Attendance at QMJHL game in QC makes NHL's plan for Arizona look silly
As if the situation surrounding the Arizona Coyotes' home arena needed more ammunition for people to poke fun at it. A Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoff game held in Quebec City Wednesday night drew an attendance of 14,563. That's around three times the spectators that the Coyotes will be able to get per game in 2022-23 while playing at the Arizona State University's Sun Devils arena. People were, of course, quick to jump on that fact.
The Government of Quebec has been all over the league to bring hockey back to Quebec City. The recently-built Videotron Centre can easily handle an NHL-sized audience, as proven by the QMJHL's first game of the semi-final between the Quebec Remparts and Shawinigan Cataractes. While meetings with Gary Bettman and other league officials have taken place, the NHL has stated it sees no avenue right now for NHL hockey to return to Quebec City. That irritates a lot of fans considering the work the league has done in order to keep the Arizona Coyotes afloat amid low attendance and viewership. In 2022-23, the Coyotes deal with ASU will see the team play in an arena that can hold a maximum of 5000 spectators, and likely less than that during hockey games.
It seems clear the NHL considers the American market more important than expanding in Canada. There are several reasons for that, but it's odd to ignore a market in Quebec City that appears more than willing to support a team, even in the lower-tier leagues.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||