Former NHL city making a push to acquire the Arizona Coyotes
After news started filtering out that the Arizona Coyotes might no longer remain in the state, many suitors started to pile up as a possible replacement. Houston was mentioned several times as the potential favourite, and Quebec City has an arena that could easily accommodate an NHL club. Now, it appears as though we can add Hartford to the list of interested cities.
The Governor of Connecticut, Ned Lamont, is reportedly trying to set up a meeting with Gary Bettman to relocate the Coyotes to Hartford. As we all remember so fondly, the Hartford Whalers were around from 1979 to 1997 before relocating to North Carolina and becoming the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Whalers were a relatively successful franchise between 1985-86 and 1991-92, making the playoffs in all 7 of those seasons but being ousted in the Semi-Finals in 6 consecutive years. Paul Holmgren was named head coach and Brian Burke was hired as the general manager and the team plummeted almost instantly.
Ahead of their season in 1995-96, the Whalers became impatient with Chris Pronger's development and traded him to the St. Louis Blues for Brendan Shanahan - who was extremely unhappy about the trade. He demanded a trade out of St. Louis the following season because he didn't want to play for a small market team with uncertainty around their future location. He was obviously condemned by the fan base and media and was then traded to Detroit for a package involving Keith Primeau and Paul Coffey the following season.
The new ownership group that purchased the team back in 1994 said they would do everything they could to keep the team in Hartford, but after 2 years and with attendance dwindling and little support, they decided to move. Season tickets played a large part and they tried everything they could to sell them but to no avail.
Now, fast-forwarding almost 3 decades, Hartford is trying to get back in the game. Winnipeg was another team who received a second chance at housing an NHL franchise and the fan base flocked back and they have done a good job in staying relevant and selling tickets. This is something that Hartford is hoping they can replicate with Arizona's days all but numbered.
| POLL | ||
MAI 23 | 482 ANSWERS Former NHL city making a push to acquire the Arizona Coyotes Would you like to see the return of the Hartford Whalers? | ||
| Yes | 247 | 51.2 % |
| No | 235 | 48.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
