Pat Hickey: The NHL will never return to Quebec City

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Quebec City will never get another NHL team.

We know this from what NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said at the league's press conference before last weekend's All-Star Game in Toronto.

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Or, more importantly, what he didn't say.

Bettman fielded a show of interest from self-made billionaire Ryan Smith, owner of the NBA's Utah Jazz.

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“They are very excited about the opportunity to get an NHL team. They've said they want something, and the government leaders in Utah have expressed that same enthusiasm to us,” Bettman said.

The commission further told the NHL that groups in Houston, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Omaha have expressed interest. Nothing was mentioned about Quebec, which leads one to think that Quebec is faced with the reality that they can't get a team or, more likely, that the NHL is not interested in Quebec.

Quebec, which lost the Nordiques to Colorado in 1995, has had a world-class rink since the opening of the Vidéotron Center in 2015, but a lot is needed from the building to land a franchise, and there are three good reasons why Quebec won't get it.

For starters, Bettman doesn't want any other teams in Canada. When expansion comes — which is inevitable, because teams can't resist expansion payments that don't count as hockey-related revenue they have to share with players — Bettman will try to fill the leading TV markets. Houston and Atlanta are the only top-10 markets without an NHL team.

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You can't discuss anything in Quebec without discussing the language, and while hordes of tourists have been welcomed to Carnival this week, it's not a good place for monolingual English speakers who have to spend eight months in a city with an English population. 1.5% and falling. It's especially difficult for the players' wives, children and girlfriends, who are left behind to support themselves during the 10-day journey.

And the #1 reason is that no one wants to see Pierre Carl Pelado. While the PKP deserves full credit for rescuing the Alouettes, the six Canadian masters see him as a sovereign who wants to take Quebec out of Canada. The only owner who can't share that opinion is Canadiens CEO Jeff Molson, who is forced to sell beer in Quebec. He may have fond memories of the Battle of Quebec, the hockey version, but is he really interested in sharing the market with a new team?

Then there's Bell Media, which owns a stake in the Canadiens and Maple Leafs. The media giant, which made headlines this week with another round of layoffs, won't be happy with Quebecor TVA Sports taking away viewers and ad revenue from Nordiques games.

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Walsh batted his eyelashes. Marty Walsh took advantage of the all-star media presence on the subject of the franchise to wonder why the NHL thinks it's a good place for a Phoenix hockey team.

Walsh, the new executive director of the NHL Players Association, noted that the Arizona Coyotes have turned down three attempts to secure land for a new arena and was skeptical of the latest offer to buy 200 acres of state-owned land.

Walsh said: “It's not just about buying the land, but how long does it take to get the land approved? Do you need a referendum on land? Are there any hazardous wastes? Do you need land reclamation? There are many questions. So you could be talking about buying land in Arizona and it could be 10 years before a shovel hits the ground. I don't think it's acceptable on behalf of the players on the team and it should be unacceptable to the league.”

Walsh has reason to be concerned because the players and the league share hockey-related revenue, and the Coyotes play in a 4,600-seat college arena.

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