Avalanche success built off rise of Nordiques in Quebec

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Known as “The Hockey Maven,” Stan combines his insight and humor for readers every Wednesday. This week traces the ascent of the Quebec Nordiques, led by Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg. After relocating to Denver, the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 1996. Other championships followed in 2001 and 2022.

Few NHL franchises ever succeeded as rapidly as the Colorado Avalanche. Their strength was evident in the inaugural season of 1995-96, its first after the Quebec Nordiques relocated to Denver, up to the present with the Avalanche on track to win the Presidents’ Trophy awarded to the team with the best record at the end of the regular season.

The Avalanche boast a star at every position: goalie (Scott Wedgewood) defenseman (Cale Makar) and forward led by Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas. They visit the Dallas Stars on Saturday (3 p.m. ET; ABC, SN1) and with 41-year-old defenseman Brent Burns adding size (6-foot-5, 228 pounds) to the position, the expectation is that Colorado can avenge its seven-game loss to Dallas in the 2025 Western Conference First Round and surge all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

“There’s not a weak spot in the lineup,” said Allan Kreda, NHL writer for the Associated Press. “They’re like their forebears, the Nordiques, when Quebec City was in its NHL prime.”

A product of the original (1972-73) World Hockey Association, the Nordiques survived all seven years of the WHA. When four teams — Quebec, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Hartford — were absorbed into the NHL, the Nordiques lasted 16 years before moving west to Denver.

“For 23 seasons, the Nordiques survived on their fans’ almost irrational passion for hockey and their unconditional love for their team,” wrote Ed Willes in “The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association.”

Quebec City was a hockey hotbed dating back to the 1919-20 season, the only one the Quebec Bulldogs played in the NHL. The MacKinnon of that era was Joe Malone, who led everyone in scoring with 39 goals.

But it wasn’t until the WHA’s arrival in 1972 that the Nordiques became one of the circuit’s original franchises until its inclusion into the NHL.

“We yearned to join the big league,” said the late Claude Larochelle, sports editor of Quebec City’s daily newspaper Le Soleil. “Once we got in, our rivalry with the haughty Montreal Canadiens became one of the most intense in hockey.”

Goalie Richard Brodeur, who played all seven WHA seasons for the Nordiques, analyzed the cultural difference between the two francophone franchises.

“We Nordiques represented the ordinary people in Quebec,” he told Willes. “Unlike the Canadiens, we got a lot of sympathy from the people because of that.”

Jacques Demers, who coached the Nordiques in their last WHA season and later the Montreal Canadiens to the 1992-93 Stanley Cup title, agreed.

“There was something special about the Nordiques,” he said. “They brought the Quebec (Fleur de lis) flag with them everywhere they went. They had that impact with the French-speaking crowd.”

Local Nordique heroes included Buddy Cloutier, Christian Bordeleau and Rejean Houle. And, for one special year, the goalie was future Hockey Hall of Famer Jacques Plante, who played his last season of pro hockey in North America for the 1974-75 Edmonton Oilers of the WHA.

“Quebec was a wonderful hockey town in every way,” said WHA president Howard Baldwin. “The Nordiques were like Green Bay in the NFL, but the ex-Nordiques’ budding stars like Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Mike Ricci helped build Denver into a hot NHL city that’s one of the tops in the game.”

As for Quebec City, the music stopped with the geographic border jump, but the melody lingers on.

“The NHL may have lost something with the Nordiques gone,” Baldwin said, “but the Avs have produced a better fiscal return — and three Stanley Cups.”

One look at MacKinnon, Makar and Co. in action, proves that the Avalanche have delivered a most invigorating NHL team for the Mile High City.

“In a nostalgic moment,” Baldwin said, “the Avalanche can thank the Nordiques for that.”