Around the League: Season's Greetings

Hockey season started and stuff.

Sorry guys, we really dropped the ball for a while there.

Really though, this season is off to a solid start, and for what its worth, we're coming back to blogging with a vengeance*.  Some points of interest from this young season so far after the jump.



*Vengeance is subject to change.  Make the jump, like a boss.

Sell Out

13,000 in 17 minutes.

That is the number of season tickets that were sold to Winnipeg fans during a 3 day pre-sale and 17 minutes into their public sale. 5,850 were sold during that 17 minute span as the other 7,150 were sold to the season ticket holders of the Manitoba Moose the previous 3 days.

The numbers equate to this:

-5,850 season tickets sold in 17 minutes.
-344 season tickets sold per minute.
-6 season tickets sold per second.

In addition, each season ticket holder must retain their tickets for a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 5 years.

So, 3-5 years of 13,000 season tickets sold during a pre-sale and in 17 minutes?  It would appear that the Winnipeg fans are itching for hockey and as the days go by, they get closer and closer.

Winnipeg: Back in the NHL at Atlanta's Expense

In case you haven't heard, earlier last week it was announced that, as speculated, the Atlanta Thrashers were purchased and will move from Georgia to Winnipeg.  Less prominent in the headlines is that this move has caused the AHL's Manitoba Moose to be relocated to St. Johns, Newfoundland.

There has been no word on the official name for the new Winnipeg franchise, but rumors have passed with names like the Falcons, Polar Bears, and of course the Jets.

Jake's Take: NHL Redivide

By now, you’ve read about the potential of the Atlanta Thrashers moving to Winnipeg by as early as next season.  If you rely on some news sources, the move has already happened and could possibly affect the NHL in a big way.

But probably not in the way you thought.

From the time of its inception the NHL has, like many other leagues, divide teams for organizational purposes.

Now I could start to describe as to why this is important . . . but honestly it’s truly boring.

So let’s dive into the possibilities now that Atlanta has left us and Winnipeg seems to have return to the NHL.

Let’s take a look at the "Ducks to Nucks Awesome Map":

Atlanta's Last Stand?

After the Glendale Council voted in favor of keeping the Coyotes for at least one more season, all attention moved toward Atlanta, the next most realistic option for movement.  Unlike most teams, the Thrashers aren't contracted to their arena making them all the more movable, and with the way things are playing out right now, they may have already hung up their skates for the last time.

Canada based company True North has been negotiating with the Georgia based group that owns the Thrashers, Atlanta Spirit.  As things stand, it looks as if Winnipeg will finally get their team back, and Atlanta will have played their final game as an NHL franchise in a bittersweet turn of events.

What a thug.

On Phoenix and the Potential Move to Winnipeg

In case you haven't noticed, the Phoenix Coyotes aren't exactly the poster team of the NHL.  In fact, the Yotes rank 29th out of the 30 teams in attendance for the 2010-2011 season even though they statistically had their second best season in team history (43 wins, 09-10 season had 50 wins).  Such a difference between team production and fan attendance clearly raises many questions with the NHL.  The most important of which being, should the Phoenix Coyotes stay in Phoenix or should they be moved?

At this point in time, a potential move for the team from Phoenix to Winnipeg is very possible.  Winnipeg has shown that they would eagerly accept another team (Their last team was the Winnipeg Jets who became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996).  To move a team from Winnipeg to Phoenix and then back to Winnipeg ultimately seems like the NHL admitting to making a mistake, but really it's just financially what the league may have to do. 

I won't delve too far into the technical aspects of the move at all, but honestly, I support the relocation.  I always liked the idea of Canada having another team, and maybe now it's Winnipeg's time.  The Coyotes were a loveable team of underdogs, but sometimes that's not what gets fans in seats, sometimes it's just as they say in the real estate business...

...location, location, location.