Nordiques: Luc Poirier (still) interested in bringing them back to Quebec City

Dose
Crédit: Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Last fall, colleague Maxime Truman spoke with Luc Poirier. He recounted the main points of that interview in a text for DLC (available HERE), and among them was the subject of a Nordiques return to Quebec City.

What we learned was that, in the last decade, Poirier had tried to bring the Nordiques back. He made an offer of $800 million for an expansion team, as well as an offer of $380 million to buy out the Coyotes, but in both cases, it didn’t work out.

Why am I telling you this today? Well, in the last few days, Poirier was at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve for the Grand Prix… and he took the opportunity to give an interview to RDS.

And in that interview, Frédéric Plante, who chatted to him on air, asked him if he was interested in investing in the world of Formula 1. Except that, obviously, the businessman isn’t necessarily interested… who has a different interest in the world of sport:

I’d rather have a team, let’s say the Nordiques return to Quebec City, I’d like that. – Luc Poirier

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Our colleagues at HabsAndLNH also reported the news.

Presumably, then, the failures of the past decade haven’t affected Poirier’s interest in bringing an NHL team back to Quebec City. He’d obviously still like to do it… even if prices have skyrocketed since he last tried to acquire a team.

Particularly since he said the NHL wasn’t really interested in returning to Quebec City at the time. And the leaders haven’t really changed since…

Now, it’s interesting to hear him say this a few weeks after Renaud Lavoie noted that “no one in Quebec is coming forward to bring a team back to Quebec City”. It was then that the idea of an American bringing a team to the capital was mooted.

So it’s safe to assume that, despite his interest, Poirier hasn’t necessarily made himself clear.

We’ll have to see if all that changes eventually, but at least there seems to be someone somewhere in Quebec who’d like to get involved in this project.

And that’s better than nothing.

Overtime

– Wow.

– Name to watch.

– Patrick Kane is expected to stay with the Red Wings.

– Well, well.

– What do you think?