If you’re looking for a place where rumours run rampant, look no further than June through September during the NHL offseason. It’s hard to believe what you hear during this stretch; it feels like no organization, staff member, player, or even jersey colour is safe. Change is inevitable in the NHL, but you can’t believe everything that is rumoured during the offseason months.

It’s also difficult to look away from the swirling sounds that make their way around the league, especially so for teams whose deepest fears have come true. For the Minnesota North Stars in 1993, March was the month their nightmares became a reality. 

A staple of the state of Minnesota from 1967 to 1993, the North Stars filled the state’s hockeyless void that had been unfilled before the NHL’s expansion in 2000-01. At that point in time, it was a nine-man pack of visionaries, including the likes of Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Walter Bush Jr. and Minnesota Amateur Hockey Association founder Robert Ridder, who wrangled in Minnesota’s first NHL franchise. 

The groundwork was set, and a name was soon chosen through a public contest, with “North Stars” receiving the best reception. Linked to the French saying and Minnesota slogan “L’Étoile du Nord” (translated to “The star of the north”), the community quickly birthed a connection to the name, representing more than just a hockey team’s nickname but their state’s identity. 

All seemed well until, of course, it wasn’t. The first domino in the North Stars’ downfall toppled over in the changing of the guard in 1990. Notorious hockey figure and owner Norman Green bought the North Stars from their previous owners, George and Gordon Gund, after he sold his stock in the Calgary Flames. 

At the time, it would’ve been hard to picture that an on-the-rise organization like the Minnesota North Stars would falter so quickly. But with Green at the helm, his past work with moving the Atlanta Flames to Calgary proved nothing was out of the realm of possibility.

26 years from when they were introduced into the world’s most well-known hockey league, Green’s North Stars reached a turbulent state in 1993. Unable to find a new home for the team, with the Met Center aging rapidly and Green’s financial suspicions about keeping the Minnesota team, it was officially on the block. 

Green’s choice to relocate the team south to Dallas, Texas, removed the “North” from their name and the beloved team from its birthplace. Who knows if the move would have happened without Green’s work to push the team away from its home state. Still, Green’s tenure in hockey didn’t go according to plan. 

In December of 1995, Norman Green was forced to sell the Dallas Stars franchise to Tom Hicks after experiencing financial difficulties in his work outside hockey. 

Minnesota hockey fans would get the last laugh in two sectors: watching the financial demise of the man who stole their team while celebrating the founding of a new team in 1997.

Leading the charge in bringing hockey back to Minnesota was, of course, Bob Naegele Jr., a Minnesota native with a vision for a successful business venture and a burning love for Minnesota’s hockey culture. 

His plans came to fruition, giving the state a second chance to succeed in the NHL. The love Naegele brought for Minnesota hockey was felt throughout the community and has continued to flourish.

Not all rumours or headlines are true, but in some cases, they do plant the seed for a potential reality. There’s always a chance that a team’s best player may be traded or elect to play elsewhere, and that can certainly rub fans the wrong way. 

However, there may be nothing worse than the pain and rumours that North Stars fans endure during the 1993 season. 

The history of professional hockey in Minnesota is complex. What shouldn’t be hard to understand is that hockey belongs in Minnesota and, from all indications, isn’t going anywhere. Players leave, coaches change, and logos are adjusted, but the heartbeat of Minnesota hockey is as powerful as ever. 

And this offseason, Wild enthusiasts can look forward to endless storylines and rumoured projections, knowing the new NHL season is set to arrive back in the State of Hockey in only a few short months. 

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