Rumor: Toronto buyers moving Thrashers to Winnipeg

Here is a rumor that I really hope someday comes to fruition. Moving a team back to Winnipeg makes sense, I mean seriously, since the Phoenix Coyotes have been an utter failure in the desert. I am also not a big fan of having two NHL teams in Florida and on in Atlanta as well. Hockey is a sport that belongs in cold weather markets like Winnipeg. I can remember going to a few games in the old Winnipeg Arena when the Mercury was well below zero on both scales (Celsius and Fahrenheit)

Someone please remind me why that was such a great move? Every since the Jets left Winnipeg in the 1996 I have hoped that someday the NHL will return to Winnipeg 140 miles from my home in Grand Forks, ND. Of Course the Atlanta Trasher are denying the rumor.

There was more NHL/Winnipeg speculation on Saturday night's Hockey Night in Canada's Satellite Hotstove.

On the season's opening weekend, the captivated nation was told that big money from Toronto has done plenty of work already to buy the Atlanta Thrashers and move them to Winnipeg. Is it just another episode of wishful thinking or a real indicator of what's afoot?

True North Sports and Entertainment chairman Mark Chipman wasn't saying on Sunday, taking his usual tack of the less said the better. There are several known quantities to this ongoing story:

* The NHL has more problems than just the financially drowning Phoenix Coyotes.

* Chipman, whose company owns Winnipeg's MTS Centre, has been a consistently keen observer of NHL

franchise matters for longer than his arena has been open (2004) and has never denied his interest in some future deal that might bring the NHL back to the city.

* One of the biggest partners in the True North success story, and certainly its most well-heeled, is Osmington, Inc., the Toronto-based private real estate company of David Thomson, the richest man in Canada and son of the late Ken Thomson.

* Chipman and True North have been to NHL headquarters in New York to address league executives and governors about their new arena, their situation and their interest and they continue to maintain a very quiet but open channel for dialogue with the league's leadership.

* In this case of Saturday's HNIC outburst, the Thrashers' owners, the Spirit group of eight partners, have been embroiled in disputes and legal wrangling for about four years over control of the NHL team, the NBA Hawks and Philips Arena. This summer, a judge tossed out a lawsuit that sent the bickering partners back to the starting blocks over share valuation and how one side or the other could be bought out. It's thought that the group is far more interested in basketball and could sell the Thrashers, but that's only speculation. [Winnipeg Free Press]