\n\tIf you\u2019re looking for a place where rumours run rampant, look no further than June through September during the NHL offseason. It\u2019s 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\u2019t believe everything that is rumoured during the offseason months.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s 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.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tA 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\u2019s 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\u2019s first NHL franchise.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe groundwork was set, and a name was soon chosen through a public contest, with \u201cNorth Stars\u201d receiving the best reception. Linked to the French saying and Minnesota slogan \u201cL’\u00c9toile du Nord\u201d (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\u2019s identity.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAll 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.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the time, it would\u2019ve 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t26 years from when they were introduced into the world\u2019s most well-known hockey league, Green\u2019s 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\u2019s financial suspicions about keeping the Minnesota team, it was officially on the block.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tGreen\u2019s 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\u2019s work to push the team away from its home state. Still, Green\u2019s tenure in hockey didn’t go according to plan.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n