Well, Winnipeg has a hockey team again, but the biggest surprise is that it’s not the Coyotes.
Throughout the 2010-11 season, Phoenix fans had to endure the constant stream of rumors that suggested the team would be moving back to Manitoba.
But then at the end of the season, a deal was struck to keep the Coyotes around for another year.
Apparently our hockey-crazed friends from the Great White North couldn’t wait that long.
I’m glad that Winnipeg has a team again. They deserve a franchise, and Albert, the ex-Winnipeg resident who lives down the street from me, says they’ve been ready ever since the Coyotes departed back in 1996.
They even had an arena already built in anticipation of a new team.
But the question is now; if the Coyotes leave after this next season, (and it still looks like they will,) where will they go? I always assumed they would return to Winnipeg, but now that’s not an option.
Will they go to Quebec? Will the franchise become Toronto’s second team? Will the Hartford Whalers be reborn?
It’ll be an interesting season, and hopefully another solid one, but the shadow of relocation hangs over Phoenix once again.
