Mario Lemieux leading a group to bring back the Nordiques?

I don't know if Mario Lemieux is actually working on a project to bring the Nordiques back to Quebec City.

No one should claim that today.

The information comes essentially from 3DownFutures and, at the time of writing, it has been confirmed neither by Lemieux, nor by Québecor, nor by the NHL.

But after looking at what has really happened over the past few weeks, I find it would be just as easy to dismiss this story too quickly.

Because the rumor arrives exactly when several very concrete pieces have just moved.

And the first is probably the most important.

On August 21, Bill Daly essentially handed Quebec a shopping list

At the end of August, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly was directly questioned about Quebec City.

His answer was much more interesting than the League's usual cautious discourse.

Daly acknowledged the quality of the Videotron Centre. He recognized the passion of the market. He stated that the NHL saw much positive in Quebec City.

Then he identified the problem.

The owner.

More specifically, the absence of a group ready to buy a franchise and commit to operating it in Quebec City.

And Daly added something important: if such a group came forward, the League would evaluate it.

That's where the file officially stood on August 21.

No need to build an arena.

No need to convince the NHL that Quebec loves hockey.

No need to demonstrate that the city can host a team.

Someone capable of putting enormous money on the table was needed to convince the other NHL owners.

Nine days later, Mario Lemieux suddenly became much more available.

On August 30, Lemieux exits the picture in Pittsburgh

According to several Pittsburgh media outlets, Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle ceded the last stakes they still held in the Penguins following the change of control of the organization.

This information deserves some caution since the Penguins' public documentation is not yet perfectly uniform on its status.

But several credible Pittsburgh media outlets report the same thing: Lemieux apparently ended his financial association with the Penguins.

And that's not even the most interesting part.

A few months earlier, Lemieux had participated in forming a group that was trying to buy the Penguins.

So this was not a former owner quietly looking to exit hockey.

Lemieux was still recently looking to buy an NHL team.

The Pittsburgh transaction ultimately took another direction. The Hoffmann family gained control of the Penguins in a transaction valued at approximately $1.75 billion USD, approved by NHL governors.

Lemieux did not win that battle.

But it tells us something very relevant today.

Mario Lemieux still had enough interest in owning an NHL franchise to participate in an acquisition attempt worth several billion dollars.

And a few weeks later, his name appears in the Quebec City file.

This is not proof.

But it is certainly not an unimportant detail.

Then Québecor signs for 12 years

On September 3, another piece moves.

Rogers and Québecor announce a new 12-year agreement that will keep TVA Sports in the NHL's francophone national ecosystem until 2038.

Up to 350 regular season games can be broadcast each year, in addition to significant playoff programming.

This agreement obviously gives Quebec City no franchise.

It absolutely does not prove that Pierre Karl Péladeau is preparing an offer.

But it destroys at least one idea: that Québecor had disengaged from the NHL.

Quite the opposite.

Québecor just made a very long-term commercial commitment to the NHL product.

And we must remember that its connection to a potential franchise in Quebec City goes back some time.

The Videotron Centre had literally planned the NHL-Québecor scenario

This is probably the element I find most underestimated in this entire story.

When the Videotron Centre was built and Québecor became its manager, the financial agreements explicitly provided for two scenarios.

A Quebec City without an NHL team.

And a Quebec City with an NHL team.

Québecor had notably accepted naming rights of $33 million without a franchise.

This sum was to rise to $63.5 million if Québecor became the holder of an NHL franchise.

This is not an interpretation.

It was written in the agreement.

The Videotron Centre's economic model had been built from the start with the possibility that Québecor could eventually own a team.

Obviously, many things have changed since then.

But the infrastructure remains.

The Videotron Centre has 18,259 seats in hockey configuration.

It exists.

It operates.

It doesn't need to wait four years to be built.

And it becomes particularly interesting when you look at what is happening in Texas.

Because Texas is really moving forward

Let's be clear about this.

Quebec City is not currently as advanced as Houston.

In June, Gary Bettman publicly confirmed an agreement with Dan Friedkin's group to study the establishment of a franchise in Houston or Austin.

The NHL is talking about a total investment that could reach approximately $3.5 billion USD, including the franchise and a new arena.

This is not a rumor from an anonymous source.

Bettman announced it.

The League is working directly with Friedkin.

And on September 22, the NHL Board of Governors received an update on the file.

That's concrete.

But something else is important.

After that meeting, Bettman still insisted that no decision had been made regarding expansion.

Texas is at the door.

It hasn't entered yet.

And Quebec probably doesn't need to beat Houston

This is where my perception of the file changed.

For a long time, every new city interested in the NHL seemed like bad news for Quebec City.

Houston arrives?

Quebec recedes.

Atlanta comes back?

Quebec recedes again.

But that may not be the right way to look at the situation.

Bill Daly has already explained that the League is not obligated to add two teams simultaneously.

Vegas became the 31st team.

Seattle arrived later as the 32nd.

The same thing could theoretically happen now.

Houston or Austin could become the 33rd.

Then another city could eventually become the 34th.

And at that point, Quebec's real battle could be elsewhere.

Atlanta, that's the file to watch

Atlanta is much more serious than one might think.

Several groups are currently working on distinct projects.

The Gathering at South Forsyth project represents a development worth several billion dollars around an arena designed in part to attract an NHL team.

Another project exists in Alpharetta.

And Bill Daly has confirmed discussions with another group associated with former NHL player Anson Carter.

Atlanta therefore has something Quebec didn't recently have: multiple groups actively trying to build a file.

But Atlanta also has the opposite problem of Quebec City.

It still needs to completely resolve the arena question.

Quebec, on the other hand, already has the Videotron Centre.

That's why the name Mario Lemieux becomes so interesting.

Because suddenly, he would fill precisely the hole in the file

Let's simply retrace the timeline.

On August 21, Bill Daly publicly says that Quebec possesses many positive elements, but is missing a group of owners.

At the end of August, several media outlets report that Mario Lemieux is completely exiting shareholding in the Penguins after recently attempting to buy the team.

On September 3, Québecor secures 12 additional years of NHL hockey for TVA Sports.

And on September 22, 3DownFutures claims that Mario Lemieux would be the personality called upon to become the face of a group wanting to bring a team back to Quebec City.

Taken separately, none of these events demonstrates anything.

Taken together, they merit at minimum that we ask questions.

Because Mario Lemieux would not simply be a nice Quebec name placed in front of a consortium.

He has already been an owner.

He knows Bettman.

He knows the governors.

He has experienced a franchise's financial problems.

He participated in the turnaround of the Penguins.

And most importantly, we now have elements independent of the Quebec rumor demonstrating that he was recently still seeking to own a team.

That's what changes the nature of the story for me.

Now, be careful with 3DownFutures

This is also where we must draw a thick red line.

3DownFutures went much further than Mario Lemieux.

The site talked about Pierre Karl Péladeau, Guy Laliberté, the Desmarais family and even Céline Dion.

It mentioned a potential grouping called "Quebec Sports & Entertainment".

It advanced various information concerning support in the upper echelons of the NHL and even possible additional investments in the Videotron Centre.

I have found no sufficiently solid independent confirmation of these elements to present them as facts.

And I will not.

For now, Mario Lemieux in Quebec also remains information that is not independently corroborated.

It's important to write that in black and white.

But what can be verified around this information is much more interesting.

That's why, this time, I'm watching the rumor

I've seen enough Nordiques rumors since 1995 to know how it works.

A meeting with Bettman.

A politician's statement.

A mysterious publication.

An owner spotted somewhere.

And for 48 hours, Quebec starts dreaming again.

Then nothing.

So I'm certainly not ready to announce anything.

But this story is different on one specific point.

It provides a potential answer to the problem that the NHL itself just publicly identified.

Bill Daly didn't say Quebec needs a new arena.

He didn't say the market doesn't work.

He didn't say the League wasn't interested.

He essentially said: where is the owner?

A few weeks later, a media outlet claims that this owner could be surrounded by a group with Mario Lemieux as its face.

Meanwhile, Lemieux just tried to buy an NHL team.

Québecor just extended its NHL commitment until 2038.

Texas is advancing.

Atlanta is advancing.

And the League is clearly beginning to think about what its next chapter could be.

That doesn't mean the Nordiques are coming back.

It means something much simpler.

If a real financial group is currently forming behind Mario Lemieux, Quebec would finally have started working on the only part of its file that the NHL just publicly identified as missing.

And after 31 years of watching the same movie, it's probably the first thing I'd want to know.

Not whether Bettman likes Quebec City.

Not whether the Videotron Centre is beautiful enough.

Not whether 18,000 people would buy tickets.

We already know the answers.

The question is now much more specific:

Is Mario Lemieux really gathering people capable of signing the cheque?

Because if the answer ever becomes yes, there, Quebec's file will have truly changed.