predecessor, the NHA (National Hockey Association) in 1917. After several disputes between several owners and executives, the NHA franchises were suspended and the National Hockey League was born. The NHL, which originated in Canada, expanded to the United States in 1924, with the first North American hockey team, the Boston Bruins. By 1926, the league had expanded to ten teams in Ontario, Quebec, the Great Lakes area, and the Northeastern United States. At this time, the NHL had taken control as the only major league and sole competitor for the Stanley Cup. In 1947, the NHL finalized a deal with the trustees for the Stanley Cup to gain full control of the Cup. Just like the other three major sports discussed in this series, most NHL franchises changed locations or names due to financial hardships or lack of fan support. Below are some of the major NHL franchises that made those changes.
Kansas City Scouts became the Colorado Rockies, who then became the New Jersey Devils:
The Colorado Rockies official NHL logo.
In 1972, the NHL announced the birth of two expansion teams; including one in Kansas City, Missouri owned by a group led by Edwin G. Thompson. The new team was nicknamed on the Scouts in reference to a statue of Cyrus E. Dallin, which stands in Penn Valley Park. During their first season from 1974-1975, the Scouts had to wait until the ninth game of the season to play a home game. They started the season 0-9 and did not collect their first win until they beat the Washington Capitals the following contest. The Scouts finished last in their respective division, scoring a measly 41 points. Only the Capitals finished with fewer points. The following season, the downward spiral continued, and the Scouts finished with only 36 points and had a 27-game-winless streak, which is only three short of the NHL record, which was held by the Winnipeg Jets when they went 30 games without a win. The Scouts started having a difficult time attracting fans, and there were even some concerns about how the Scout players would be compensated.
After only two seasons in Kansas City, the franchise moved to Denver and took the name the Colorado Rockies (who is now an MLB franchise). The Rockies franchise won its first-ever contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs. During the 1976-77 season, the Rockies qualified for the playoffs after 60 games, but the organization went on an 18-game-winless streak, which caused the franchise to miss the playoffs. During the first eight years, the Scouts and Rockies went through ten coaches, none of which lasted more than two seasons. The franchise never won more than 22 games and never smelled the playoffs again after the 1977-1978 season. Before the 1978-1979 season, the franchise was sold to New Jersey trucking tycoon Arthur Imperatore, who had every intention of moving the team to his home state. The plan was originally frowned upon due to the existence of three NHL teams already settled in that region. After two more seasons in Denver, the Rockies made the move to New Jersey, and on May 27, 1982, the New Jersey Devils franchise was born. During their early years, they had some stiff competition from the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, and the Philadelphia Flyers, which is still the case to this day.
Minnesota North Stars became the Dallas Stars:
The Minnesota North Stars official logo.
The Minnesota North Stars began to play in 1967 as part of the league's six-team expansion. The franchise became initially popular and successful on the ice, but the franchise fell victim to financial problems after many poor seasons in the mid-1970s. In 1978, the league allowed the North Stars to merge with the Cleveland Barons when both teams were on the cusp of folding. The team continued as the North Stars, while the Cleveland Barons franchise records were retired (apparently the city of Cleveland does this a lot). The positive side of this merger for the North Stars was that it brought in some talent, and the team reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981, where they lost in five games to the New York Islanders. However, by the early 1990s, the organization started to see a decline in fan attendance and the failure to secure a downtown arena, which led ownership to request the team move to San Francisco in 1990.
The league rejected the request and instead agreed to award a new expansion team to the area, the San Jose Sharks. After the 1990-1991 season, the North Stars struggled through poor attendance and saw a decline in profits. The franchise did consider a possible move to Anaheim, California, but the expansion franchise, the Mighty Ducks, had already settled in the area. In 1993, with the fan attendance continuing to decline, the franchise was granted permission to move the team to Dallas for the 1993-1994 season. The organization was persuaded by Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Roger Staubach, that Dallas would be a marketable location for an NHL franchise, and that was convincing enough to lead to the birth of the Dallas Stars.
Quebec Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche:
The Quebec Nordiques official logo.
The Quebec Nordiques were one of the original teams for the World Hockey Association (WHA) when the league began to play in 1972. The franchise was first awarded the city of San Francisco seven-year run in the World Hockey Association, the franchise won the Avco World Trophy once in 1977 and lost in the finals in 1975. During the 1979 season, the franchise became part of the NHL, and this also included three other teams, the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, and the Winnipeg Jets. After a solid run between 1981 to 1987, which included seven consecutive appearances in the postseason, the franchise started to decline. From 1987-1988 and 1991-1992, the team came in last in their division every season. In three of those seasons, they finished dead last in the entire league. This includes an abysmal 12-win season in 1989-1990, which is still the worst in franchise history. On a positive note, the team took advantage and used three consecutive first overall picks to draft Mats Sundin (1989), Owen Nolan (1990), and Eric Lindros (1991). Lindros immediately made it clear that he did not want to play for the Nordiques organization, and in 1992, he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for five players. This trade helped turn the once declining franchise into Stanley Cup contenders almost overnight. This went down as one of the most one-sided trades in NHL history.
The team continued on-ice success but continued to struggle financially. In 1995, COMSAT had announced an agreement in principle to buy the franchise. The deal was finalized on July 1, 1995, and within the first month and a half, 12,000 tickets were sold after it was announced that the franchise was moving to Denver. COMSAT had thought about several names of the team, some of which included the Extreme, Blizzards, and Black Bears. When COMSAT had filed copyright security on the name Black Bears, it was decided that the new team name would be the Rocky Mountain Extreme. When the Denver Post posted the story, the fan reaction was so negative that COMSAT had to change course and decided to name the team the Colorado Avalanche. The new name was discovered on August 10, 1995.
Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes:
The Winnipeg Jets official logo.
The franchise originally played as the Winnipeg Jets, one of the original franchises in the World Hockey Association. The Jets were the most successful short-lived team in the WHA. The franchise won the Avco World Trophy, the league championship trophy, three times, and appeared in the finals five out of the seven WHA seasons. However, the franchise was not able to carry over the WHA success to the NHL. Due to most teams able to reclaim their players, the Jets fell behind other franchises and lost most of their best players to the reclamation draft. As a result, they finished last in the NHL during their first two seasons, which included a nine-win season in 1980-1981, which still stands as the worst in franchise history. On a positive note, the organization recovered quickly, making playoff appearances 11 times in the next 15 seasons, but was only able to win two playoff series, mainly due to being in the same division as the mighty Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames.
The way the playoffs were structured at that time, the Jets would have to face their demons (Oilers or Flames) in the playoffs if they had any chance of playing for the Stanley Cup. Soon after that, the Jets began to run into financial troubles when the salaries of most players began to trend upward. After the Nordiques moved to Colorado in 1995, the Jets became the smallest market in the NHL, and their home arena was one of the smallest in the league, only sitting just over 15,000 fans. In 1995, then Phoenix Sun’s owner, Jerry Colangelo, and his business associates, Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke made a plan to relocate the franchise to Phoenix for the 1996-1997 season. Several names were considered which included the Mustangs, Outlaws, Wranglers, and Freeze. A name the team contest decided the outcome on the new nickname, Coyotes, which finished ahead of Scorpions. Gluckstern and Burke originally decided to move the team to Minneapolis-St. Paul, which had just lost the North Stars in 1993. However, they finally decided on Phoenix when they were unable to lock down a lease for the Target Center. The franchise played under the Phoenix Coyotes name until July 29, 2014, when the franchise changed its name to the Arizona Coyotes to represent the entire state of Arizona and not just the city of Phoenix.
Atlanta Thrashers became the Winnipeg Jets:
The Atlanta Thrashers official logo.
In May 2011, the Thrashers franchise was sold to a Canadian-based ownership group named True North Sports & Entertainment. The team was moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, which became the second installation of the Winnipeg Jets. The sale and relocation of the franchise was approved on June 21, 2011, by the NHL. Atlanta became the first city in the NHL to have two hockey teams relocate to different cities. In both cases, the team moved to a Western Canadian city; the city had a previous team called the Atlanta Flames, which moved to Calgary, Alberta in 1980 and became the Calgary Flames.
Hartford Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes:
The Hartford Whalers official logo.
The New England Whalers were founded in November of 1971 when the WHA awarded an organization to begin play in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. For the first two seasons, the club played their home games at the Boston Arena and the famous Boston Garden. The difficulty of scheduling games at the Boston Garden, which was owned by the Bruins at the time, the owners decided to relocate the franchise to Hartford, Connecticut, beginning in 1974-1975. On January 11, 1975, the franchise played its first game at Hartford Civic Center Coliseum in front of a sellout crowd and would establish its home there until 1997. The Whalers did not have the success in the NHL as it did in the WHA, recording only three winning seasons. They had a small run in the mid-1980s, winning their only playoff series in 1986 against the Nordiques before a second-round exit against the mighty Montreal Canadiens, taking them to overtime in game 7. The Canadiens and Nordiques continued to be a thorn in the Whaler’s side, forcing them out of the playoffs early the next several seasons. The Whalers were overwhelmed for most of their existence by a limited market. Hartford was the smallest American market in the league and was located in an area of the country where fans focused more on the New York City and Boston teams.
Due to having the smallest arena in the NHL and a small fan base, the franchise started to have off-ice issues that increased with a spike in players’ salaries. When the team was purchased in 1994, it was promised that the Whalers would remain in Hartford until at least 1998. However, in 1997, owner Peter Karmanos had announced that the team would be moving to a different location. On May 6, 1997, Karmanos announced the franchise would be moving to Raleigh, North Carolina. Upon the move, Karmanos took it upon himself to name the new club, and the Carolina Hurricanes were founded.
In this four-piece series, we have learned and realized that several organizations from all four major sports have relocated for various reasons, which include financial issues and a decline in the fan base. After reading this series, some fans may understand why the organizations made the decisions they did. Was it to attract a big fan base, or was it to help the organization start over after a crippling start? We may never know the reasons for sure, but what we do know is, those moves helped put certain franchises on the map, and some of those franchises are ones that you and I still root for today.
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